Progressive Summarization Risks

Long-running agents can't keep every turn in the context window. A common fix is progressive summarization: periodically compress earlier messages into a shorter recap so the conversation keeps fitting.

It works for narrative flow. But it has a sharp failure mode for the Context Management & Reliability domain: when prose gets compressed, numbers, percentages and dates go vague. "$1,284.50 refunded on 2026-03-14" quietly becomes "a refund was issued recently."

Summarization optimizes for gist, not precision. The model keeps the storyline and drops the exact tokens that carry transactional meaning.

• Amounts: "$4,999.00" → "a large charge"
• Percentages: "a 17.5% discount" → "a discount"
• Dates: "order placed 2026-01-09" → "earlier this year"
• IDs: "order #A-88231" → "the order"

These are exactly the facts downstream tools and policy checks depend on.