Free up your token limits in Claude and Claude Cowork
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To free up your token limits and prevent your AI agent from dragging a massive history forward, you need to deliberately manage the active context window.
The exact method depends on whether you are running Anthropic's official desktop client or the open-source Composio environment.
Session Reset Quick Reference
| Environment | Action / Command | What It Does |
|---|---|---|
| Official Claude Cowork | Start a New Task | Begins with a clean 200K token window; no carried memory. |
| Official Claude Cowork | Type /compact |
Summarizes current chat history to instantly free up budget. |
| Official Claude Cowork | Type /clear |
Wipes the active session context so you can pivot tasks. |
| Open Claude Cowork (OpenClaw) | Send "reset session" |
Drops the accumulated main thread history for a fresh start. |
Managing Anthropic's Official Claude Cowork
In the official desktop app, Cowork shares a token budget with your regular Claude Pro or Team account. Complex, autonomous file tasks can chew through that limit extremely quickly.
Batch and Refresh: The simplest way to reset your session is to start a completely new task. Cowork does not inherently carry memory between distinct sessions, so a new task gives you a clean slate. Break large projects into distinct, fresh tasks.
The "Memory File" Workaround: To avoid context bloat across these resets, instruct Cowork to maintain a
memory.txtfile in your working folder. It can log its progress, open questions, and findings there. When you start a fresh session, simply tell it to read that file to get instantly caught up without processing a massive log of past actions.Use CLI Commands: Because Cowork shares its underlying architecture with Claude Code, you can use terminal-style commands during an active task. Type
/compactto compress your conversation history into an intelligent summary, or/clearto wipe the session entirely.
Managing Open Claude Cowork (Secure Clawdbot)
If you are running the open-source OpenClaw setup for multi-chat sessions, the system persistently remembers facts and history, which can lead to rapid token exhaustion if not managed.
Direct Command: You can literally send the message
"reset session"or"reset main session"to your Clawdbot. This immediately drops the giant schema and history it was carrying forward and starts replying in a fresh context. Alternatively, starting a brand new DM thread achieves the same result.Isolate Heavy Diagnostics: Never run commands that generate massive outputs (like full directory schemas or log dumps) in your main DM. Push those to an isolated debug session so they don't permanently pollute your main token buffer.
Tweak Compaction Settings: You can adjust your configuration to set a lower
agents.defaults.contextTokenslimit (e.g., 50k–100k). This forces the system to run its automatic history compaction much more aggressively before you hit your API limits.
Would you like me to help you draft an optimal system prompt to ensure your agent accurately updates its memory.txt file before you trigger your next session reset?
