# Codex Context Guard

> Prevent Codex context-window exhaustion during long-running refactors, repo audits, migrations, debugging sessions, or tasks with large logs, many file reads, or repeated tool output. Use when Codex context is getting high, /compact may be needed, or the user asks for context-efficient workflows.

- **Type:** Skill
- **Install:** `agentstack add skill-stark-ai-de-agent-skills-codex-context-guard`
- **Verified:** Yes — security-reviewed for prompt injection and unsafe behavior
- **Seller:** [stark-ai-de](https://agentstack.voostack.com/s/stark-ai-de)
- **Installs:** 0
- **Category:** [AI & ML](https://agentstack.voostack.com/c/ai-and-ml)
- **Latest version:** 0.1.0
- **License:** Apache-2.0
- **Upstream author:** [stark-ai-de](https://github.com/stark-ai-de)
- **Source:** https://github.com/stark-ai-de/agent-skills/tree/main/incubator/skills/codex-operations/codex-context-guard
- **Website:** https://stark-ai-de.github.io/agent-skills/

## Install

```sh
agentstack add skill-stark-ai-de-agent-skills-codex-context-guard
```

Requires the [AgentStack CLI](https://agentstack.voostack.com/docs/cli). Works with Claude Code, Cursor, and any MCP-compatible agent.

## About

# Codex Context Guard

## Goal

Keep a long Codex session useful by reducing unnecessary context growth, preserving decisions in a compact handoff, and choosing bounded next steps before the thread becomes hard to continue.

## Trigger conditions

- The task has many files, logs, diffs, generated outputs, or repeated tool calls.
- The user asks whether to compact, summarize, or continue in a new thread.
- The agent is about to inspect broad files without a specific need.

## When to use

- Use when context budget, log volume, or file-reading scope is becoming a risk.
- Use before compacting a long session or moving work to another thread.

## When not to use

- Do not use for short, self-contained tasks that have no context pressure.
- Do not use as a substitute for actually validating completed work.

## Inputs to inspect

- Current objective, recent user instructions, changed files, validation output, and unresolved blockers.
- Use `git status --short` and `git diff --stat` before reading large diffs.

## Rules

- Prefer targeted `rg`, `sed`, `git diff --stat`, and small file ranges over whole-file dumps.
- Keep one bounded objective active at a time.
- Store durable state in a handoff artifact when the work will outlive the current context.
- Summarize large outputs instead of pasting them back to the user.
- Tell the user when a compaction or handoff would preserve momentum.

## Workflow

1. Identify the current objective, latest decision, and next blocking question.
2. Replace broad exploration with a targeted search plan.
3. Track changed files, validation commands, and open risks in a compact note.
4. Use references only when they solve the immediate context problem.
5. When context is high, prepare a handoff and recommend `/compact` or a new thread.

## Commands

Useful low-context commands:

```bash
git diff --stat
git status --short
rg -n "pattern" path
sed -n '1,120p' path/to/file
```

## Safety rules

- Do not hide failed validation behind a summary.
- Do not discard unresolved blockers when compacting.
- Do not paste secrets or full large logs into handoff text.

## References

Read only when needed:

- `references/context-budgeting.md` for large task tactics.
- `references/handoff-template.md` when writing a handoff file.

## Scripts

No bundled scripts.

## Output format

Return:

1. Current objective
2. Context risks
3. What to keep in active context
4. What to move to a handoff
5. Recommended next bounded action

## Completion criteria

- The active objective and next action are clear.
- Large context sources have been summarized or moved to a handoff.
- Validation failures and blockers remain visible.

## Failure modes

- If context is already overloaded, stop broad reads and produce a compact state summary.
- If important evidence is missing, name the missing command or file instead of guessing.

## Recovery behavior

If the thread is already overloaded, stop broad exploration, write a compact state summary, name the most recent verified command result, and recommend continuing from the handoff.

## Source & license

This open-source skill is cataloged on AgentStack and links to its original source — we do not rehost the code.

- **Author:** [stark-ai-de](https://github.com/stark-ai-de)
- **Source:** [stark-ai-de/agent-skills](https://github.com/stark-ai-de/agent-skills)
- **License:** Apache-2.0
- **Homepage:** https://stark-ai-de.github.io/agent-skills/

Install and usage instructions live in the source repository linked above.

## Pricing

- **Free** — Free

## Security capabilities

Automated source analysis of v0.1.0 — what this tool can access:

- **Network access:** no
- **Filesystem access:** no
- **Shell / process execution:** no
- **Environment & secrets:** no
- **Dynamic code execution:** no

*"Yes" means the capability is present in the source — more access means more to trust, not that it is unsafe.*


## Versions

- **0.1.0** — security scan: passed — Imported from the upstream source.

## Links

- Listing page: https://agentstack.voostack.com/l/skill-stark-ai-de-agent-skills-codex-context-guard
- Seller: https://agentstack.voostack.com/s/stark-ai-de
- Browse the marketplace: https://agentstack.voostack.com/browse

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Listed on AgentStack — the marketplace for AI agent skills and MCP servers. Every listing is security-reviewed. Creators keep 70%.