Compress
When to use
- Compressing specs, plans, tickets, prompts,
AGENTS.md, or skill files - Removing redundancy from instructions before giving them to an agent
- Tightening a document that has grown through repeated edits
Process
- Choose the target from
$ARGUMENTS, a pasted instruction, or the named file. - Preserve the target's behavior exactly. Compression is not permission to weaken rules.
- Cut:
- restated rules - overlapping instructions - padding phrases - obvious preamble - hedging that does not change behavior - examples that restate a rule without adding format or edge-case value
- Keep:
- actual rules and constraints - concrete examples that show a required format or edge case - file paths, exact names, identifiers, commands, and schemas - instructions that came from previous failures
- If asked to update a file, replace it with the compressed version. Otherwise return only the compressed instruction.
Verification
- Meaning and behavioral constraints are preserved
- Redundant wording is removed
- Specific names, paths, commands, schemas, and examples still exist where needed
- The result is easier for an agent to follow
Rules
- Return the compressed version only unless the user asks for commentary.
- Prefer bullets for lists of rules.
- Prefer prose for a single connected idea.
- Merge overlapping sections.
- State a general rule and its exception together.
- Do not drop a rule to hit a word count.
- If compression changes likely agent behavior, restore the load-bearing instruction.