# RFC: Compaction as a capability seam (abstract contract + basic backend)

English | [中文](2026-06-18-compaction-capability-seam.zh.md)

Status: implemented

## Problem

A long-running agent conversation grows without bound. As the event log accumulates turns, the derived message history eventually approaches the model's context window — the model then truncates mid-response (`max-tokens`) or degrades. **Compaction** is the mitigation: replace a run of older history with a concise summary, keeping recent context intact.

The [session surface](../../implemented/architecture/2026-06-18-session-surface.md) was built as the foundation for exactly this — a linked list over the event log with a `surfaceOp: { op: 'replace', start, end }` operation purpose-built to shadow a range of nodes and insert a replacement, with `sourceEventSeqs` recording provenance so the decision replays deterministically. What remained was the plugin that *decides what to compact and produces the summary*.

Two forces shape the design. First, compaction is **swappable**: token counting can be a char/4 heuristic or a real tokenizer, and summarization can be a model call, a template, or a remote service — these vary independently of *when* and *which range* to compact. Second, `SurfaceEventType` is closed to five event types (`user/message`, `assistant/message`, `tool/result`, `context/message`, `steering/message`); only those may carry `surfaceOp`. A bespoke `compaction/*` event therefore **cannot** itself appear on the surface — the compiler rejects `surfaceOp` on it and the invariants plugin rejects it at runtime.

## Decision

### Compaction is a capability seam, split interface / implementation

Per the [capability-seams RFC](../../implemented/architecture/2026-06-13-capability-seams.md), compaction ships as separate packages so the contract, the algorithm, and (later) the consumer surface evolve independently:

1. **Interface** — `@deepseek-ai/dsh-compact`: an abstract `CompactService` owning the `ctx.compact` key, the `CompactionResult` vocabulary, and the `compact/*` session events. It declares `compactIfNeeded()` and `compactRegion()` as **abstract** — the contract states *what* compaction does, not *how*.
2. **Implementation** — `@deepseek-ai/dsh-compact-basic`: a concrete `BasicCompactService` that owns the entire algorithm — token estimation (chars per token — the `charsPerToken` config, default 4 — + per-block overhead), the tail→head retention walk, summarization via `ctx.llm.stream()`, the surface replacement, the lock, and the `agent/pre-step` auto-compaction listener. A tokenizer-based or template-based backend is a sibling package (or a subclass overriding the two protected estimation/summarization hooks).
3. **Consumer** — deferred. A `/compact` tool and slash command will `inject: ['compact']` and call the contract; they are intentionally out of scope here so the seam settles first.

### The contract depends on `dsh-session` and `dsh-llm` — a deliberate deviation

The capability-seams RFC states the interface package "depends only on cordis" (true of `dsh-bash`, whose vocabulary is self-contained). Compaction **cannot** honor that: its verbs are defined *over* a `Session` (`compactRegion(session, start, end)`) and its output *is* the content vocabulary (`CompactionResult.summary: ContentBlock[]`). There is no way to express the contract without naming `Session`/`SessionEvent` (from `dsh-session`) and `ContentBlock` (from `dsh-llm`).

This is not a coupling smell — it is the contract's domain. The "only cordis" guidance was always shorthand for "the interface depends only on what the contract genuinely names, and never on an implementation." `dsh-session` and `dsh-llm` are themselves interface/vocabulary packages, not implementations; `dsh-compact` still imports no backend. The seam's real invariant — *consumers and implementations evolve independently behind an abstract service* — holds intact.

### Abstract `compactIfNeeded` / `compactRegion`, algorithm in the backend

An earlier draft put the full algorithm (the retention walk, token-summing, text extraction) as concrete methods on the interface, with only `estimateContentTokens()` and `summarize()` abstract. That recouples the contract to one strategy: a backend that wants a different retention policy or a different event-sequencing would have to fight inherited concrete code. Making both core methods abstract puts every *how* decision in the backend, where it belongs, and keeps the interface a pure statement of *what*. The backend remains internally factored — `estimateContentTokens()` and `summarize()` are `protected` hooks a sub-backend can override without reimplementing the walk — but that factoring is the backend's private concern, not the contract's.

`compactIfNeeded(agent, turn, step, fullSystemPrompt, signal)` takes **required** parameters (not the original all-optional shape). The auto-compaction seam (below) always supplies the agent, lifecycle context, assembled system prompt (counted toward the estimate), and the turn's abort signal, so optionality would only invite a hidden default at the seam. The session being compacted comes from the agent context. `compactRegion(session, start, end, agent, turn, step, signal?)` keeps an optional signal (a manual caller may omit it). Passing lifecycle context rather than a concrete model keeps router agents honest: the backend's summarization request can run through `agent/request`, where model-routing plugins already choose the actual model.

### Auto-compaction runs on `agent/pre-step`, a dedicated surface-mutation seam

Compaction mutates the session surface, so it runs before the step opens and before messages are derived. `agent/request` remains a call-config transform and never needs to rebuild history after a surface change.

The fix is a dedicated loop seam, **`agent/pre-step`** (`@mode serial`), fired by the loop *after* system assembly and *before* the step opens (`step/start`):

```
assembly = ctx.systemPrompt.assemble()
await ctx.serial('agent/pre-step', agent, turn, step, system, signal)  ⟵ compaction mutates the surface here
session('step/start')                 ⟵ the step opens AFTER the seam
messages = session.deriveMessages()   ⟵ single derive, reflects the compaction
request  = waterfall agent/request    ⟵ pure request transform (hooks, model switch)
```

The loop derives messages once after `agent/pre-step`. Running before `step/start` keeps compaction records outside any half-open step, simplifying crash repair. The seam is awaited and serial so surface mutations cannot interleave; listeners return `void` and do not use Cordis bail values as vetoes.

### Retention is turn-agnostic; tool-pairing balance is the only structural guard

Auto-compaction fires before **every** step, not once per turn. This is **load-bearing for runaway-turn survival**: a tool-heavy ReAct turn appends an `assistant/message` + a `tool/result` per step, so the surface grows *within* a turn. A single turn can grow past the window on its own (a "runaway turn") — and the only moment to rescue it before the next model call overflows is the next step's `pre-step` checkpoint. Gating compaction to a turn's first step (or, worse, retaining the whole in-flight turn verbatim) re-opens exactly the hole compaction exists to close: the harness would die when compaction is most needed.

`compactIfNeeded` retains the smallest tail of whole surface units whose estimated size reaches `retainTokens` and compacts older nodes. A unit is a complete closed step or one no-step message. If the token cutoff lands inside a step, retention expands until the cut is tool-pairing balanced. Balance is checked on surface order, not log sequence, because replacement summaries have new sequence numbers at old surface positions. `compactRegion` rejects boundaries that split a tool call from its result. The in-flight turn receives no special retention.

A runaway turn thus compacts exactly like any other history: its early *closed* steps get summarized while its recent steps stay verbatim. When the only compactable content left is an un-splittable open tail step (its tool-calls have no results yet), compaction declines (`null`) and retries once that step closes.

**Single-unit overflow is out of scope, by design.** If a single retained unit — one closed step, or a large free node such as a pasted `user/message` — *alone* exceeds the budget, compaction cannot help and the next model call may go out over-budget. Bounding an individual unit's size is a separate concern (output truncation), handled elsewhere; compaction makes no promise about it, and the harness without such a mechanism can still break on a single oversized unit. This is named honestly rather than papered over.

### Head-anchoring: one auto checkpoint, always at the head

Auto-compaction always starts at the surface head, merging the prior checkpoint with newly compacted history so only one automatic checkpoint remains. `shadowedRange` is therefore positional rather than a numeric sequence interval: a newer summary sequence may occupy an older surface position. `shadowedSeqs` records the authoritative surface order. Manual mid-range compaction may leave multiple checkpoints.

### Approximate convergence invariant

`resolveConfig` validates numeric knobs but does NOT reject based on a pretend summary-length invariant. Convergence is dynamic: provider output caps can be spent on hidden or surfaced reasoning tokens, and the model may emit a summary of unpredictable size. `maxTokens` is only the provider-side generation cap for the summarization call; reasoning blocks are stripped before the checkpoint is stored. If a compacted surface is still over threshold, `compactIfNeeded()` re-compacts the head checkpoint up to `compactionRetries` extra times, but each committed summary must be smaller than the content it shadows. The sole residual is the single-unit-overflow case above (a backward-rounded oversized step can push the retained tail over budget) — which is exactly the out-of-scope concern, not a thrash bug.

### Surface replacement: `compact/*` events are log-only; one `user/message` carries the summary

Because `SurfaceEventType` is closed, the summary cannot ride on a `compact/*` event. The backend instead appends a **single `user/message`** with `surfaceOp: { op: 'replace', start, end }` whose `content` is the (framed) summary and whose `sourceEventSeqs` covers the shadowed nodes *and* the bookkeeping events. The `compact/*` events are pure log records (lock + provenance). The surface mutation sits **inside** the lock — `compact/end` is the last event appended:

```
compact/start    → log-only. Acquires the lock.
[summarize older range via the backend]
compact/summary  → log-only. Provenance: raw summary, range, shadowed seqs, token count.
user/message     → surfaceOp { op:'replace', start, end }. THE surface mutation (framed summary).
                   deriveMessages() renders it as a user-role message.
compact/end      → log-only. Releases the lock (carries `error` on a recoverable failure).
```

`deriveMessages()` then yields `[summary_as_user_message, ...retained_nodes]`. Reusing `user/message` is honest rather than a workaround: a summary genuinely *is* user-role context.

### Checkpoint framing + incremental merge (backend-private)

The basic backend wraps the summary as established checkpoint context and tags it for incremental merging on the next cycle. The raw summary remains on `compact/summary`. Framing is backend policy; the seam promises only that one replacement user message carries the possibly framed summary.

### Blocking via a log-recorded lock, plus a crash/recoverable failure taxonomy

The `compact/start … compact/end` bracket is justified, in order of what now does the work:

1. **Crash-detectable orphan + provenance** (primary). Summarization is a slow model call persisted *after* `compact/start`. A crash mid-summarization leaves a `compact/start` with no matching `compact/end` — a detectable orphan. Releasing the lock last (rather than first) converts the crash window from *silent corruption* into that detectable orphan.
2. **Prevents concurrent compaction.** `compactRegion` refuses to start if the current turn holds an unmatched `compact/start`. (The loop is single-threaded across the awaited `pre-step`, so this is also a re-entry tripwire — a thrown "already in progress" signals a real bug.)

Two failure paths, both documented:

- **Crash** (the loop dies mid-summarization): a dangling `compact/start`, no closer. Because `compact/*` are **log-only**, the orphan is **inert** — the surface replacement never landed, so the full, uncompacted history derives correctly. Generic turn-repair (`interruptedTurnClosers`) closes the turn with a synthetic `turn/end`; the orphan sits *before* that `turn/end`, so the turn-scoped in-progress check never sees it and a crash can't wedge future compaction. Compaction simply re-attempts at the next `pre-step`.
- **Recoverable** (summarization throws but the loop survives): the backend appends `compact/end` with its **`error`** field set, leaving the surface untouched, and the model call proceeds with full history.

`compact/end` keeps its `error?` field (mirroring `tool/result`'s self-contained error — one event tells success from failure without correlating a sibling). There is no separate `compact/error` event.

**Core session repair stays compaction-agnostic — deliberately.** `interruptedTurnClosers` is never taught about `compact/*`. Teaching it would force every future `xxx/start … xxx/end` plugin pair to patch a core module — exactly the coupling the capability-seam architecture exists to avoid. Because the log-only orphan is inert, no special repair is needed: generic turn-repair plus the inertness of an un-landed surface mutation is sufficient.

## Alternatives considered

- **The full algorithm as concrete interface methods** (only estimation/summarization abstract) — the earlier draft; rejected because it recouples the contract to one retention strategy. Both core methods are abstract; the `protected` estimation/summarization hooks are the backend's private factoring, not the contract's.
- **Compaction on the `agent/request` waterfall** — the earlier cut; rejected for the double-derive it forced and for handing the listener context it structurally cannot compact. The dedicated `agent/pre-step` seam makes the layering correct by construction.
- **A separate `compact/error` event** — rejected: `compact/end` keeps an `error?` field, mirroring `tool/result`'s self-contained error — one event tells success from failure without correlating a sibling.
- **Teaching core turn-repair about `compact/*`** — rejected: the log-only orphan is inert, and a core module patched for every future `xxx/start … xxx/end` plugin pair is exactly the coupling the capability-seam architecture exists to avoid.

## Consequences

- **New packages**: `packages/compact/compact` (interface) and a sibling `compact-basic` (backend) under `packages/compact/`, wired into the root tsconfigs. The consumer tier is deferred.
- **New loop seam**: `agent/pre-step` (`@mode serial`) declared in `dsh-agent` and emitted by `dsh-agent-loop` after system assembly and before `step/start`. This is a documented change to the loop — `docs/architecture.md` records it and the generated cordis catalog carries its signature.
- **`SessionEventMap`** gains `compact/start` / `compact/summary` / `compact/end` by declaration merging (merge-extensible); `SurfaceEventType` is **not** touched. These are session events, not cordis `Events`, so the event-taxonomy gate needs no entry.
- **`dsh-session`** gains the tool-pairing balance predicate (`isToolPairingBalanced`, in `tool-pairing.ts`, exported from the package index) that `compactRegion`/`compactIfNeeded` use to keep a collapsed region from splitting a step's tool-call/result pair. The surface `replace` op and the surface-metadata runtime guard already existed and are reused.
- **`dsh-invariants`** drops its `surface replace: start must be <= end` assertion: a head-anchored compaction lands a high-seq replacement node at an older range's *position*, so `start > end` numerically is normal and valid (the range is positional, validated by the surface's `indexOf` checks that remain). The turn-enclosure invariant is reused unchanged.
- **Wiring**: `dsh-compact-basic` is loaded in `examples/coding-agent`'s `cordis.yml`, so the seam ships in the real demo (it was previously loaded nowhere).

## Testing

- **Unit:** Real Loader and invariant plugins cover whole-unit retention, convergence failure, both `compact/end` outcomes, head anchoring, open-tail refusal, inert crash orphans, and compacting closed steps inside one oversized open turn.
- **Loop:** Tests pin one awaited `agent/pre-step` per step between `turn/start` and `step/start`; a surface mutation there lands outside the step and appears in the single derived request.
- **With-key e2e:** A real model and bash session with lowered limits triggers compaction, records a complete `compact/start…end` pair, shrinks the surface, and finishes the task.
- **Snapshot gap:** Runaway-turn compaction cannot yet replay because the summarization call records no `assistant/chunk` events or `sessionId`; interleaved summarization-call replay remains follow-up work.