Show HN: Context Gateway – Compress agent context before it hits the LLM
Context Gateway is an open-source proxy that optimizes LLM context for coding agents, tackling the common issues of cost and performance degradation that come with large context windows. By intelligently compressing tool outputs using smaller language models, it promises to enhance agent efficiency and accuracy. This 'Show HN' highlights a practical, developer-centric solution to a core pain point in AI agent development.
The Lowdown
The Context Gateway project introduces an open-source proxy designed to sit between AI coding agents (like Claude Code or OpenClaw) and Large Language Models (LLMs), aiming to solve the pervasive problem of context window management. The core issue addressed is that LLMs often degrade in performance and become expensive when faced with excessively long context, where much of the input from tool outputs is considered 'noise'.
- Problem Statement: Current coding agents are inefficient at managing context. Simple operations like file reads or 'grep' commands can flood the context window with thousands of tokens, most of which are irrelevant, leading to both increased costs and significant drops in LLM accuracy, especially as context grows.
- Proposed Solution: Context Gateway leverages Small Language Models (SLMs) to act as intelligent filters. These SLMs analyze tool outputs, identifying and retaining the