nav-compact

Navigator Compact Skill

Clear your conversation context while preserving all knowledge in a context marker. Like git commit before switching branches - save your state, then start fresh.

When to Invoke

Invoke this skill when the user:

• Says "clear context", "start fresh", "reset conversation"
• Says "I'm done with this task", "moving to next feature"
• Mentions "approaching token limit", "context getting full"
• Says "compact", "clean up context"
• After completing isolated sub-task

DO NOT invoke if:

• User is in middle of implementation
• Context is needed for next immediate step
• Less than 20 messages in conversation (not much to gain)

Execution Steps

Step 0: Detect PreCompact Hook (Fast Path) [v6.10.0+]

Before doing anything else, check whether the project has the PreCompact hook installed.

HAS_HOOK=$(grep -l "nav_dispatch" .claude/settings.json .claude/settings.local.json 2>/dev/null | head -1)

If the hook is present:

→ Fast path activated. The PreCompact hook will write the marker automatically when the user runs /compact (or when Claude Code auto-compacts). Skip Steps 2–5 (marker creation + .active writing) — the hook owns those. Just print:

╔══════════════════════════════════════════════════════╗
║  🗜️  Navigator Compact (hook-managed)                 ║
╚══════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝

✅ PreCompact hook is installed — Navigator will write the
   marker automatically when you run /compact.

Auto-compact is also covered: when Claude Code compacts
silently near the context limit, the hook still fires and
writes a marker tagged with `-auto-` in the filename.

Just run:    /compact

The PostCompact hook will append Claude Code's official
summary to the marker once compact finishes. On your next
session, "Start my Navigator session" picks up the marker
via .active and offers restore.

That's it. Don't create a duplicate marker — the hook handles it deterministically.

If the hook is absent (legacy project, manually disabled, or pre-v6.10 install):