Lesson 1051 of 2116
Agent Context Window Management: Long-Running Agents
Agents that run for hours hit context limits. Managing context across long-running agents requires explicit design.
Lesson map
What this lesson covers
Learning path
The main moves in order
- 1The premise
- 2context management
- 3long-running agents
- 4summarization
Concept cluster
Terms to connect while reading
Section 1
The premise
Long-running agents need context management; ignoring it produces failures or runaway costs.
What AI does well here
- Design summarization checkpoints that compress context as it grows
- Maintain key state in structured form (not pure prose) for reliability
- Use external storage for information that doesn't need to be in active context
- Test long-running behavior (most agents are demoed for 5 minutes, deployed for hours)
What AI cannot do
- Stuff infinite context into the model
- Substitute long context for actual state management
- Eliminate the cost growth of long-running agents
Key terms in this lesson
End-of-lesson quiz
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