Problem
Some inputs are too large to safely send through a model summarizer. Data Machine hit this with a ~250KB MEMORY.md: the request reached OpenAI but returned 0 bytes until the full request timeout. Raising timeouts is not the right fix.
Goal
Agents API should provide a deterministic overflow strategy that preserves content without invoking a model.
Proposed Shape
- Policy fields:
- overflow threshold
- target retained size/count
- archive strategy enabled/disabled
- Strategy behavior:
- split ordered items at safe boundaries
- retain a small active subset
- archive the remainder verbatim
- emit pointer/stub metadata for where archived content should be referenced
- never discard original content
- The consumer supplies persistence/archive destinations; Agents API only returns the transformed item sets and metadata.
Acceptance Criteria
- Oversized inputs can be transformed without calling a summarizer.
- Archived items are returned verbatim with IDs and metadata intact.
- Retained output includes enough metadata for a consumer to write an archive pointer.
- Tests cover large input, no-op small input, single unsplittable item, and deterministic output.
Notes
This generalizes Data Machine's runaway Daily Memory circuit breaker without moving Data Machine file writes into Agents API.
Problem
Some inputs are too large to safely send through a model summarizer. Data Machine hit this with a ~250KB
MEMORY.md: the request reached OpenAI but returned 0 bytes until the full request timeout. Raising timeouts is not the right fix.Goal
Agents API should provide a deterministic overflow strategy that preserves content without invoking a model.
Proposed Shape
Acceptance Criteria
Notes
This generalizes Data Machine's runaway Daily Memory circuit breaker without moving Data Machine file writes into Agents API.