Conversation context

The context module (context.py) selects which previous messages to include in the prompt. This keeps token usage reasonable while preserving relevant history.

Selection algorithm

1. Fetch last lookback_count (25) messages for the conversation
2. Apply recency window: if context_recency_hours > 0, exclude messages older than the cutoff while always keeping at least context_min_messages (10)
3. If total <= skip_selection_threshold (3): include all, skip LLM selection
4. Most recent always_include_recent (5) messages are always included
5. Older messages are triaged by a fast model that returns which message IDs are relevant to the current request. Triage runs through the task's own brain, not a hardcoded claude CLI call: a claude_code task triages with Haiku via the CLI subprocess, a native task triages through its own provider's fast completer. If a completer can't be built (e.g. a native task with no API key), triage fails open — all older messages are kept rather than dropped
6. Selected older messages + guaranteed recent messages are combined in chronological order
7. On any error: fall back to guaranteed recent messages only

Reply-to messages are force-included regardless of selection. Actions taken (tool use descriptions) are appended after bot responses so Claude can see what it did previously.

Talk context

Talk tasks use a poller-fed local cache (talk_messages table) populated by the talk poller. This avoids redundant API calls. Bot responses are captured in the cache via :result reference IDs.

Cache size is bounded per conversation (talk_cache_max_per_conversation, default 200). The Talk context limit (talk_context_limit, default 100) controls how many messages are fetched from the Talk API.

Email context

Email tasks use DB-based context from completed tasks matching the conversation token.

Configuration

All context settings live in the [conversation] section:

Setting	Default	Purpose
enabled	true	Enable conversation context
lookback_count	25	Messages to consider
skip_selection_threshold	3	Include all if history is this small
selection_model	"fast"	Role alias for relevance matching, resolves to Haiku by default (resolved through the active brain; under native the brain's own fast completer is used)
selection_timeout	30.0	Timeout for LLM selection
use_selection	true	Use LLM selection (false = include all)
always_include_recent	5	Always include this many recent messages
context_truncation	0	Max chars per bot response (0 = no limit)
context_recency_hours	0	Exclude messages older than this (0 = disabled)
context_min_messages	10	Minimum messages to keep when recency filtering
previous_tasks_count	3	Recent unfiltered tasks to inject
talk_context_limit	100	Messages to fetch from Talk API

Background task exclusion

Scheduled and briefing task results are excluded from interactive conversation context. This prevents cron job output from cluttering a user's chat history. The previous_tasks_count setting ensures scheduled/briefing messages aren't completely orphaned when a user replies to them.