pettielein/fycw

FYCW is a tool that helps manage Claude Code's context window, the limited amount of conversation and file content an AI coding assistant can hold in memory at once. Instead of relying on Claude Code's built in automatic compaction, which the author describes as opaque and hard to control, FYCW gives you a transparent, reviewable process for compressing and restoring your working state. Running fycw init scaffolds a memory folder called .fycw into your project, containing plain markdown files: a compressed restart snapshot, a file for what you are currently working on, a progress log of done and open items, an append-only decision log, a map of the codebase so Claude does not need to re-read it every time, and an archive folder for older context you can pull back later. These files live in your repository and survive Claude Code's clear command. The typical workflow starts by asking Claude to fill in the codebase map, ideally using a subagent so that reading many files does not use up the main context window. As you work, Claude keeps the active work and progress files updated. When context gets close to full, you run a flush command, and Claude reviews the conversation against a stated relevance rule, keeping things like goals, decisions, constraints, and next steps while dropping raw file contents and repetitive reasoning, then writes the result to a single handoff file you can edit yourself. After clearing the context, a load command rebuilds your working state from that file, and a recall command can pull back one specific archived piece of history when needed. Installation is through Python packaging tools such as uv, pipx, or pip, and it requires Python 3.9 or newer plus Claude Code itself. Optional hooks can automatically load the memory bank at the start of a session, though the README notes these hooks depend on Claude Code's current hook format and may need Git Bash on Windows to work reliably. The README states plainly that this tool does not and cannot expand the actual size of the context window from outside Claude Code, it only slows how fast context fills up and makes your state recoverable. The project is released under the MIT license.