Context Management

When working with AI, context matters. Vibe provides fine-grained control over what information the AI sees.

Context Modes

Verbose (Default)

Keep all context from every iteration:

for item in items {
  let result = do "Process {item}"
} verbose  // or just omit - verbose is default

The AI sees the full history of all previous iterations. Good for:

• Building up knowledge across iterations
• Tasks where previous results inform next steps

Forget

Discard all context when the loop exits:

for item in items {
  let analysis = do "Analyze {item}"
  results.push(analysis)
} forget

The analysis variable and its history are discarded. Good for:

• Processing many independent items
• Reducing context size
• Avoiding context overflow on large datasets

Compress

Summarize context using AI:

for article in articles {
  let summary = do "Summarize: {article}"
} compress

At loop exit, the AI summarizes what happened. Good for:

• Long-running loops where you need key insights
• Reducing context while preserving important information

Compress with Custom Prompt

for item in items {
  // processing...
} compress("List the key findings from all iterations")

Compress with Custom Model

model summarizer = {
  name: "claude-haiku-4-5-20251001",
  provider: "anthropic",
  apiKey: env("ANTHROPIC_API_KEY")
}

for item in items {
  // processing...
} compress(summarizer)

Compress with Both

for item in items {
  // processing...
} compress("Extract action items", summarizer)

While Loops

Context modes work with while loops too:

let count = 0
while count < 100 {
  do "Process iteration {count}"
  count = count + 1
} forget  // Don't keep 100 iterations of context

Private Variables

Hide specific variables from AI context:

private let apiSecret = "sk-secret-key"
private let internalState = { counter: 0 }

let publicData = "This is visible to AI"

// AI only sees publicData, not apiSecret or internalState
do "Analyze the available data"

Private in Destructuring

let { private apiKey: text, endpoint: text } = config

// AI sees endpoint but not apiKey
do "Connect to the service"

Context Mode Comparison

Mode	Behavior	Use Case
verbose	Keep everything	Building knowledge
forget	Discard all	Independent processing
compress	AI summary	Long loops, key insights

Practical Examples

Processing Large Datasets

let files = glob("**/*.md")
let insights: text[] = []

for file in files {
  let content = readFile(file)
  let insight = do "Extract key points from: {content}"
  insights.push(insight)
} forget  // Don't keep all file contents in context

// Now summarize the collected insights
let report = do "Create a report from these insights: {insights}"

Iterative Refinement

let draft = do "Write initial draft about {topic}"

for i in 1..3 {
  draft = do "Improve this draft: {draft}"
} verbose  // Keep history so AI knows what changed

Independent Analysis

for url in urls {
  let page = fetch(url)
  let analysis = do "Analyze this page"
  saveResult(url, analysis)
} forget  // Each page is independent

Summarized Processing

for customer in customers {
  let feedback = do "Analyze customer feedback: {customer.comments}"
  let sentiment = do "Rate sentiment 1-10"
  results.push({ customer: customer.id, sentiment })
} compress("What are the overall sentiment trends?")

// Continue with compressed summary in context
let recommendations = do "Based on the analysis, what should we improve?"