Problem

When context usage approaches 100%, the bot enters an infinite loop:

1. User sends message → Context overflow error
2. Bot tries to reply with error message → Context overflow again
3. Repeat indefinitely

Evidence

Bot repeatedly outputs:

Context overflow: prompt too large for the model. Try again with less input or a larger-context model.

Even when trying to tell the user about the overflow, the reply itself triggers another overflow.

Root Cause

agent-runner-execution.js has didResetAfterCompactionFailure flag, but:

1. No proactive compaction before context is full
2. No circuit breaker to stop after N consecutive failures
3. The error message delivery itself requires context

Proposed Fix

P0: Circuit Breaker (immediate)

const MAX_OVERFLOW_RETRIES = 2;
let overflowCount = 0;

// After catching overflow error:
if (++overflowCount > MAX_OVERFLOW_RETRIES) {
  // Return static text WITHOUT calling LLM
  return { text: '⚠️ Context overflow. Use /new to start fresh.', isStatic: true };
}

P1: Proactive Compaction

Trigger compaction when context reaches 75%, not 100%.

P2: Spawn Subagent on Overflow

Auto-spawn a clean subagent to continue the task.

Environment

• OpenClaw 2026.2.1
• Model: claude-opus-4-5 (200k context)