[FEATURE] CLI flag to disable auto-compact

[peteruid]

Preflight Checklist

• I have searched existing requests and this feature hasn't been requested yet
• This is a single feature request (not multiple features)

Problem Statement

I'm building a web app that spawns Claude Code sessions for different operations. Some operations (like /reflect) use a lot of context and would benefit from the full 200k without the 45k autocompact buffer.

Currently I can pass CLI flags like --mcp-config to configure MCP servers per-operation. I'd like a similar flag like --no-auto-compact or --autocompact=false to disable auto-compaction for specific sessions.

Proposed Solution

The cleanest solution would be if Claude Code added a --no-auto-compact CLI flag. Then your terminal server could conditionally include it based on which operation is being run:

// Hypothetical future code
const mcpFlags = needsMcp ? '--strict-mcp-config --mcp-config=data/butler-mcp.json' : '';
const compactFlag = disableAutoCompact ? '--no-auto-compact' : '';
const fullCommand = claude ${mcpFlags} ${compactFlag} ${command};

Alternative Solutions

No response

Priority

High - Significant impact on productivity

Feature Category

CLI commands and flags

Use Case Example

Use case: Long-running reflection sessions that analyze multiple data sources benefit from maximum context, while quick assist operations don't need the extra space.

Additional Context

No response

[cepunkt]

+1 and a toggle for the WebUI would be very useful too, especially now that the token budget for a conversation is not visible anymore. (which it was, when asking Claude to read the warning message, after a tool call)

[github-actions]

Closing for now — inactive for too long. Please open a new issue if this is still relevant.

[github-actions]

This issue has been automatically locked since it was closed and has not had any activity for 7 days. If you're experiencing a similar issue, please file a new issue and reference this one if it's relevant.