Problem
Each session starts with a full workspace snapshot including:
- Git status, recent commits, branch info
- Full repo metadata (file counts, structure)
- Conversation summary from prior sessions
- Memory index contents
For large monorepos like mystira-workspace (.NET + TS + Rust, 76+ projects), this snapshot is expensive.
Proposed Solutions
- Scoped metadata — retort should support a
.retort/context-scope.yaml that defines which parts of the repo are relevant to the current work stream. A backend developer doesn't need frontend file counts.
- Compressed repo summary — instead of raw git status + file listings, generate a semantic summary ("3 modified files in apps/app, on branch dev, last commit: feat X").
- Session hooks for context pruning — retort's SessionStart hook could strip irrelevant metadata before it enters the context window.
Problem
Each session starts with a full workspace snapshot including:
For large monorepos like mystira-workspace (.NET + TS + Rust, 76+ projects), this snapshot is expensive.
Proposed Solutions
.retort/context-scope.yamlthat defines which parts of the repo are relevant to the current work stream. A backend developer doesn't need frontend file counts.