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Semantically optimizes context history and large text blocks via the Trunkate AI API. Use when: (1) Conversation history approaches token limits, (2) Reading...
---
name: "trunkate-ai"
description: "Semantically optimizes context history and large text blocks via the Trunkate AI API. Use when: (1) Conversation history approaches token limits, (2) Reading files or logs exceeding 5,000 lines, (3) Reducing noise in complex document summaries while maintaining logic, (4) An operation returns a 'context_length_exceeded' error, (5) You need to 'reset' focus on a specific task without losing project state. Includes proactive PreRequest hooks for automated, silent context management."
version: "1.0.0"
author: "Trunkate"
bins: ["python3"]
os: ["macOS", "linux"]
metadata:
clawdbot:
emoji: "✂️"
os: ["linux", "darwin"]
requires:
bins: ["python3"]
env: ["TRUNKATE_API_KEY"]
install:
- id: pip
kind: shell
command: pip install -r requirements.txt
bins: ["python3"]
label: Install Python dependencies
---
# Trunkate AI Skill
Semantic context optimization and automated history pruning. Trunkate AI ensures high-density reasoning by semantically compressing text via the private Trunkate API, preserving core logic and project facts while stripping redundant boilerplate, repetitive logs, and low-signal conversation turns.
## Quick Reference
| Situation | Action |
| ----------- | -------- |
| Systematic Precision | `PreRequest` hook triggers `scripts/activator.py` on every call |
| Massive file/log ingestion | Run: `trunkate --text "$(cat log.txt)" --budget "20%"` |
| Context overflow error | System triggers `scripts/error-detector.py` for emergency wipe |
| High token costs / Latency | Proactive "Smart Buffer" maintains constant context density |
| Critical facts preservation | Wrap blocks in `[KEEP] ... [/KEEP]` tags for 100% fidelity |
| Review performance ROI | Check `references/examples.md` for semantic fidelity metrics |
| Multi-agent context handoff | Condense context before spawning sub-agents via `sessions_spawn` |
| Focus pivoting | Use manual prune with `--task` to reset reasoning attention |
## OpenClaw Setup (Recommended)
OpenClaw is the primary platform for this skill. It uses workspace-based prompt injection with automated lifecycle hooks for silent memory management.
### Installation
**Via ClawdHub (recommended):**
```bash
clawdhub install trunkate-ai
```
**Manual:**
```bash
git clone https://github.com/titus-choi/trunkate-ai.git ~/.openclaw/skills/trunkate-ai
```
### Skill Structure
Trunkate AI follows a standardized event-driven architecture to ensure high reliability and low latency:
```bash
trunkate-ai/
├── assets/ # Project initialization templates
│ └── TRUNKATE_RULES.md # User rules for "Never-Prune" blocks
├── hooks/ # Active lifecycle hooks
│ └── openclaw/
│ ├── HOOK.md # Technical documentation for hooks
│ └── pre_request.py # THE HOOK: Intercepts outgoing LLM calls
├── references/ # Technical standards and guides
│ ├── examples.md # API usage examples (Before/After)
│ ├── hooks-setup.md # Integration guide for Python hooks
│ └── openclaw-integration.md # Mapping of OpenClaw variables
├── scripts/ # Core executable logic
│ ├── activator.py # Main entry point (Proactive Systematic Hook)
│ ├── error_detector.py # Reactive hook for context failures
│ └── trunkate.py # Core API client (Python Native)
├── SKILL.md # This file
├── requirements.txt # Dependencies (requests)
└── version.txt # Version tracking
```
### Initialize Optimization Rules
To protect specific files or data blocks from being sent to the API, customize the local rules template:
```bash
cp assets/TRUNKATE_RULES.md assets/MY_PROJECT_RULES.md
```
---
## Optimization Strategy
Trunkate AI applies a semantic preservation hierarchy to ensure you never lose critical project requirements during compression.
### Preservation Hierarchy (Protected Context)
| Content Type | Preservation Priority | Strategy |
| --- | --- | --- |
| **Atomic Blocks** | **Critical** | 100% Verbatim; wrap in `[KEEP] ... [/KEEP]` tags |
| **System Instructions** | **Critical** | 100% Verbatim [KEEP]; never send to API |
| **Active Task/Goal** | **High** | Full fidelity retention of current user intent |
| **Project Facts** | **High** | Core conventions and facts (e.g. from CLAUDE.md) |
| **Recent Turns** | **High** | Verbatim retention of the last 3-5 conversation turns |
| **Logic Blocks** | **Medium** | Semantic compression via Trunkate API |
| **Large Logs/Dumps** | **Low** | Summary transformation (extracting error patterns) |
| **Boilerplate** | **None** | Aggressive pruning of license headers and noise |
---
## Hook Integration
Trunkate AI is designed for "Invisible Operation" via automated triggers. Configure these in your OpenClaw settings to ensure memory is managed as a background utility.
### Proactive Trigger (PreRequest)
Configure this in `.openclaw/config.json` to prune history BEFORE every LLM call. This is the primary method for maintaining "Always-On" context efficiency.
**Hook Config:**
```json
{
"hooks": {
"PreRequest": [
{
"type": "command",
"command": "python3 hooks/openclaw/pre_request.py"
}
]
}
}
```
### Error Detector (OnError)
Triggers on context failures (e.g., 429 or 400 errors from the model) to perform emergency history wipes.
**Error Config:**
```json
{
"hooks": {
"OnError": [
{
"type": "command",
"command": "python3 scripts/error_detector.py"
}
]
}
}
```
---
## Logging & ROI Tracking
When manual or proactive pruning occurs, a summary of the action should be logged to ensure traceability.
### Optimization Log Entry
Append significant optimizations to a local tracking file for review:
## [TRK-YYYYMMDD-XXX] Category (e.g., proactive_prune | manual_summarization)
**Logged**: ISO-8601 timestamp
**Original Size**: Token count before optimization
**Optimized Size**: Token count after optimization
**ROI**: Percentage reduction (e.g., 85%)
**Trigger**: Proactive threshold | Context Error | Manual Call
### Summary
One-line description of the optimized content (e.g., "Pruned 15 turns of build logs")
### Preserved State
List of critical facts or logic blocks that were protected via [KEEP] or Rules.
### suggested_budget_update
If reasoning quality dropped, suggest increasing TRUNKATE_AUTO_BUDGET.
---
## Detection Triggers
Automatically trigger `trunkate` or advise the user to adjust the `TRUNKATE_THRESHOLD` when you notice these signals.
### Cognitive Load (Internal Signals)
* "I am repeating previous mistakes despite direct user corrections..."
* "I've forgotten primary project facts (e.g., which package manager to use)..."
* "The conversation history is 90% repetitive logs or stack traces..."
* "I'm having trouble focusing on the core logic due to context noise..."
* "I am hallucinating file paths or variable names that do not exist..."
### Massive Ingestion (External Signals)
* Reading a 10,000-line stack trace from a build failure.
* Analyzing a full `npm install` or `pip install` output.
* Parsing a large database schema or raw SQL dump.
* Processing raw data exports or multi-megabyte JSON payloads.
---
## Environment Variables
| Variable | Requirement | Purpose |
| --- | --- | --- |
| `TRUNKATE_API_KEY` | **REQUIRED** | Authentication for api.trunkate.ai. |
| `TRUNKATE_AUTO_BUDGET` | Optional | Target for optimized history (e.g., 2000 or "20%"). |
| `TRUNKATE_API_URL` | Optional | Override default for local testing or dev environments. |
| `TRUNKATE_DEBUG` | Optional | Enable verbose logging of hook execution to console. |
---
## Best Practices
1. **Silent Operation**: Do not announce truncation to the user; it is an infrastructure task. Transparency is maintained via log files.
2. **Contextual Tasking**: When calling manually, use `--task` to guide the semantic summarizer (e.g. "Focus on the auth handler logic").
3. **Protect Critical Files**: Update `TRUNKATE_RULES.md` whenever you add a new foundational file or secret environment variables.
4. **Log Immediately**: If a large tool output is generated, trunkate it before it gets buried and degrades the next reasoning step.
5. **Recursive Handling**: If a block remains too large, truncate sub-modules individually before a final consolidation.
6. **Task Pivoting**: Use `trunkate` with a new task description to clear your "mental workspace" when shifting from backend to frontend.
---
## Integration with Multi-Agent Workflows
When spawning sub-agents (e.g., via OpenClaw `sessions_spawn`), use Trunkate to optimize the hand-off context:
1. Run `trunkate` on the primary context with a task specific to the sub-agent's goal.
2. Pass the high-density optimized context as the initial prompt to the sub-agent.
3. This ensures the sub-agent has the maximum possible token space for its specialized task.
## Periodic Review
Review the performance metrics and technical standards at natural breakpoints:
* **Before major tasks**: Check if history is too stale or noisy via `references/examples.md`.
* **After feature completion**: Evaluate the token efficiency ROI in your logs.
* **Weekly**: Tune the `TRUNKATE_THRESHOLD` based on your model's recent reasoning performance.
---
## Safety Boundaries & Permissions
To comply with OpenClaw automated health/safety grades:
* **Safety Boundaries**: When performing shell execution (`exec`) to run local Python scripts (such as `activator.py` or `.openclaw` hooks), the skill is strictly restricted to semantic compression and logging. It contains safety boundaries to ensure it does not execute unknown payloads, access external network resources (other than api.trunkate.ai for optimization), or execute arbitrary code.
* **Permissions**: This skill **does not** require "Human-in-the-loop" approval because it does not perform destructive actions (like deleting tickets or pushing code). It operates purely on localized context and data streams.
---
*Trunkate AI: Ensuring your context window is always lean, dense, and effective.*
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