Context pressure

Souveraine estimates context use across every stored block and the configured model limit. Text, tool calls, tool results, reasoning and image markers all contribute through one shared countable representation. It warns above 80%, 90% and 95%. Above 95%, the maximum output budget narrows so input and output can still fit.

The measurement remains an estimate rather than the provider’s exact token accounting, especially where a provider prices multimodal input differently.

Compaction boundary

The warnings do not choose a compaction strategy. The agent can invoke one of five paths. A hard subconscious overflow is the exception: after the provider has refused the pass, an automatic recovery may compact its context because it can no longer choose through inference.

Research question

The project uses spatial language such as “the room narrows” in agent-facing messages. Whether that language improves self-maintenance or corresponds to any subjective experience has not been evaluated.