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A comment on Claude's Cycles: Claude Opus 4.6 solves a problem posed by Don Knuth [pdf]. Parent comment

Re:Claude's Cycles: Claude Opus 4.6 solves a problem posed b... by kqr on Wednesday March 04, 2026 @03:51AM (#47244814)
What prompt do you use for the letter-to-self? I've been trying that technique myself to manually reset context without losing the important parts (e.g. when it has barked up the wrong tree and I'm sensing that misstep might influence its current generation in a pathological way), but I've not had much success.
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Re:Claude's Cycles: Claude Opus 4.6 solves a problem posed b... by kami23 on Wednesday March 04, 2026 @06:04PM (#47255264)
If the session was something where it struggled and had to do multiple attempts I have it write about 'gotchas' or anything it had to attempt multiple times.

The letters are usually more detailed than what I see in the compacted prompt.

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Re:Claude's Cycles: Claude Opus 4.6 solves a problem posed b... by SatvikBeri on Wednesday March 04, 2026 @06:17PM (#47255367)
It tends to be pretty manual. I mention the goal of the next session, the current stage of progress, the tests for the next steps, and any skills I want it to load next time.

Having a specific goal seems to make a big difference vs. asking it to summarize the session.

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