honey-compress

# Honey Compress Apply Lever 2 to a file the agent re-reads every session. The cheapest token is the one not re-sent — a one-time rewrite that saves on every future load. ## Do 1. **Back up first.** Copy `FILE` → `FILE.original.md`. If that backup already exists, stop and ask — never clobber a restore point. If no backup can be written, refuse. 2. **Rewrite the prose tersely** — drop wind-up, hedging, narration, and redundancy; fragments over paragraphs; merge guidance that repeats. 3. **Preserve every distinct instruction** — terser words, identical rules. If unsure whether a line changes behavior, keep it verbatim. 4. **Report** original vs new line/byte count and the backup path. ## Keep exact — never compress - Code blocks, commands, paths, identifiers, versions. - Any **load-bearing directive** — MUST/NEVER rules, and anything touching auth, secrets, money, migrations, or deletes. Compressing an instruction that changes behavior moves cost, it doesn't remove it. ## Don't - Don't touch code, config, or data files — prose context only. - Don't merge two rules into one if they differ in effect. - Don't compress a file you can't back up. ## Boundaries Reversible by design — `FILE.original.md` is the restore path. Verify the rewrite still carries every rule before reporting done.