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Tool output compaction

Tool output compaction

Section titled “Tool output compaction”

Tool output compaction is a model-context optimization for terminal-heavy tool results. It reduces large stdout/stderr payloads before they become prompt debt, while preserving status, exit codes, and repair-critical diagnostics.

This is separate from both:

  • context compression, which prunes older conversation history; and
  • TOON context encoding, which serializes structured JSON-shaped prompt context.

Pilot boundary

Section titled “Pilot boundary”

The first Gormes slice is intentionally narrow:

  • reducer code lives in internal/toolcompact
  • execute_code and terminal stdout/stderr are wired
  • compaction is enabled for the built-in registry through internal tool configuration
  • full_output: true bypasses compaction for exact output
  • provider HTTP bodies, public APIs, persisted storage, and config formats stay JSON and unchanged

The model-visible tool result keeps the existing result shape and adds structured compaction evidence only when a stream is reduced. Evidence records the reducer, original byte count, compacted byte count, and stable reason codes.

Reducers

Section titled “Reducers”

The first reducers are compiled Go code rather than user/project rule files:

  • go_test counts passing package walls and keeps failing tests, package failures, panic lines, and file.go:line diagnostics.
  • build_diagnostics keeps compiler/build package headers, file:line diagnostics, failures, panic lines, and error lines while dropping repeated dependency or cache noise.
  • git_status summarizes branch state and file status counts while keeping conflicted files and a bounded sample list.
  • head_tail keeps bounded leading and trailing context for unknown oversized text output.

This keeps the pilot deterministic and testable. A future rule layer should only be added after reducer knobs, evidence codes, and safety boundaries stabilize.

Raw output

Section titled “Raw output”

Compaction is not a substitute for exact bytes. Callers that need exact command output must request full_output: true before execution. Raw artifact storage is deferred for these terminal-style tools until a session-scoped output directory is available at the call site.