preset-picker · diff
git:20260923.a53b7f2 to git:20260930.25a6ba3
14 added, 9 removed. Audit A to A.
---
name: preset-picker
- description: Show which preset is running and switch between them - `off`, `cache`, `house` (the recommended default for "carry less"), `codesmart`, `housellm`. Use when the user asks which preset is set, to change what context-guru trims, to carry less context, or says /plugin configure is awkward for this.
+ description: Show which preset is running and switch between them - `off`, `cache`, `conservative` (the recommended default for "carry less"), `medium`, `high`, `xhigh`. Use when the user asks which preset is set, to change what context-guru trims, to carry less context, or says /plugin configure is awkward for this.
allowed-tools: Bash(${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/scripts/settings.py)
---
# Pick a preset
`/plugin configure` can set this too, but it is a blank options form: five fields, no
- explanation, no sense of what `house` actually does before you pick it. This skill is that same
+ explanation, no sense of what `conservative` actually does before you pick it. This skill is that same
write — `settings.py preset` — made nameable and explainable, same reason
[`/context-guru:cache-strategy-picker`](../cache-strategy-picker/SKILL.md) exists for
`cache_strategy` rather than leaving it to the generic form too.
**You do not write the settings file, and you do not compose its contents.** `settings.py preset`
is the only thing that knows where the configured options actually live and how to update them
without disturbing anything else in that file.
## 1. Report what is in effect
```bash
"${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/scripts/settings.py" preset show
```
`file=(none)` means nothing has been configured yet and the plugin default (`off`) applies — not
a fault, just unset.
## 2. Offer the choices, one line each
```bash
"${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/scripts/settings.py" preset list
```
| Name | ELI5 |
|---|---|
| `off` | nothing runs, requests go through untouched |
| `cache` | keeps the cache warm, drops nothing |
- | `house` | trims obvious waste — the safe first step into "carry less" |
- | `codesmart` | `house` plus a cheap model that keeps only what looks relevant |
- | `housellm` | the deepest cut — a compaction model rewrites the conversation, and spends on its own |
+ | `conservative` | trims obvious waste — the safe first step into "carry less" |
+ | `medium` | `conservative` plus a cheap model that keeps only what looks relevant in recent tool output |
+ | `high` | `medium` plus a cache-aware summarizer that compacts older turns near cache expiry |
+ | `xhigh` | `high` plus a deep-adjudication sweep over turns whose cache has already gone cold — the deepest cut |
- Recommend `house` to someone who wants to carry less context but hasn't said they want an LLM
- pass: it is deterministic, so nothing about the request path depends on a model call succeeding.
+ Recommend `conservative` to someone who wants to carry less context but hasn't said they want an
+ LLM pass: it is deterministic, so nothing about the request path depends on a model call
+ succeeding. `medium`, `high` and `xhigh` are an escalating ladder — each is a strict superset of
+ the one below it — so "somewhere in between" usually means one tier up from wherever they are now,
+ not a custom mix.
## 3. Switch
```bash
"${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/scripts/settings.py" preset set --name <name>
```
Writes into whichever settings file already holds this plugin's configured options, so it lands
where the running proxy will actually read it. If nothing is configured yet, it inherits whatever
scope THIS project's *routing* already uses (recorded when `/context-guru:install` ran, read back
via the same `resolve_install_scope()` the statusline skill uses) — a project routed at project
scope gets its preset there too, one routed at user scope gets it there, with no extra flag either
way. Only a project with no routing at all falls back to project-local, since there is nothing yet
to inherit. Pass `--user-scope` to deliberately diverge from that — a preset the user wants on
every project even though routing itself is project-scoped.
## 4. A restart is required
Like a cache-strategy change, this takes effect at the **next proxy start**, not this session.
Say so plainly rather than implying it applies immediately — `/context-guru:status` after a
restart is the way to confirm it stuck.
## Do not
- Do not invent a preset name. `settings.py preset list` is the authoritative set; anything else
exits 2 with `reason=unknown_preset`.
- - Do not push someone toward `housellm` by default. It is the only preset here that makes its own
- model calls and spends on its own; offer it, don't default to it.
+ - Do not push someone toward `high` or `xhigh` by default. `medium` is already the first tier that
+ makes its own model calls and spends on its own; `high`/`xhigh` add a compaction-model summarizer
+ on top. Offer them, don't default to them.