Context Overflow — Prompt Too Large for Model
Long conversations cause 'context overflow' errors. How to fix and prevent it.
⚠️ The Problem
During a long conversation, the bot fails with:
Context overflow: prompt too large for the model. Try again with less input or a larger-context model.This often triggers rate limit errors immediately after.
🔍 Why This Happens
Every AI model has a maximum context window (how much text it can process at once). When your conversation history plus the new message exceeds this limit, the request fails.
Common triggers:
- Very long conversations without starting fresh
- Pasting large documents or code
- Tools returning huge outputs (like browser page content)
✅ The Fix
Start a fresh session to clear context:
/newSend this as a standalone message in the same chat.
To prevent future overflows, enable compaction:
openclaw config set agents.defaults.compaction.mode safeguardFor regular cleanups, periodically send /new in long-running conversations.
If you need to work with large documents, consider:
- Breaking them into smaller chunks
- Using a model with larger context (like Claude with 200k tokens)
- Summarizing previous conversation before continuing
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📋 Quick Commands
| Command | Description |
|---|---|
| /new | Start fresh session (in chat) |
| /reset | Alternative to /new |
| openclaw config set agents.defaults.compaction.mode safeguard | Enable auto-compaction |
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