Managing Context Window Saturation in Kiro CLI for AWS Workflows

Short summary

Kiro CLI's performance degrades over long sessions not due to model issues but because the context window fills with accumulated tool outputs and conversation history. The fix is to start fresh sessions per distinct task, manually run /compact before auto-compaction triggers, and use .kiro/steering/ files to persist environment details so they don't consume conversation context. Keeping context usage under 60% preserves response quality and saves 30-60 minutes per week of lost productivity.

• •Context window saturation—not model quality—causes Kiro CLI degradation in long sessions
• •Start a new session per task and use /compact manually to control what gets summarized
• •Persist environment config in .kiro/steering/ files so every session starts with relevant context pre-loaded

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