# Autocompact Recursion Guards

> Block autocompact from running in recursive contexts so forks and helpers don’t deadlock.

- Skill: `vishuwa2004/autocompact-recursion-guards` (Agent Skill, multi-file: 2 files)
- Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add vishuwa2004/autocompact-recursion-guards`
- Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/vishuwa2004/autocompact-recursion-guards/raw
- Safety review: pending
- Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex
- Category: Coding & Dev Tools
- Author: vishuwa2004 (https://skillmd.com/u/vishuwa2004)
- Updated: 2026-09-17
- Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/vishuwa2004/autocompact-recursion-guards

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# SKILL: Autocompact Recursion Guards
**Domain:** context-management  
**Trigger:** Apply when auto-compacting logic runs inside recursive agents (session memory, compact helpers, context collapse) and must avoid deadlocking by re-entering itself.
**Source Pattern:** Distilled from reviewed session memory, compaction, and context-budgeting implementations.

## Core Method
Protect the proactive compaction gate with explicit exclusion rules for forked agents and context-specialized modes. Check whether the caller is already within the `session_memory` or `compact` subagent, whether a context-collapse or reactive-only mode is engaged, and whether features that manage their own context already control compaction. If any guard trips, return `false` so the recursion never fires again and the specialized agent can manage its own compaction cycle.

## Key Rules
- Identify contexts that already own compaction (session memory, compact, marble_origami, reactive compact, context collapse) and short-circuit the auto-compact decision for them.
- Keep the guards in should auto compact separate from the general thresholds so the recursion detection stays runnable even when feature flags change.
- Use feature gates to keep these checks dead-code-eliminated in builds that lack the implicated subsystems.
- Document why each guard exists so future engineers do not re-enable auto-compact in those contexts.
- Log or metrics may note when a guard prevented compaction so you can tune thresholds without reintroducing loops.

## Example Application
When a forked session-memory compactor would otherwise trigger auto-compact, the guard sees query source 'session memory' and returns `false`, letting the fork run its own compaction without conflicting with the main thread.

## Anti-Patterns (What NOT to do)
- Don’t let auto-compact run inside the compact agent or session memory; it will deadlock with itself.
- Don’t tie these guards to mutable thresholds; they must fire even when the token usage looks high.