The conversation loop hardcodes max_compression_attempts = 3. Sessions
that legitimately need more rounds are stranded: on a restart history
reload, incompressible tool schemas can keep the per-request estimate
above the compressor threshold even though the message floor compresses
correctly, so three rounds cannot clear it and the turn dies with
"Context length exceeded: max compression attempts (3) reached" — the
same failure class as #62605, where the rough estimate similarly leaves
3 retries short.
Make the cap a config key, compression.max_attempts:
- default 3 = identical to today, so an unset key is behavior-neutral;
- parsed and validated in agent_init alongside the other compression.*
keys (>= 1, hard-capped at 10, non-integer values fall back to 3),
attached as agent.max_compression_attempts;
- the loop reads it via getattr(agent, "max_compression_attempts", 3),
so objects without the attribute keep the prior behavior;
- documented in the DEFAULT_CONFIG compression block.
Tests pin the parse/validate/attach seam: default preserved, custom
value honored, floor and ceiling enforced, garbage tolerated, and the
loop-side getattr degradation.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Kennedy Umege
644b397fb2