context-editing changedbuild-with-claude/context-editing
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1717Context editing allows you to selectively clear specific content from conversation history as it grows. Beyond optimizing costs and staying within limits, this is about actively curating what Claude sees: context is a finite resource with diminishing returns, and irrelevant content degrades model focus. Context editing gives you fine-grained runtime control over that curation. For the broader principles behind context management, see [Effective context engineering](https://www.anthropic.com/engineering/effective-context-engineering-for-ai-agents). This page covers:
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1919* **Tool result clearing** - Best for agentic workflows with heavy tool use where old tool results are no longer needed
20* **Thinking block clearing** - For managing thinking blocks when using extended thinking, with options to preserve recent thinking for context continuity
20* **Thinking block clearing** - For managing thinking blocks from earlier turns, with options to preserve recent thinking for context continuity
2121* **Client-side SDK compaction** - An SDK-based alternative for summary-based context management (server-side compaction is generally preferred)
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2323| Approach | Where it runs | Strategies | How it works |
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4242### Thinking block clearing
4343
44The `clear_thinking_20251015` strategy manages `thinking` blocks in conversations when extended thinking is enabled. This strategy gives you control over thinking preservation: you can choose to keep more thinking blocks to maintain reasoning continuity, or clear them more aggressively to save context space.
44The `clear_thinking_20251015` strategy manages `thinking` blocks from earlier assistant turns. This strategy gives you control over thinking preservation: you can choose to keep more thinking blocks to maintain reasoning continuity, or clear them more aggressively to save context space.
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4646<Tip>
4747 **Default behavior:** The default varies by model class.
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697697## Thinking block clearing usage
698698
699Enable thinking block clearing to manage context and prompt caching effectively when extended thinking is enabled:
699Use thinking block clearing to manage context and prompt caching in conversations that carry thinking blocks from earlier turns:
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701701<CodeGroup>
702702 ```bash cURL
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