Technique 05 / 07
Tool verbose reduction
Stop logs and search results from consuming the context window without making the underlying output unrecoverable.
Interactive model
See the context change.
See what the agent receives after a command emits a very large result.
Preview now, inspect on demand
- 01
Representative output preview
- 02
Explicit omitted-line count
- 03
Path to complete output
- 04
Grep for the failing assertion
- 05
Read only the matching range
Conceptual demonstration. Counts illustrate the flow, not measured production savings.
How it works
Less context. Same thread of work.
A successful command can produce thousands of lines that are irrelevant to the next decision. DistilCode applies configurable line and byte ceilings to tool results. Output that fits passes through unchanged; oversized output is represented by a directional preview and an explicit truncation notice.
The full result is written to a temporary truncation file, and the preview tells the agent to use Grep or a ranged Read rather than ingest it all. If task delegation is available, the hint recommends giving that inspection to an explore agent. Temporary files are cleaned up after a retention period.
In practice
The operating loop
- 01
Bound the response
Default limits cap tool output by both line count and UTF-8 byte size.
- 02
Keep it recoverable
The complete output is saved and its path accompanies the preview.
- 03
Inspect with intent
Search and offset/limit reads retrieve only the section needed for the current decision.