Context Refresh System: Session State Management

Overview

A three-mode context refresh system for managing AI session state across context window boundaries. Uses shell-compatible key=value state files for persistence and recovery.

Three Modes

1. Selective Retention

• Carry forward only high-value context between sessions
• Prune stale or low-relevance state automatically
• Minimizes token budget while preserving critical state

2. Checkpoint/Resume

• Serialize full session state at defined checkpoints
• Resume from any checkpoint with complete context restoration
• Enables pause/resume workflows across session boundaries

3. Rolling Summary

• Continuously compress older context into summaries
• Maintain a fixed-size window of recent + summarized context
• Balances depth (recent) with breadth (historical)

Implementation

State files use shell-compatible KEY=VALUE format for maximum portability across tools and environments.

See Also

• agent-scratchpad-workspace - Workspace pattern where context refresh operates
• ai-agent-execution-constraints - Execution constraints complementing context management
• agentic-pipeline-orchestration - Pipeline lifecycle where sessions are managed