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Claude Code skill listing constrained by context window budget

The Claude Code tool's ability to list skills is constrained by a fixed character budget within its context window, impacting how many skill descriptions can be displayed. Experiments on versions 2.1.319 and 2.1.322 using the Opus 5.5 model revealed that reducing the maximum description length to 130 characters allowed all 160 skills to fit on version 2.1.319, but only 159 on 2.1.322 due to one skill's description growing. Adjusting settings like `skillListingMaxDescChars` and `skillOverrides` can help manage this budget, though the exact impact on the number of skills displayed was not fully documented in the tool's settings. AI

IMPACT This technical detail impacts how users can effectively manage and utilize skills within the Claude Code tool, affecting the user experience and the practical application of its features.

RANK_REASON The item details a specific technical limitation and experimental findings for a software tool, rather than a new release or significant industry event.

Read on dev.to — LLM tag →

AI-generated summary · Google Gemini · from 1 sources. How we write summaries →

Claude Code skill listing constrained by context window budget

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COVERAGE [1]

  1. dev.to — LLM tag TIER_1 English(EN) · Rulestack ·

    Cutting 160 Claude Code skill descriptions to 130 characters fit all of them on 2.1.319. On 2.1.322, one was left out

    <blockquote> <p>With Opus 5.5's 1M-token window, Claude Code's skill listing still stops at 30,000 characters: of 160 skills, 21 kept their descriptions at 1,000 characters, 42 at 500 and 104 at 200 on both 2.1.319 and 2.1.322, but at 130 all 160 fit on 2.1.319 and only 159 on 2.…