Use when an agent needs to read, inspect, summarize, or load large local prose-heavy files cheaply before sending them into LLM context. Best for Markdown do...
--- name: contextcrumb description: Use when an agent needs to read, inspect, summarize, or load large local prose-heavy files cheaply before sending them into LLM context. Best for Markdown docs, notes, meeting transcripts, issue threads, logs with narrative text, research dumps, and other natural-language files where exact wording is less important than preserving useful context. --- # ContextCrumb ## Purpose Use ContextCrumb as a cheap first pass before reading large local text files into an LLM context window. It compresses by deleting lower-value words and punctuation while keeping the remaining text in original order. ContextCrumb is for orientation and triage. Treat compressed output as shortened context, not authoritative source text. ## When To Use Use it before reading large natural-language files: - Documentation and Markdown - Notes and research dumps - Meeting transcripts - Issue threads and long discussions - Logs with lots of prose - Long comments or narrative text ## When Not To Use Do not rely on compressed output for exact syntax or exact wording: - Source code - Config files - Diffs and patches - JSON, YAML, TOML, XML, or schemas - Commands that may need to be copied exactly - Legal, compliance, policy, or contract text For these files, read the raw source. If a file is too large, use ContextCrumb only to find likely relevant sections, then open the raw file around those sections before editing, quoting, or copying anything. ## Default Workflow If `contextcrumb` is already installed, use golden mode by default: ```powershell contextcrumb load <file> ``` If the CLI is not installed and this is a one-off read, run it from PyPI: ```powershell uvx --from contextcrumb contextcrumb load <file> ``` If repeated local use is expected, install it once: ```powershell python -m pip install contextcrumb ``` Then use: ```powershell contextcrumb load <file> ``` Golden mode chooses an adaptive cutoff for each file and is the preferred default because it is conservative. If the output is still too large, use a fixed keep ratio only after checking the tradeoff: ```powershell contextcrumb load <file> --target-keep-ratio 0.75 contextcrumb load <file> --target-keep-ratio 0.5 ``` Avoid aggressive ratios for first-pass reading unless the user explicitly asks for heavy compression. ## Validation Check compression savings without dumping the full output: ```powershell contextcrumb inspect <file> ``` Check what was removed before trusting a compressed result: ```powershell contextcrumb diff <file> ``` Use JSON only when another tool needs stats: ```powershell contextcrumb load <file> --json ``` Read the `text` field as compressed context. Use `stats.token_keep_ratio`, `stats.word_keep`, and `stats.model_windows` to decide whether to retry with a different setting. ## Practical Rules - Use `contextcrumb load <file>` as the default. - Use `uvx --from contextcrumb contextcrumb load <file>` for no-install one-off use. - Use installed CLI for repeated use. - Use `inspect` and `diff` before trusting compressed text for important work. - Never edit code, copy commands, or quote exact wording based only on compressed output.
don't have the plugin yet? install it then click "run inline in claude" again.