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Problem Statement

When running long tasks in -p (non-interactive) mode, Claude Code automatically terminates the task with the following error: Autocompact is thrashing: the context refilled to the limit within 3 turns of the previous compact, 3 times in a row. A file being read or a tool output is likely too large for the context window. Try reading in smaller chunks, or use /clear to start fresh

The thrashing threshold is currently hardcoded to 3 consecutive compactions, which is too aggressive for long-running tasks (e.g., large codebase analysis, multi-step code generation). This causes tasks to terminate prematurely with no way to resume automatically

Proposed Solution

Add a configurable environment variable AUTO_COMPACT_THRASHING_THRESHOLD to allow users to control the autocompact thrashing threshold:

Environment Variable

Set the maximum number of consecutive compactions before terminating

export AUTO_COMPACT_THRASHING_THRESHOLD=10

Then run the task

claude -p "your task"

Alternative Solutions

No response

Priority

Critical - Blocking my work

Feature Category

Configuration and settings

Use Case Example

No response

Additional Context

No response