You are building developer-productivity tools using the Claude Agent SDK.

Option A moves durable, high-value discoveries outside the transient conversation history. The scratchpad should record module responsibilities, important symbols, architectural relationships, file paths, unresolved questions, and decisions supported by the code. The agent can reread this compact file after context compaction or before answering a later architectural question. Anthropic’s large-codebase guidance recommends saving plans and important state to files because those artifacts survive when long conversations are compacted. Its context-management guidance also warns that accumulated file contents and command output can reduce performance during extended sessions.

Option B clears valuable information on a fixed schedule regardless of whether the current task is complete. Option C delays the problem but does not prevent irrelevant history from crowding out important details. Option D performs expensive summarization before the agent knows which files are relevant and may remove implementation details needed later. A focused scratchpad supports just-in-time restoration: the agent keeps the active context lean while retaining an auditable architectural map that can be updated as exploration progresses.

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