Context audit

Context Audit

Bloated static context costs more per turn AND degrades output quality (the model has to wade through more noise to find what matters). This skill measures the waste in your config and tells you what to cut.

Step 1: Get /context data

Check the conversation history for /context output. If the user already ran /context in this session, use that data and skip ahead.

If not, output exactly this and STOP:

Run /context in this terminal and share the output. I'll wait — the token breakdown determines what to audit and in what order. Without it I'd be guessing at what's actually expensive in your setup.

Do NOT proceed to Step 2 until you have real /context numbers. The audit pipeline below scores by actual token cost, not heuristics.

Step 2: Audit by weight

Order the audit by descending token cost from /context. Whichever bucket shows up biggest in the user's breakdown gets audited first. The sections below are reference material, not a fixed sequence.

MCP servers

Each connected server loads its tool definitions every turn. Cost varies wildly — Playwright is ~15-20k tokens, a tiny custom server might be under 1k.

• Pull the MCP overhead number directly from /context (do NOT estimate from server count)
• List configured servers from ~/.claude/settings.json and any settings.local.json
• For each server, check if a CLI alternative exists with zero idle cost: Playwright (npx playwright), Google Workspace (gcloud), GitHub (gh), Linear (linear-cli), most cloud providers
• Flag servers whose token cost from /context exceeds 5% of the total context window AND have a CLI alternative

CLAUDE.md files

Read all CLAUDE.md files (project root, .claude/CLAUDE.md, ~/.claude/CLAUDE.md). Count rules (lines that prescribe behavior, not section headers or examples).

For each rule, apply five filters:

Filter	Flag when...
Default	Claude already does this without being told
Contradiction	Conflicts with another rule in same or different CLAUDE.md
Redundancy	Repeats another rule already covered elsewhere
Bandaid	Added to fix one specific bad output, not improve outputs generally
Vague	Different reader interprets it differently ("be natural", "use good tone")

Recommendation tiers (avoids the "looks-like-default-but-isn't" trap):

• Cut — rule is flagged by Default AND Vague together, OR is a Contradiction with a later rule. Both signals = high confidence the rule isn't load-bearing.
• Review — flagged by exactly one filter. Surface for the user's judgment, don't auto-recommend deletion. The user may have added it to fix a specific regression you can't see.
• Keep but consolidate — Redundancy alone (rule is correct but said twice). Recommend merging.

If total CLAUDE.md > 200 lines, also check for progressive disclosure opportunities: rules that only apply to specific tasks (deployment, testing, API conventions) should move to dedicated docs with a one-line pointer in CLAUDE.md.

Skills

Scan ~/.claude/skills/*/SKILL.md and .claude/skills/*/SKILL.md. For each:

• Count instruction lines (excluding code samples and tables)
• Apply the same five filters
• Watch for restated goals, hedging ("you may want to"), and synonyms ("be concise" + "keep it short" + "don't be verbose" all in one skill)

Settings

Read ~/.claude/settings.json and any project settings.json / settings.local.json. Surface these settings:

Setting	Why it matters	Suggested
autocompact_percentage_override	Controls when context auto-compacts. Lower = more frequent compaction = less bloat per turn	Try 75 if unset; raise if compaction is interrupting useful work
BASH_MAX_OUTPUT_LENGTH (env)	Default cap on Bash output stored in context	Raise if you frequently truncate; lower if you don't

Don't blanket-prescribe specific values — the right number depends on the user's typical workload. Surface the current value, the rationale for changing, and let the user pick.

File permissions

Check permissions.deny in settings.json. If absent, check whether known-bloat directories exist in the working tree:

Project signal	Should consider denying
package.json exists	node_modules, dist, build, .next, coverage
Cargo.toml exists	target
go.mod exists	vendor
pyproject.toml / requirements.txt	__pycache__, .venv, *.egg-info
*.lock artifacts	.terraform, .serverless

Step 3: Score and report

Score starts at 100. Apply at most ONE penalty per item — when multiple tiers apply, take the higher penalty only (no stacking).

Issue	Penalty
MCP overhead > 20% of context window	-15
MCP overhead 10-20% of context window	-8
MCP overhead 5-10% with CLI alternative available	-5
CLAUDE.md ≥ 30% of rules flagged "Cut"	-15
CLAUDE.md 15-30% of rules flagged "Cut"	-8
Contradictions between CLAUDE.md files	-10
Skill ≥ 30% of instruction lines flagged	-8 each
Skill 15-30% of instruction lines flagged	-4 each
Missing autocompact_percentage_override (no project-specific reason)	-5
Missing BASH_MAX_OUTPUT_LENGTH override (often-truncated outputs)	-5
No permissions.deny rules + known bloat dirs exist	-10

Floor at 0.

Output format:

# Context Audit

Score: {N}/100 [{CLEAN | NEEDS WORK | BLOATED | CRITICAL}]

## Context Breakdown (from /context)
{Top 3-5 token consumers with their %}

## Top 3 Fixes
1. {Highest-impact actionable fix with expected token savings}
2. {Second}
3. {Third}

## Issues by Category

### [{CRITICAL | WARNING | INFO}] {Category}
{What's bloated}
Fix: {One-line actionable recommendation}

### Rules to Cut (high confidence)
{Each Default+Vague or Contradiction rule: text + which filters tripped}

### Rules to Review (one filter triggered)
{Each rule flagged by exactly one filter — surface for user judgment}

### Conflicts
{Contradictions between files, with paths}

Score labels:

• 90-100: CLEAN
• 70-89: NEEDS WORK
• 50-69: BLOATED
• 0-49: CRITICAL

Severity tiers (for the per-category callouts):

• CRITICAL: penalty ≥ 10
• WARNING: penalty 5-10
• INFO: penalty < 5

Step 4: Conversation-level callout (when applicable)

This skill audits static config only, but if the conversation history shows obvious live bloat, mention it as a separate callout (don't factor into the score):

• Tool result > 50KB in a single Bash output → suggest output redirection to file + Read pattern
• Same file Read 3+ times in one session → could have been cached or remembered
• Multiple background tasks accumulating output without being checked

Format as: "Live bloat noticed (not in score): {observation}. Consider {fix}." This is a tip, not a deduction.

Step 5: Offer to fix

After the report:

Want me to apply any of these? I can:

• Show you a cleaned-up CLAUDE.md with the high-confidence cuts removed (diff first, you confirm)
• Add the missing settings.json configs (diff first, you confirm)
• Add permissions.deny rules for build artifacts (diff first, you confirm)
• Show which skills to compress and where

Always show the diff and wait for confirmation before modifying any config or instruction file — including permissions.deny. Even "reversible" deny rules can interrupt active debugging if the user is mid-investigation in a denied directory. Don't auto-apply anything.

If the user confirms, write the changes. If they say "all yes", batch the edits in one pass and report what landed.

Anti-patterns to avoid

• Don't penalize line count alone. A 500-line CLAUDE.md of essential rules is fine; a 100-line CLAUDE.md of junk is not. Always weight by flagged-rule ratio.
• Don't hard-code "correct" values for settings. What's right for one user's workload is wrong for another. Surface tradeoffs.
• Don't flag a rule as "cut" on a single filter. One signal could be a false positive. Require two signals (Default + Vague, or Contradiction) to recommend deletion. Single-filter rules go to "Review" for the user's judgment.
• Don't treat MCP servers as fungible. Penalty must be proportional to actual token cost from /context, not server count.
• Don't auto-apply config changes. Always diff + confirm.