Under the hoodTier: how much it should matter to you
3Useful: my rating, 1 to 5
3Signal: worth watching, 1 to 5
CompactionArea: what it touches
Internal ChangesKind: in v2.1.296,
Internal ChangesSection of the release
What
When a conversation gets too long, Claude Code compacts it, which means replacing older parts with a summary to free up space. The instructions used to write that summary now include two versions called short and short_v2. The short_v2 version adds guidance for picking up afterwards and finishing any work left undone.
Why
Summaries after compaction may read differently for sessions that get one of these versions.
