Context Compression

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13 papers in the last four weeks, up 160% on the four weeks before. 0.1% of all new papers.

Jul 13Week of Sep 28

Latest papers 57

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ReFold: Training-Free Reversible Inter-Turn Context Folding for Long-Horizon Agents
Oct 6, 2026Yupeng Su, Jiayi Tian, Zheng Zhang +1LLM Inference Efficiency Long-Context Language Model Inference
University of California, Santa Barbara · Intel
FOCUS: Training-Free Decision-Preserving Context Compression for LLM Agents
Sep 29, 2026Shantanu Dixit, Anson Bastos, Xuchao Zhang +2Long-Horizon LLM Agents LLM Context Management
M365 Research, Microsoft
CADOC: Cache-Aware Dynamic Object Context for Long-Horizon Agents
Sep 29, 2026Junjie Yao, Zhangchen Zhou, Zhi-Qin John XuCost-Aware Inference Prefix Caching
School of Mathematical Sciences, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China. · Institute of Natural Sciences, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China.
Adapting Context Compression for Long-Horizon Agents with Counterfactual Continuations
Sep 29, 2026Guanghui Min, Liang Wu, Mingjia Shi +4Counterfactual Evaluation LLM Agent Evaluation
University of Virginia · Nokia
KV-streams for Efficient Compaction in Agentic Reinforcement Learning
Sep 28, 2026Emiliano Penaloza, Dane Malenfant, Dheeraj Vattikonda +15Agentic RL KV-Cache Management
Mila · Microsoft · Université de Montréal +9
Scalable In-Context Reinforcement Learning with Recurrent Algorithm Distillation
Sep 28, 2026Yuanqing Ma, Zhenrui Zheng, Chenjun XiaoTransformer In-Context RL
The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen
Instance-Adaptive Prompts as Context for Time-Series Foundation Models
Sep 28, 2026Zehao Xiao, Shifeng Xie, Lei Zan +5Time Series Forecasting Prompt Tuning
Huawei Noah’s Ark Lab, Paris, France · LIPADE, Universit´e Paris Cit´e, Paris, France · Huawei Noah’s Ark Lab, Shenzhen, China
When Can Agents Forget Their Reasoning? ICLR for Long-Horizon Agent Context Compression
Sep 24, 2026Mingxuan Wang, Fei Luo, Bo Wang +6Long-Context Modeling Long-Horizon LLM Agents
TierFlow Team · Gaoling School of Artificial Intelligence, Renmin University of China · Tsinghua University
MORSE: Multi-Context Ordering via Reverse Scoring for Evidence-Preserving Compression
Sep 23, 2026Ke Wan, Yifan Wang, Liheng Lai +1Retrieval-Augmented Generation Evidence Retrieval
Department of Computer Science University of Virginia Charlottesville, VA, USA · AfterQuery
CliffCompaction: Cost-Efficient Compaction for Long-Horizon Coding Agents
Sep 22, 2026Trang Nguyen, Eulrang Cho, Bingqing Chen +1Continual Learning for LLM Agents Test-Time Scaling
Carnegie Mellon University · Bosch Center for AI
Compressing Long Context into Answer-Aligned Memory Embeddings for LLM Inference
Sep 22, 2026Md Mostafizer Rahman, Md Faizul Ibne Amin, Md Shahajada Mia +2LLM Inference Efficiency Long-Context Language Model Inference
Lucy Family Institute for Data & Society, University of Notre Dame, IN, USA · The University of Aizu, Aizuwakamatsu, Japan · Department of Applied and Computational Mathematics and Statistics, University of Notre Dame, IN, USA
Correct Now, Insufficient Later: Auditing Update Sufficiency in Context Compression
Sep 17, 2026Guangzhe ZhangAgent Memory Counterfactual Evaluation
Independent AI Researcher
FlexComp: One Model for Every Ratio in Context Compression
Sep 11, 2026Kaiyan Zhao, Zhongtao Miao, Akiko Aizawa +1LLM Inference Acceleration Context Compression
The University of Tokyo · National Institute of Informatics
AttnCompress: Dynamic Attention-Guided Trajectory Compression for Software Engineering Agents
Sep 8, 2026Zhengran Zeng, Yixin Li, Rui Xie +2Software Engineering Agents Automated Software Engineering
Peking University, China
LatentPress: Context Compression Beyond Text and Vision
Sep 1, 2026Zhengze Zhou, Hejian SangLLM Inference Acceleration LLM Context Management
1Cornell University · 2Iowa State University
MemoryWalker: Stop Training Agents on Contexts They Never Saw
Sep 1, 2026Zinco J, Xunjie Zhu, Shen Huang +3Tool-Augmented Language Model Agents Consistency Distillation
Token Foundry, Alibaba Group
SkillZip Pro: Execution-Aware Dynamic Compression of Progressively Loaded Skills for Self-Evolving Agents
Aug 31, 2026Xiaofan Bai, Chao Liu, Hongqiang Lin +5Context Compression
1Alibaba Group · 2Zhejiang University · †Project leader
Balanced Adaptive Prototype Selection for Scalable TabPFN Inference on Large-Scale Tabular Data
Aug 13, 2026Mahboobe Jadid, Melika Rezaye Garkani, Ali MousaviTabular Foundation Models Tabular ICL
Department of Computer Engineering Ne. C., Islamic Azad University Neyshabur, Iran
The Sleeping Agent: What Gist-Based Context Compression Loses and Why
Aug 12, 2026Nicholas E. KyrkewoodTemporal Reasoning in Language Models Language Modeling
Independent Researcher
Toward Reliable Context Compression for Long-Horizon Agents: An Empirical Study of Execution Instability
Aug 6, 2026Guanghui Min, Liang Wu, Mayank Darbari +2AI Agent Evaluation Long-Horizon LLM Agents
Department of Computer Science, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, USA · Nokia, Sunnyvale, CA, USA
Context Compaction Theory
Aug 2, 2026Hayder Tirmazi, Sam Markelon, Allison Bishop +1LLM Context Management Context Compression
AllSpice Inc. · Boston University · Proof Trading +2
Lost in Compaction: Evaluating Side-Constraint Loss under Context Compaction
Jul 31, 2026Zhiqi Wang, Yichi Zhang, Dongwon Lee +1Persistent Memory for Language Models Instruction Following
The Pennsylvania State University
Measuring Alignment With Reader Highlights Net of Position and Length
Jul 30, 2026Kazuki Nakayashiki, Keisuke WatanabeLLM Evaluation Long-Context Language Model Evaluation
Glasp Inc.
Addressable Recall Compaction for Long Context-Window Control in AI Agents
Jul 27, 2026Thang Dang, Yuma Ichikawa, Sakina Fatima +1Long-Horizon LLM Agents LLM Context Management
Fujitsu Research of America · Fujitsu Limited Japan · RIKEN Center for AIP
Agentic Context Management: Solving Agent Memory and Cost by Treating Them as Lifecycle and Architecture Problems
Jul 23, 2026Gaurav DadhichLong-Term Conversational Memory LLM Context Management
Maximem
Twin Agent: Context Residual Compression for Privilege Separated Agents
Jul 21, 2026Zhanhao Hu, Dennis Jacob, Xiao Huang +3AI Agent Security LLM Agent Security
University of California, Berkeley · University of Chicago · University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
PReM: Learning What to Preserve and When to Refresh for Context Compression
Jul 15, 2026Bohan Yu, Lei Shen, Chenxi Zhou +5Memory-Augmented Language Models Long-Context Language Model Inference
Alibaba Group
Token Reduction Is Not Cost Reduction
Jul 13, 2026Sarel Weinberger, Amir HozezAI Coding Agents Cost-Aware Inference
PointFive
CompactionRL: Reinforcement Learning with Context Compaction for Long-Horizon Agents
Jul 6, 2026Yujiang Li, Zhenyu Hou, Yi Jing +2Software Engineering Agents Long-Horizon LLM Agents
Work done while YL, ZH, and YJ interned at Z.AI. · Tsinghua University
ACE: Pluggable Adaptive Context Elasticizer across Agents
Jun 30, 2026Ning Liao, Zihao Long, Xiaoxing Wang +6Long-Horizon LLM Agents LLM Context Management
Meituan · Shanghai Jiao Tong University
Database Context Compression for Text-to-SQL on Real-World Large Databases
Jun 26, 2026Jingwen Liu, Weibin Liao, Xin Gao +2Text-to-SQL Relational Databases
1National Engineering Research Center of Software Engineering, Peking University, Beijing, China · School of Computer Science, Peking University, Beijing, China · 3Key Laboratory of High Confidence Software Technologies, Ministry of Education, Beijing, China +1
Compression and Retrieval: Implicit Memory Retrieval for Video World Models
Jun 22, 2026Zhan Peng, Jie Ma, Huiqiang Sun +6Long-Horizon Video Generation Memory-Augmented Video Generation
Huazhong University of Science and Technology, China · HUJING Digital Media & Entertainment Group, China · Sun Yat-sen University, China
Fixed RAG Compression Collapses Measured Reader Scaling
Jun 20, 2026Sugam Panthi, Rabab AbdelfattahRetrieval-Augmented Generation LLM Evaluation
The University of Southern Mississippi
TokenPilot: Cache-Efficient Context Management for LLM Agents
Jun 15, 2026Buqiang Xu, Zirui Xue, Dianmou Chen +12LLM Agent Memory KV-Cache Management
1Zhejiang University · University of Electronic Science and Technology of China · 3Xi’an University of Electronic Science and Technology +1
Context Compression Is Not One Thing: Readable Symbolic Re-expression vs. Coherent Summary at Matched Budget
Jun 12, 2026Sisong Bei, Mikhail L. Arbuzov, Ziwei Dong +2Multi-Hop QA Context Compression
Independent Researcher · Palo Alto Networks
Less Context, Better Agents: Efficient Context Engineering for Long-Horizon Tool-Using LLM Agents
Jun 8, 2026Abhilasha Lodha, Mahsa Pahlavikhah Varnosfaderani, Abir Chakraborty +1LLM Inference Efficiency Tool-Augmented Language Model Agents
Microsoft
End-to-End Context Compression at Scale
Jun 8, 2026Ang Li, Sean McLeish, Haozhe Chen +12LLM Compression Long-Context Language Model Inference
New York University · University of Maryland · Princeton University +3
Decision-Aware Memory Cards: Counterfactual-Inspired Context Selection and Compression for Tool-Using LLM Agents
Jun 6, 2026Xinyu Guan, Qianyang Zhao, Yuming DengLLM Agent Memory LLM Context Management
Alibaba Group, China
Signal-Driven Observation for Long-Horizon Web Agents
Jun 4, 2026Shubham Gaur, Ian LaneActive Perception Long-Horizon LLM Agents
Department of Computer Science and Engineering, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA, USA.
From Long News to Accurate Forecast: Importance-Aware Fusion and PRM-Guided Reflection for Time Series Forecasting
Jun 2, 2026Mingyang Liu, Qingcan Kang, Yuke Wang +6Process Reward Models Financial Forecasting
Department of Computer Science, City University of Hong Kong · Work done as an intern in Huawei Noah’s Ark Lab. · Huawei Noah’s Ark Lab
Beyond Recall: Behavioral Specification as an Interpretive Layer for AI Personalization
May 27, 2026Aarik GulayaLLM Personalization AI Alignment
Base Layer
Thinking as Compression: Your Reasoning Model is Secretly a Context Compressor
May 27, 2026Guoxin Ma, Yibing Liu, Chengzhengxu Li +7LLM Compression Long-Context Inference
Baidu Inc., Beijing, China · Xi’an Jiaotong University · City University of Hong Kong +1
Neural Router: Semantic Content Matching for Agentic AI
May 25, 2026Lauri Lovén, Abhishek Kumar, Alexander Engelhardt +5Semantic Textual Similarity LLM Inference Acceleration
Future Computing Group, University of Oulu, Finland · University of Jyväskylä, Finland · Department of Computer Science, University of Helsinki, Finland +1
SemanticZip: A Pilot Framework for Lossy Text Compression with LLMs as Semantic Decompressors
May 23, 2026Natalia Trukhina, Vadim VashkelisContext Compression
Embedded Intelligence Lab (EMILAB)
On Problems of Implicit Context Compression for Software Engineering Agents
May 11, 2026Kirill Gelvan, Igor Slinko, Felix Steinbauer +3Software Engineering Agents Long-Horizon LLM Agents
JetBrains Research · Technical University of Munich, Germany
Beyond Position Bias: Shifting Context Compression from Position-Driven to Semantic-Driven
May 10, 2026Jiwei Tang, Zhijing Huang, Xinyu Zhang +5LLM Compression Position Bias
Sun Yat-sen University · Hong Kong Polytechnic University · Beijing Normal–Hong Kong Baptist University
GRC: Unifying Reasoning-Driven Generation, Retrieval and Compression
May 9, 2026Zhongtao Miao, Qiyu Wu, Yoshimasa TsuruokaRetrieval-Augmented Generation Memory-Augmented Language Models
The University of Tokyo · Tsuruoka Lab. · Independent Researcher
MiA-Signature: Approximating Global Activation for Long-Context Understanding
May 7, 2026Yuqing Li, Jiangnan Li, Mo Yu +3Long-Context Modeling Context Compression
Institute of Information Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences · School of Cyber Security, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences · Pattern Recognition Center, WeChat AI, Tencent +1
A11y-Compressor: A Framework for Enhancing the Efficiency of GUI Agent Observations through Visual Context Reconstruction and Redundancy Reduction
May 1, 2026Michito Takeshita, Takuro Kawada, Takumi Ohashi +2GUI Agents Context Compression
Hosei University, Tokyo, Japan
Kwai Summary Attention Technical Report
Apr 27, 2026Chenglong Chu, Guorui Zhou, Guowang Zhang +35Self-Attention KV Caching
Kuaishou
ResRank: Unifying Retrieval and Listwise Reranking via End-to-End Joint Training with Residual Passage Compression
Apr 24, 2026Xiaojie Ke, Shuai Zhang, Liansheng Sun +6Learning to Rank LLM Reranking
Qwen Applications Business Group of Alibaba
A Self-Evolving Framework for Efficient Terminal Agents via Observational Context Compression
Apr 21, 2026Jincheng Ren, Siwei Wu, Yizhi Li +8Terminal Agents Long-Horizon Agent Tasks
University of Manchester · 2MAP · 4HKUST(GZ) +2
EnComp: Lightweight Encoder-Only Context Compression for Retrieval-Augmented Question Answering
Mar 10, 2026Thao Do, Dinh Phu Tran, An Vo +2Efficient Language Model Inference Knowledge-Intensive QA
Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Daejeon 34141, South Korea
BudgetMem: Training-Free Selective Memory for Cost-Efficient Long-Context Processing in Language Models
Nov 7, 2025Chandra Vamsi Krishna Alla, Harish Naidu Gaddam, Manohar Kommi +1LLM Compression Long-Context Language Model Inference
University of Texas at Arlington
CompLLM: Compression for Long Context Q&A
Sep 23, 2025Gabriele Berton, Jayakrishnan Unnikrishnan, Son Tran +1LLM Compression Long-Context Language Model Inference
Amazon · Center For Research in Computer Vision, University of Central Florida
InComeS: Integrating Compression and Selection Mechanisms into LLMs for Efficient Model Editing
May 28, 2025Shuaiyi Li, Zhisong Zhang, Yang Deng +6In-Context Learning Model Editing
The Chinese University of Hong Kong · City University of Hong Kong · Singapore Management University +1
SeDeM: Selective Decompression of Hidden-State Memories for Long-Context Question Answering
Date pendingMaryam Haghifam, Jason Cong, Yizhou SunMemory-Augmented Language Models Long-Context QA
University of California, Los Angeles, USA

Oct 6, 2026, cs.CLJ/K move · Enter open · S save

ReFold: Training-Free Reversible Inter-Turn Context Folding for Long-Horizon Agents

Yupeng Su, Jiayi Tian, Zheng Zhang, Souvik Kundu

University of California, Santa Barbara · Intel

LLM Inference Efficiency Long-Context Language Model Inference Long-Horizon LLM Agents LLM Context Management Context Compression

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Long-horizon LLM agents act on an append-only interaction history that is re-sent to the model at every step, so the context and its cost grow with steps until the sessions exceed the context window. Existing methods manage the context through context requirement prediction, relying on additional model calls, heuristic rules, or trained policies. However, these predictive approaches introduce runtime overhead, invalidate prefix caches, and permanently discard content with no guarantee of recovery. To overcome these limitations, we introduce ReFold: a training-free rendering layer that preserves the underlying interaction history while compressing only the model's rendered context. It removes two kinds of inter-turn redundancy without an auxiliary predictor: content an earlier turn already displayed, replaced by a stub, and turns the agent itself reports finished, folded into a one-line note. Both operators use chunked rendering, rewriting the cached prefix once every few steps rather than at every step. Every removal is strictly reversible, a wrong removal costs one restore from the history rather than permanent content loss. Because it operates at the rendering layer, ReFold is plug-and-play across standard ReAct-style harnesses. Evaluations across five long-horizon benchmarks and two frontier LLMs demonstrate that ReFold reduces token consumption by up to 2.5x and halves the KV-cache memory per session without degrading task success rates. Under capped context budgets, it avoids up to 92% of forced compactions. Under concurrent serving workloads, it reduces request queuing delays by up to 100%, accelerating inference by up to 1.7x, while cutting inference costs by up to 3.4x.

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