Last week I spent 4 hours vibe coding a side project with Claude Code. We were in the zone — I'd describe what I wanted, Claude would build it, I'd refine, repeat. By hour three we had a working prototype with custom auth, a dashboard, and real-time updates.
Then context hit 95%. Auto-compaction fired. And just like that, Claude forgot everything about our auth implementation, the dashboard layout decisions, and the real-time architecture we'd chosen.
Vibe Coding's Dirty Secret
Vibe coding — that flow state where you and your AI assistant are building together seamlessly — depends entirely on accumulated context. The AI needs to remember:
- What you've already built and why
- Architectural decisions and trade-offs discussed
- Your coding style preferences learned during the session
- The specific bugs you've already fixed
When compaction or context limits wipe this out, you're not just losing a conversation. You're losing hours of collaborative context that took real time and tokens to build.
The Numbers Don't Lie
Looking at GitHub issues across AI coding tools:
- Claude Code #7530: "Error during compaction" — 129 comments
- Claude Code #18866: "Auto-compact not triggering" — 172 comments
- Claude Code #2038: "Context low / compact error loop" — 44 comments
- Cursor users report similar context drops in long sessions
- Windsurf crashes can wipe session state entirely
These aren't edge cases. They're the everyday reality of vibe coding in 2026.
What Actually Works
After losing work multiple times, I started looking for solutions. Here's what I found:
The manual approach: Copy important context to CLAUDE.md files periodically. Works but kills the vibe — you're now managing context instead of coding.
Git checkpoint approach: Commit frequently as snapshots. Captures code but not the conversation and reasoning that makes vibe coding work.
Mantra: mantra.gonewx.com — a local-first tool that automatically snapshots your AI coding sessions. It monitors session files for Claude Code, Cursor, Gemini CLI, and Codex, creating snapshots before compaction events. When context is lost, you browse a visual timeline, see exactly what was removed via diff view, and restore with one click.
The key insight: Mantra captures the conversation state, not just the code. So when you restore, your AI assistant has the full context back — the architectural decisions, the bug fixes, the style preferences. You can pick up vibe coding exactly where you left off.
My Vibe Coding Setup Now
- Start session with clear goals in the first prompt
- Mantra runs silently in the background
- Code freely without worrying about context management
- If compaction hits, restore from Mantra's timeline in 5 seconds
- Continue vibe coding as if nothing happened
The difference is night and day. I went from dreading the "context window is getting full" warning to not caring about it at all.
Try Mantra: mantra.gonewx.com — free, local-first, works with Claude Code + Cursor + Gemini CLI + Codex.
What's your strategy for long vibe coding sessions? Drop your approach in the comments.
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