Session Pruning and Compaction in OpenClaw: Cost and Context Playbook

Pruning and compaction trade context length for a smaller prompt. That can lower latency or provider cost, but it can also remove the exact instruction, file path, or approval detail that explains a later action. Choose the boundary from the workflow, not from a fixed token target.

What to keep

• Keep the current task, constraints, and expected output.
• Keep tool results that prove what changed or failed.
• Keep a short pointer to older context instead of copying an entire transcript.

A support handoff may need more history than a short coding task. Review both paths with synthetic data before changing defaults on a shared Gateway.

openclaw gateway status
openclaw doctor

Measure the trade-off

1. Run the same task with the current session policy.
2. Record response quality, latency, provider usage, and the details a reviewer can still see.
3. Change one threshold at a time.
4. Repeat the test after an update because session behavior can change between releases.

The session pruning reference, session concepts, and token-use notes are the current sources for implementation details.