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.

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.

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