openclaw - 💡(How to fix) Fix session status `Context:` line conflates cumulative session tokens with per-call context window [2 comments, 3 participants]

Bug

The status card line 📚 Context: X/Y (Z%) displays a cumulative session-token counter against the per-call context window size, which produces nonsensical "utilization" percentages on long-running sessions.

Reproduction

In a multi-day persistent session (Telegram-direct, agent=main, model=claude-cli/claude-opus-4-7, 1M window):

📚 Context: 3.8m/1.0m (359%) · 🧹 Compactions: 0

Then on the very next turn, after no large input was sent:

📚 Context: 95k/1.0m (9%) · 🧹 Compactions: 0

What's happening

The first number (X) is being summed across every input + cached prompt-read + tool result over the session's lifetime, while the denominator (Y) is the per-call context window. They are not comparable.

Two pieces of evidence:

1. If actual context were 3.8M in a 1M window, the model call would hard-error. It didn't — it replied normally.
2. Compactions: 0 is consistent with the working set being fine. No compaction fired because none was needed.

Why this matters

• Users see scary "359%" numbers and assume something is broken or that compaction is misconfigured.
• It hides the real signal — actual context window utilization — which is the only one that matters for compaction triggering and turn-cost prediction.
• It encourages premature /compact or session restarts on otherwise healthy sessions.

Suggested fix

Either:

(a) Show only working-set utilization — what the model will actually receive on the next turn — and drop the cumulative counter from the status card. This is the expected meaning of "context."

(b) Show both, clearly labeled:

📚 Context (next turn): 95k / 1.0m (9%)
🧮 Session tokens (cumulative): 3.8m
🧹 Compactions: 0

Option (a) is simpler and matches what every other agent runtime reports. Option (b) is honest about the long-session bookkeeping but adds a line to a card that is already busy.

Environment

• OpenClaw 2026.4.24 (cbcfdf6)
• Model: claude-cli/claude-opus-4-7
• Session kind: Telegram-direct main
• Compaction config: mode=safeguard, reserveTokensFloor=40000, softThresholdTokens=4000