If you use Claude Code, this video will save you money today—because session limits aren’t random, they’re usually self-inflicted. I break down what “context” actually is (system prompt, full chat history, tool calls/outputs, files Claude read, skills/MCP servers—everything), and why you’re burning tokens even in a fresh session. The big light bulb: every time you send a message, Claude rereads the entire conversation from the beginning, so your token cost compounds. That’s why long chats explode in cost and why “just one more prompt” is how people accidentally torch their limit. Then I show the habits that stop the bleed: avoid context rot (performance degrades as the window fills), don’t rely on auto-compaction at ~95% (it keeps ~20–30% detail at the model’s least intelligent moment), and use /re (rewind) to delete failed attempts that pollute future responses. I also share my preferred workflow: I rarely use /compact—instead I generate a session summary, /clear, paste the handoff, and keep going with a clean window. I cover sub-agents (fresh context + cheaper models like Haiku), markdown conversions to slash token usage, /btw for side questions, plan mode discipline, and keeping CLAUDE.md under ~200 lines. Finally, I walk through a token dashboard I built so you can see where tokens are really going, and I explain why the 1M context window is insurance—not a goal to fill. Prime time is the first 0–20% of your session; build the habit of clearing early, chaining sessions, and storing decisions in files so resets don’t hurt.