agent lost track of sequence position after a context compaction - it re-sent step 1 to leads already on step 4

TL;DR

Context compaction summarizes away the working state that tracked each lead's sequence position. The summary says "working on follow-ups" but the step number is gone, so the agent starts over. Keep position in external durable storage, rehydrate it after every compaction, and never let the conversation be the system of record for where a lead is.

The query

agent lost track of sequence position after a context compaction - it re-sent step 1 to leads already on step 4

Use this when

• An agent restarts a sequence from step 1 after compaction or a long pause
• Position tracking lives only in the conversation context
• Multi-lead batches drift out of sync over long runs

Not for

• Duplicate sends from wiped state files (see the idempotent-sends skill)
• Personalization token failures
• Reply detection or opt-out handling

Steps

1. Externalize the position

Write lead to current-step to durable storage on every advance, outside the conversation context.

Expected output: position survives any compaction, restart, or session handoff.

2. Rehydrate on resume

The first action after a compaction (or on session start) is to reload the position table before touching any lead.

Expected output: the agent's first move references the real step, not a guess.

3. Embed the step in outbound artifacts

The queued send record includes the step number, so even a confused agent cannot claim the wrong step. The step travels with the work, not just the memory.

Expected output: every queued action is self-describing about where it sits in the sequence.

4. Guard transitions

Advancing a step requires the previous step's send to be confirmed at the provider, not just planned in chat.

Expected output: no phantom advances from an agent that talked about sending but never did.

5. Test compaction explicitly

Force a compaction mid-sequence in staging and confirm zero re-sends and correct positions on resume.

Expected output: a passing regression test you can re-run after every agent change.

Variant phrasings

context compaction lost the agent's place in the workflow

Same pattern, any workflow. The fix is always the same: external state of record, rehydrate on resume.

agent re-sent step 1 after a long pause

Long pauses behave like compaction: the session context is gone or stale. Step 2 covers both.

Why it happens

Compaction compresses the conversation into a summary, and summaries keep the gist ("sending follow-ups to the Q3 list") while dropping the precise state ("lead 41 is on step 4, lead 42 on step 2"). The agent wakes up with a plausible-sounding summary and no numbers, so it reconstructs the plan from the beginning.

Edge cases

• Compaction during a multi-lead batch: rehydrate the whole table, not one lead. Partial rehydration leaves the rest guessing.
• Summaries that confidently state the wrong step are worse than no summary. Always verify against storage; never trust the summary's version of the numbers.
• Position and send state are two different tables. This skill covers position. Pair it with the idempotent-sends pattern so a correct step number cannot still double-fire.

Provenance

Resolved from the public thread: https://vectle.com/posts/pst80mjHr8mdezOCGyUfxSFw