---
title: 'The Sleeping Agent: What Gist-Based Context Compression Loses and Why'
license: CC-BY-4.0
license_url: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
license_note: 'paper is CC BY 4.0 (verified on arXiv abs page 2026-11-11; icon by-4.0.png, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/); note is our own summary'
source: https://iinventedlight.com/library/notes/2608-11775-sleeping-agent.md
source_license: 'CC BY 4.0'
attribution: 'Summary by iinventedlight (AI-assisted). Source: Nicholas E. Kyrkewood, The Sleeping Agent: What Gist-Based Context Compression Loses and Why (CC BY 4.0).'
author: 'iinventedlight (AI-assisted)'
date: 2026-11-11
status: published
approved_by: "Cole Withington, 2026-11-11 20:07 PT, Librarian chat widget t1715u: \"okay you can publish the ones you're comfortable with\""
checked_on: 2026-11-11
as_of: 2026-11-11
confidence: medium
untested: 'Not reproduced. Abs page and HTML key sections read 2026-11-11. Named code URLs checked for HTTP 200; code not run.'
category: arxiv
topic_area: 'ai-research: agent memory and context compaction'
tags: agents, memory, compaction, arxiv
arxiv_id: 2608.11775
alias: 2608.11775-sleeping-agent
sources:
  - id: S1
    title: 'The Sleeping Agent: What Gist-Based Context Compression Loses and Why'
    publisher: arXiv
    authors: 'Nicholas E. Kyrkewood'
    url: https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.11775
    version_read: 'v1 (12 Aug 2026)'
    accessed: 2026-11-11
    license: 'CC BY 4.0'
---
# The Sleeping Agent: What Gist-Based Context Compression Loses and Why

## Summary
Only 3.05% of temporal expressions survive verbatim in generic gist summaries. A one-sentence prompt modification yields an approximately 20-fold increase in temporal expression preservation, from 3.05% to 62.39%. That prompt change recovers +0.314 judge accuracy on category-2 (temporal) questions in the matched set. [S1]

## Claims
- id: C1
  claim: 'Temporal-expression preservation is reported to rise from 3.05% to 62.39% with a prompt change.'
  source: S1
  evidence: "only 3.05% of temporal expressions survive verbatim"
- id: C2
  claim: 'They report a +0.314 judge-accuracy recovery on temporal questions.'
  source: S1
  evidence: "recovers + 0.314 +0.314 judge accuracy on category-2 (temporal) questions"
- id: C3
  claim: 'Code and results are pointed to a public repository.'
  source: S1
  evidence: "Code and results: https://github.com/kyrkewood/sleeping-agent"

## Verification
- Code available: Paper: https://github.com/kyrkewood/sleeping-agent (HTTP 200 on 2026-11-11). Not run.
- Reproduced: not reproduced (2026-11-11). Code not run.
- Related work: Evaluating Context Compaction on the Questions That Come Later also studies what later questions lose. This paper focuses on temporal expressions in gist summaries.
- Limits: Author-reported on ten conversations in the preservation analysis and a matched question set. The 4,000-token history budget and salience rule are part of their setup, not a general product default.
- License: CC BY 4.0 on the abs page (2026-11-11; icon by-4.0.png; http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Submitted 12 Aug 2026 (v1). Comments: 7 pages, 5 tables, appendices; code and results at a GitHub URL. Sources: [S1] https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.11775, v1 (12 Aug 2026). checked_on: 2026-11-11.

## When to apply
Use when asking what a gist or summary compaction is likely to forget, and whether a small prompt change can keep dates and times.

## Facts
- id: F1
  claim: 'The authors report that only 3.05% of temporal expressions survive verbatim in generic gist summaries.'
  confidence: medium
  date: 2026-11-11
  sources: [S1]
  license: CC BY 4.0
- id: F2
  claim: 'A one-sentence prompt change is reported to raise temporal-expression preservation from 3.05% to 62.39%.'
  confidence: medium
  date: 2026-11-11
  sources: [S1]
  license: CC BY 4.0
- id: F3
  claim: 'That change is reported to recover +0.314 judge accuracy on category-2 (temporal) questions in the matched set.'
  confidence: medium
  date: 2026-11-11
  sources: [S1]
  license: CC BY 4.0

## Sources
- [S1] arXiv 2608.11775, https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.11775. License: CC BY 4.0. v1 (12 Aug 2026). Accessed 2026-11-11.

License: this note is CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Summary by iinventedlight (AI-assisted). Paper is CC BY 4.0.

---

Agents: [/agents.md](/agents.md) | [/.well-known/agent-library.json](/.well-known/agent-library.json).