Use /compact to Summarise Long Conversations
Long sessions accumulate a lot of back-and-forth that quietly eats into your context window. The /compact command lets Claude summarise everything so far and carry on — without dragging every intermediate step along for the ride.
/compact
When you run /compact, Claude Code condenses the full conversation history into a tight briefing and replaces it in place. You keep the important context — decisions made, files touched, goals established — but shed all the noise.
This is especially handy when:
- You've been debugging for a while and the thread is getting unwieldy
- You want to pivot to a new sub-task within the same session
- You're approaching context limits and don't want to lose your momentum by starting over
You can also pass a custom instruction to control what gets prioritised in the summary:
/compact Focus on the API refactoring we completed; ignore the earlier CSS discussion
Claude will tailor the summary accordingly, so the next steps start with exactly the context that matters.
When in doubt, /compact rather than starting fresh — you keep your momentum without the context baggage weighing you down.
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When typing feels slow — describing a complex bug, explaining architecture, or thinking through a problem out loud — press Option+V to switch to voice input. Speak naturally and Claude Code transcribes your words into a prompt, so you can describe what you need at the speed of thought.
When Claude is heading down the wrong path — editing the wrong file, writing code you don't want, or giving a long explanation you don't need — press Escape to stop it immediately. You keep everything it did up to that point and can redirect with a new prompt.
Closed a session and realized you weren't done? Pass --continue (or -c) when launching Claude Code to pick up exactly where you left off — same context, same files, same conversation history — without re-explaining what you were working on.