docs: add warning about summary model context length requirement (#7879)

The summary model used for context compaction must have a context window
at least as large as the main agent model. If it's smaller, the
summarization API call fails and middle turns are dropped without a
summary, silently losing conversation context.

Promoted the existing note in configuration.md to a visible warning
admonition, and added a matching warning in the developer guide's
context compression page.
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Teknium 2026-04-11 11:13:48 -07:00 committed by GitHub
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@ -143,6 +143,10 @@ to find the parent assistant message, keeping groups intact.
### Phase 3: Generate Structured Summary
:::warning Summary model context length
The summary model must have a context window **at least as large** as the main agent model's. The entire middle section is sent to the summary model in a single `call_llm(task="compression")` call. If the summary model's context is smaller, the API returns a context-length error — `_generate_summary()` catches it, logs a warning, and returns `None`. The compressor then drops the middle turns **without a summary**, silently losing conversation context. This is the most common cause of degraded compaction quality.
:::
The middle turns are summarized using the auxiliary LLM with a structured
template: