> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.cogniagent.ai/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Long conversations > What happens when a task runs for hours — how much your AI coworker can hold in mind, and what to do when it fills up. There's a limit to how much your coworker can hold in mind at once. On a long task you'll meet it, and it's easy to handle. ## The gauge Next to the message box is a small ring showing how full things are getting. It's green while there's plenty of room, turns amber as it fills, and red when it's nearly full. Watching it isn't a chore — it just tells you when one of the options below is worth taking. The context gauge shown green, amber and red as the conversation fills up ## What to do when it fills Three choices, in roughly the order you should consider them. Click the ring, or type `/compact`. Your coworker summarises everything so far and carries on with the summary instead of the full history. **Best when** the task isn't finished and the earlier detail no longer matters — a long research session where you've got what you need from the first twenty pages. **The trade:** it keeps the conclusions and loses the fine detail. If you might need something specific from earlier, save it to a file first. Type `/new`. A fresh task, nothing carried over from the conversation. **Best when** you've moved on to a genuinely different job. Most "the conversation got too long" situations are actually two jobs in one task. Your coworker still has its instructions, skills and [memory](/cowork/control/memory) — you lose the conversation, not the coworker. If the task is nearly done, just finish it. The gauge is a warning, not a wall. ## Avoiding the problem **Put things in files, not in the chat.** A file stays available at full detail regardless of how long the conversation gets. Pasting a large export into a message is the fastest way to fill the space up. **One job per task.** The most common cause of a very long conversation is three unrelated jobs sharing one. **Ask for the summary before you need it.** On a long research task, "summarise what you've found so far into a file" gives you something durable. A long conversation isn't a failure. Some jobs genuinely take hours. Compact when the gauge asks and carry on. ## What carries between tasks This trips people up, so plainly: | | Carries to a new task? | | ------------------------------------ | --------------------------------- | | The conversation | No | | Files in the task | No — they're private to that task | | Its instructions and personality | Yes | | Its skills | Yes | | Its [memory](/cowork/control/memory) | Yes | | Files saved to the coworker itself | Yes | So a new task doesn't mean starting from nothing. Your coworker still knows who you are and how you like things — it just doesn't have this particular conversation. ## Common questions No. The gauge shows you well before it matters, and compacting is a deliberate act — either yours or one it tells you about. No. Files are untouched. Only the conversation is summarised. Yes. A very long-running task may compact several times. Ask your coworker to save it to a file, or tell it to remember — see [What a coworker remembers](/cowork/control/memory). ## Next steps What survives everything. One job per task. Where to put the detail. /compact and /new.