Context Windows and Memory Strategy
Manage long conversations, memory limits, and what to store vs retrieve.
Context windows have limits
Models can only read a finite amount of text at once. Long chats, big PDFs, and huge codebases need chunking, summarization, or retrieval—not one endless paste.
Memory should be intentional
Decide what the app remembers between sessions: preferences, goals, or nothing sensitive. Advanced setups store summaries, not raw chat dumps.
Retrieval beats brute force
Search your notes or docs for relevant chunks, then prompt with only those pieces. This scales better than hoping the model recalls page 38 from yesterday.
Example
Long project chat
Here are 200 messages—continue planning.
Summarize our project in 12 bullets: goals, decisions, open questions. Use that summary only, then propose next week's tasks. Ask if any decision is missing.
Takeaway Summaries compress context and surface gaps before planning continues.
Mini challenge
Context plan
Sample answer: Chunk by section, embed search, retrieve top 5 chunks per question, cite section titles, refresh summary weekly.
Open this mission in the Kiwippy app to mark it complete and track progress.