X-06Context Rot

Stale errors, dead ends and duplicates dilute attention long before the window is full.

Step-by-step walkthrough4 steps

Early on, the key fact dominates a small context.
Failed attempts and duplicates accumulate — none of them deleted.
The key fact is still there — and the model increasingly acts as if it isn’t.
Quality degrades well before the limit. Prune actively, don’t just wait for overflow.

Key insight

Context quality is not the same as context quantity. The key fact can still be in the window and functionally invisible.

Failure mode

Treating the token limit as the only budget: quality degrades continuously, not at a threshold.

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