Agent Context Isolation Skill for Claude

by vibeeval

Agent Context Isolation

702 tokens

context cost

the whole folder, loaded on every use

files

instructions only

copies elsewhere

how many repositories repackaged it

521

stars on the repo

on the repository, not the skill itself

Install

one command, takes just this skill from the repository

npx skills add https://github.com/vibeeval/vibecosystem --skill agent-context-isolation

What it tells the agent to use

found in the instruction text

Bash runs shell commands — read the instruction before connecting

Task spawns other agents

The instruction itself

9 sections, as written by the author

Agent Context Isolation

Prevent agent output from polluting the main context window.

Rules

1. Use Background Agents with File-Based Coordination

# RIGHT - background agent writes to file, main reads file
Task(subagent_type="...", run_in_background=true, prompt="... Output to: /path/to/file.md")

# WRONG - foreground agent dumps full transcript into main context
Task(subagent_type="...", run_in_background=false)

Background agents with run_in_background=true isolate their context. Have them write results to files in .claude/cache/agents/<agent-type>/.

2. Never Use TaskOutput to Retrieve Results

# WRONG - dumps entire transcript (70k+ tokens) into context
TaskOutput(task_id="<id>")
TaskOutput(task_id="<id>", block=true)

# RIGHT - check expected output files
Bash("ls -la .claude/cache/agents/<agent-type>/")
Bash("bun test")  # verify with tests

TaskOutput returns the full agent transcript. Always use file-based coordination instead.

3. Monitor Agent Progress via System Reminders

# System reminders come automatically:
# "Agent a42a16e progress: 6 new tools used, 88914 new tokens"

# To detect completion:
# - Watch for progress reminders to stop arriving
# - Poll for expected output files: find .claude/cache/agents -name "*.md" -mmin -5
# - Check task output file size growth: wc -c /tmp/claude/.../tasks/<id>.output

Stuck agent detection:

Progress reminders stop arriving
Task output file size stops growing
Expected output file not created after reasonable time

4. Verify with Tests, Not Output

After agent work:

Run the test suite directly: bun test
Report pass/fail counts
Only investigate failures if tests fail

5. File-Based Agent Pipeline Pattern

Research agent → .claude/cache/agents/oracle/output.md
                          ↓
Plan agent → .claude/cache/agents/plan-agent/output.md (reads research)
                          ↓
Validate agent → .claude/cache/agents/validate-agent/output.md (reads plan)
                          ↓
Implement agent → src/module.ts (reads validated plan)

Each agent reads the previous agent's file output, not TaskOutput.

Why This Matters

Agent context isolation preserves the main conversation's context budget. Reading agent outputs via TaskOutput floods context, causing:

Mid-conversation compaction
Lost context about user's original request
Repeated explanations needed

Source

Session where TaskOutput flooded 70k+ tokens into main context
Session 2026-01-01: Successfully used background agents with file-based coordination for SDK Phase 3

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How to use it

Copy the folder

Take vibeeval/agent-context-isolation from the repository into ~/.claude/skills for personal use, or into .claude/skills inside a project.

Check the name does not clash

The agent identifies a skill by the name field in its header. Two skills with the same name cannot sit side by side — one of them will be ignored.