Why I built a proactive context curator instead of a compactor — and what I got wrong for three months [P]

Two ways to handle a context window that's filling up. Reactive: wait until it's full, then compact everything. Proactive: be picky about what gets added every turn so noise never piles up in the first place. Most coding agents take the reactive path. I spent months building the proactive one, and I want to be honest about what actually worked and what didn't. What held up A decision your agent made on turn 3 is worth