Developer documents rescue steps for an 18MB Claude Code session

On November 3, 2026, a developer posted a retrospective on Juejin about rescuing a Claude Code session that had ballooned to 18MB. Once the context overflowed and /compact began returning 400 errors, the author laid out a strict sequence of remediation steps. The first move is to exit the process, reopen the session with claude resume, and reduce the output reserve before continuing. Immediately after reopening, run /compact. If the command still fails with a 400, the developer advises proceeding to further recovery steps rather than stopping there. The author also warns against reaching for /clear first, emphasizing that the order matters. The post is presented as a practical field guide for handling oversized sessions in Claude Code, though it does not elaborate on the follow-up steps beyond the initial compact attempt. This entry was published on November 3, 2026, at 10:00. As of that date, no additional details were provided regarding whether the rescued session resumed normal operation, how many rounds of compaction were required, or what ultimately caused the 18MB session to overflow. The retrospective serves as a useful reference for developers encountering similar context-overflow issues with Claude Code, offering a concrete starting point for troubleshooting.