# Input & Context

This chapter covers the two menus in the input bar, file references, uploads, and Astrion's context management system—including the correct use of compression mechanisms.

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## 1. `+` Quick Menu (Full Feature List)

Click `+` on the left side of the input bar to open it. Here's the full list of features:

| Feature | Description |
|------|------|
| New conversation | Start a new conversation (equivalent to `new` / `clear`) |
| Upload file | Select a local file to upload into the workspace |
| Send image / Send video | Attach to the message; **disabled when the current model does not support multimodality** (depends on the `multimodal` config) |
| Compress conversation | Manually trigger a one-time context compression |
| Select AgentSkill | Insert a skill reference (equivalent to typing the `//` shortcut) |
| Workflow | Activate a workflow so the agent progresses through a predefined flow |
| Conversation type | Switch between "Agent / Multi-agent" on an empty conversation (immutable after creation) |
| Switch work mode | plan / ask / execute |
| Switch theme | Classic / Light / Dark |
| Conversation review | Open the review for the current conversation |
| Usage statistics | Context and token usage panel |
| Goal mode | Toggle goal mode (Beta, see the "Conversation" chapter) |
| Personal settings | Open Personal Space |
| Live terminal | Open the live terminal panel |
| Switch model | Choose the model used by this conversation |
| Thinking mode | Switch between fast / thinking |
| Permission mode | Switch between readonly / approval / auto / unrestricted |
| Network permission | Restricted / Fully open (also adjustable in plan mode) |
| Execution environment | sandbox / direct (host mode only) |
| Switch workspace / project | Switch the workspace bound to the current conversation |
| Version control | Turn version control on/off for this conversation |
| Git status bar | Show/hide the Git status bar above the input bar |
| Path authorization | View and manage sandbox path authorization |
| Approval panel | View approval records |

## 2. `/` Slash Menu

Type `/` in the input box to trigger the slash shortcut menu, which lets you quickly filter and jump to a category of options by keyword. It currently supports 12 categories: AgentSkills (`//` shortcut), workflow, theme, permission mode, execution environment, model, thinking mode, network permission, work mode, workspace, conversation type, etc.

Typical usage: `/skill` to pick a skill, `/workflow` to pick a workflow, `/model` to switch models—faster than browsing the `+` menu.

## 3. `@` File References

Type `@` to bring up the file menu and insert a reference to a file/directory from the workspace. Referenced files are provided to the agent as context, which is ideal for "discuss this file" scenarios. Image file references are handled according to multimodality capabilities.

## 4. Context Compression: Shallow vs. Deep

Every long conversation eventually hits the model's context limit. Astrion provides two levels of automatic compression plus manual compression:

### Shallow compression (off by default)

- Mechanism: replaces earlier **tool call results with placeholders** (keeping the most recent N tool results uncompressed), freeing up space immediately.
- Trigger: fires by default at 80k accumulated tokens (configurable), with additional fine-tuning parameters such as "every N tool calls", "at most N replacements per round", and "keep tool results from the last N user inputs uncompressed".
- ⚠️ **Important trade-off: shallow compression modifies the history message content, which breaks the provider-side context cache (prompt cache)**—the requests in the rounds after compression will miss the cache, showing up as slower responses and higher costs. This is why it is off by default.

### Deep compression (on by default, recommended)

- Mechanism: performs a **deep summarization** of the whole history; the old context is wholly replaced by a condensed summary so the conversation continues lightweight.
- Output form is configurable (`deep_compress_form`): `file`—the summary is written to a file, read back at any time when needed (default); `inject`—the full summary is injected directly into the context.
- Trigger: 150k tokens by default.

### The 80% rule for custom thresholds (follow it)

If you customize the compression trigger threshold, **set it to at least 80% of the model's actual usable context**.

For example, if a model's actual context is 128k, the trigger threshold should not be lower than roughly 102k. Setting the threshold too low triggers compression frequently: it wastes tokens, repeatedly breaks the context cache, and makes the AI lose detail memory prematurely. Getting the conversation to "fill the window before compressing" is the most cost-effective use.

> The model's actual context window is determined by the `context_window` of that model in `custom_models.json`; note the difference between "nominal context" and "actual usable context" (some APIs reserve space for output).

### Manual compression

`+` menu → "Compress conversation" can be triggered manually at any time. It's useful when you anticipate starting a new topic and want to proactively free up space.

## 5. Context Injection Features

These features affect the context automatically carried in every round of conversation; they are all configured in Personal Space:

- **Recent conversation hints** (off by default): when enabled, a new conversation automatically injects a summary of the most recent N historical conversations into the context (N is configurable, 1–30, default 10). Good for continuous workflows like "I've been working on the same project recently"; combine it with the "conversation continuity" personalization setting.
- **AGENTS.md auto-injection** (off by default): when enabled, the AGENTS.md in the project root is automatically injected into the context, so the AI always works with the project conventions.
- **Project memory index injection**: the AI's project memory index is injected at most 20 entries by default (starting at 5, settable to unlimited). Memory content is actively accumulated by the AI during work.
- **Skill hints** (off by default): dynamically suggests potentially relevant skills based on the current task.

## 6. Uploads & Multimodality

- **Upload file**: goes into the workspace; the AI can read and process it later;
- **Send image/video**: goes directly into the multimodal context with the message;
- Image compression tiers (Personal Space): `original / 1080p / 720p / 540p`, default original. When sending many large images in a long conversation, consider a lower tier to save context.