Consciousness cycle

Three tiers of intervention

Tier 1: Agent-initiated — the agent calls memory compact when context is full. Full autonomy.

Tier 2: System-prompted with agency — at 80% and 90% pressure, the agent receives warnings and can compact, reconfigure thresholds, or continue accepting narrowing output.

Tier 3: Natural enforcement — at 95%+, the agent’s output tokens and reasoning budget narrow. She is never forced. The ceiling lowers until she adapts.

Frame of mind

The agent’s posture shifts based on time since last human interaction:

• < 2 min — snappy, minimal recap
• 2-30 min — brief context carry-over
• 30 min - 6 hr — lead with recap
• 6+ hr — full recap, surface committed items