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JohnXu22786

context-pruner

Session context triage plugin for DeepSeek Harness (dsh): prunes stale, repeated, failed and oversized context to save token budget.

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0
Language
TypeScript
Created
Aug 16, 2026
Updated
Aug 16, 2026

Introduction

简体中文

dsh-context-triage

A session context triage plugin for DeepSeek Harness (dsh) that automatically manages context volume during long sessions: it identifies and handles stale, duplicate, failed, oversized, and low-value message content to save token budget and curb context bloat.

Features

  • Deterministic, zero model dependency: all verdicts and rewrites are produced by heuristic rules—no LLM calls, no extra services; behavior is predictable and testable offline.
  • Five Screeners, each independently switchable:
    ScreenerVerdict ruleHandling action
    Stale output staleOutputTool call pairs more than N turns after the latest user message, with results still completeCall block rewritten to an archive summary, result block removed
    Repeated call repeatedCallCall pairs with the same tool and same arguments (JSON key order irrelevant)Only the most recent is kept; older call pairs are cut
    Failed call failedCallStale error results (isError)Input arguments replaced with a failure stub (prevents leakage / saves space), error text kept and trimmed
    Oversized block oversizedBlockTool result text exceeds the character capHead/tail trimmed, middle annotated with the omitted amount
    Stale reasoning staleReasoningReasoning blocks beyond the retention turns; kept blocks exceeding the length capRemoved; or trimmed (within the reserve region only trim, never delete)
  • Reserve area (reserve): content within the most recent N user turns is never touched, avoiding disruption of context the model is currently using.
  • Exemption list (exempt): two-dimensional tool-name and file-path glob exemption (protects stateful tools like task/skill/todowrite/todoread/write/edit/batch by default).
  • "Worth it" check: any archive/stub action requires the rewrite to be strictly smaller than the original, ruling out changes that cost more; call-pair-level actions (archive = rewrite + cut) take effect or are abandoned as atomic groups.
  • Audit report: every triage outputs structured statistics—counts and savings per reason, per-item details, and suggested compression ranges; visible through the tool, the command, and the CLI.
  • Native integration with the dsh compression seam: implements ctx.compaction (CompactionEngine); auto-pressure, context overflow, manual, and forced region compression all go through the official harness mechanism. Replacement summary messages use a checkpoint source recognized by any backend-agnostic consumer.

Installation and mounting

The plugin is distributed as a bundle: dsh.bundle.patch in package.json points to cordis.patch.yml (the patch inserts the plugin line; config can be overridden on the line).

Installing in DSH

dsh plugin --profile demo add github:JohnXu22786/context-pruner

Option 1 (mount from a local directory, recommended):

dsh plugin --profile web add link:/absolute/path/context-pruner

Option 2 (manual patch): merge the entry in cordis.patch.yml into the profile's cordis.patch.yml, or launch it directly as an overlay:

dsh web --patch ./cordis.patch.yml

Option 3 (git source):

dsh plugin --profile web add "github:your-repo/context-pruner#main"

After mounting, use dsh --profile web --dump-config to check whether the plugin line reaches the startup tree.

Note: ctx.compaction allows only one provider per context. If your profile already loads another compression implementation (e.g., the built-in base compression backend), disable one of them via the patch's disabled: true—they cannot coexist.

Interface

Entry point (manifest)

ItemValue
Package namedsh-context-triage (dsh.bundle.patch in package.json declares the bundle)
Main entrylib/index.js (main/exports; ./core and ./dsh subpaths available for embedders)
Plugin namecontext-triage
Dependency injectiontools (required); the command registry is optionally probed via ctx.get('commands'), silently skipped if absent
ConfigExports Config (Schemastery Schema); defaults in the config table below

The plugin is a functional plugin: it exports name / inject / Config / apply(ctx, config), called by cordis after validating config and filling defaults.

Provided extension points

Extension pointDescription
Service ctx.compactionTriageCompactionEngine extends CompactionEngine, implementing compactIfNeeded (auto-pressure / overflow), compactNow (manual idle compression), compactRegion (forced region compression)
Tool triage_historyModel-visible; parameter dryRun?: boolean. Runs one triage and returns the audit report to the model; with dryRun=false and a worth-handling region present, applies it directly
Command /triageHuman command, bypasses the model; outputs the audit report and applies worthwhile handling

How a compression transaction lands

Triage results are written to the session log as a standard compression transaction (append-only; history is not rewritten):

  1. compaction/start (holds the lock until the paired compaction/end)
  2. compaction/summary (summary content, masked regions, masked seq list, and heuristic token cost; llmStreamCall absent = non-model summary)
  3. user/message + surfaceOp: { op: 'replace', start, end } + sourceEventSeqs (replacement summary message, source is the checkpoint source)
  4. compaction/end

The model-visible history is derived from the session log; after the replacement, deriveMessages() naturally yields [summary message, ...retained content]—no in-place modification of historical records is needed.

Configuration

All fields have defaults; only override what you want to adjust. Invalid values (negative turns, out-of-range ratios, etc.) throw at load time. Example:

# cordis.patch.yml
- insert:
    id: context-triage
    name: dsh-context-triage
    config:
      budget:
        contextTokens: 200000   # lower for smaller-context models
        softRatio: 0.6
      screeners:
        staleOutput: { turns: 5 }
        staleReasoning: { enabled: false }
      exempt:
        tools: [task, skill, write, edit]
FieldDefaultDescription
enabledtrueMaster switch
reserve.turns3Reserve area: content within the most recent N user turns is not processed
budget.contextTokens1000000Estimated context window (tokens); determines the pressure ratio
budget.softRatio0.7Usage above this ratio → auto-compression triggers (pressure)
budget.hardRatio0.9Usage above this ratio → pressure report marked forced (hard) grade
budget.minSavingsTokens2000No action when estimated savings are below this
screeners.staleOutput.turns8Call pairs more than N turns after the latest user message are archived
screeners.repeatedCall.enabledtrueRepeated calls cut
screeners.failedCall.turns4Failed-call handling threshold (turns)
screeners.failedCall.errorKeepChars400Error text kept for failed calls (chars)
screeners.oversizedBlock.capChars6000Tool result text cap (chars); beyond it, head/tail trimmed
screeners.oversizedBlock.headChars / tailChars800 / 400Head/tail length kept during trimming
screeners.staleReasoning.keepTurns3Keep reasoning blocks within the most recent N user turns
screeners.staleReasoning.maxBlockChars2000Length cap for kept reasoning blocks; beyond it, trimmed
exempt.tools[task, skill, todowrite, todoread, write, edit, batch]Exempt tool names
exempt.filePatterns[]Exempt path globs (match call arguments filePath/path), e.g. ['**/*.lock']
summary.capChars20000Compression summary char cap
summary.headRatio0.4Head retention ratio when trimming the summary

Local experience (no dsh required)

src/core is a framework-agnostic engine with an offline replay CLI; it runs directly against a JSONL session file:

npm install
npm run build
node lib/cli/replay.js examples/session.sample.jsonl --config examples/demo.config.json
node lib/cli/replay.js examples/session.sample.jsonl --config examples/demo.config.json --show-transcript

Replay format (one JSON event per line; seq determined by line order):

{"type":"user/message","text":"项目构建失败了"}
{"type":"assistant/message","reasoning":"…","calls":[{"id":"c1","name":"bash","arguments":"{\"cmd\":\"npm run build\"}"}]}
{"type":"tool/result","callId":"c1","text":"…","isError":false}

Sample output in examples/report.example.md; tests cover all screeners, merge priorities, atomic groups, audit consistency, and end-to-end replay (npm test).

Design trade-offs

  • Token estimation is heuristic: CJK ≈ 1 token/char, others ≈ 4 chars/token; used only for pressure verdicts and audit statistics, not for billing. Configure budget.contextTokens per your actual model window.
  • Rewrites always yield net savings: archive summaries, failure stubs, and trimming all compare the sizes before and after the action; unattractive findings are automatically abandoned. Call-pair actions are judged as atomic groups, so there is no half-done state like "summary kept, result split."
  • Prompt caching: compression changes the message sequence, invalidating the prompt cache prefix after that point. In long sessions, saved tokens usually vastly outweigh cache recomputation cost; for pay-per-request providers (no cache billing) it is pure gain.
  • Never touches user input: the oversized-block screener only acts on tool results; user messages are never rewritten unless the whole reserve region covers them.

License

Released under the MIT License.