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Context Management Mostly Bought Agents More Time
Across 176 matched settings, overflow prevention—not recoverable elision—delivered most of the context-management gain.
Summary
Across 176 matched settings, overflow prevention—not recoverable elision—delivered most of the context-management gain.
A fixed execution loop let researchers vary planning, action space and context management separately across four models on SWE-Bench Verified and Terminal-Bench 2.1. Rule-based elision followed by model summarization produced the strongest overall efficiency, while machinery for recovering elided content saw little use and no accuracy gain. Planning shifted from an accuracy scaffold for weaker models to a cost saver for stronger ones. Predefined tools helped models with weaker shell skills; bash-capable models worked more cheaply with bash alone. The 176-setting study argues that harness value depends on model and budget, not one universal stack.
Why it matters
Across 176 matched settings, overflow prevention—not recoverable elision—delivered most of the context-management gain.
Limits and context
- The 176-setting study argues that harness value depends on model and budget, not one universal stack.
Key claims
Across 176 matched settings, overflow prevention—not recoverable elision—delivered most of the context-management gain.
Qualification: The 176-setting study argues that harness value depends on model and budget, not one universal stack.
Evidence: source-2026-09-18-003
Sources
- arXiv preprint 2609.20804arXiv · primary research
Corrections
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