Summary
After auto-compaction, the full compaction summary (overview + history + work_done + technical_details + ...) is always rendered in full in the terminal. For long sessions this can be hundreds of lines of dense XML-like text that pushes everything else off-screen, even though the user never asked to see it.
Current behavior
● Compaction completed
<overview>
... (long paragraph) ...
</overview>
<history>
1. ...
2. ...
...
</history>
<work_done>
...
</work_done>
<technical_details>
...
</technical_details>
<important_files>
...
</important_files>
<next_steps>
...
</next_steps>
This dump appears every time the agent triggers a /compact automatically. There is currently no flag, config option, or keybinding to suppress or fold it.
Proposed behavior
Show a single collapsed line by default:
● Compaction completed (saved ~12.3k tokens) — press space / e to expand
The full summary is preserved internally (so the agent still uses it as context), but the terminal output is one line unless the user opts in.
Why
- The summary is for the agent's memory, not for the human reader. Almost no one reads it line-by-line.
- For long-running sessions on large codebases, compactions happen repeatedly and each one walls off prior conversation.
- Existing precedent: tool call output and reasoning blocks already have collapse/toggle behavior (
Ctrl+T). Compaction summaries should behave the same way.
Alternatives considered
Ctrl+L to clear screen — works but loses everything, not just the summary- Pipe
| grep -v — doesn't apply to interactive sessions
- Manual
/clear — destroys context, defeats the purpose of compaction
Versions
- copilot CLI: 1.0.33
- macOS / Ghostty terminal
Summary
After auto-compaction, the full compaction summary (overview + history + work_done + technical_details + ...) is always rendered in full in the terminal. For long sessions this can be hundreds of lines of dense XML-like text that pushes everything else off-screen, even though the user never asked to see it.
Current behavior
This dump appears every time the agent triggers a
/compactautomatically. There is currently no flag, config option, or keybinding to suppress or fold it.Proposed behavior
Show a single collapsed line by default:
The full summary is preserved internally (so the agent still uses it as context), but the terminal output is one line unless the user opts in.
Why
Ctrl+T). Compaction summaries should behave the same way.Alternatives considered
Ctrl+Lto clear screen — works but loses everything, not just the summary| grep -v— doesn't apply to interactive sessions/clear— destroys context, defeats the purpose of compactionVersions