Generating running routes with GPT-6 Astra and ChatGPT Work
Source
simonwillison.net
Date
Terms in this piece · Glossary
context compaction — Summarizing an agent's earlier conversation to free room in the context window so a long session can keep going.
AI agent — An AI system that doesn't just answer once but works toward a goal in a loop — taking actions, reading the results, and deciding what to do next.
context window — The maximum amount of text a model can consider at once — its working memory for the current conversation or task.
Why it matters
It flags a real transparency gap in AI agentAn AI system that doesn't just answer once but works toward a goal in a loop — taking actions, reading the results, and deciding what to do next.Full definition → systems: when a session compacts, tool-call code and intermediate outputs can become unrecoverable, so agent builders should design for preserving pre-context compactionSummarizing an agent's earlier conversation to free room in the context window so a long session can keep going.Full definition → artifacts.
