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SlidingWindowStrategy

This docs was updated at: 2026-02-23

com.paragon.agents.context.SlidingWindowStrategy  ยท  Class

Implements ContextWindowStrategy

A context window strategy that removes oldest messages to fit within the token limit.

This strategy implements a sliding window approach:

  • Counts tokens from newest to oldest messages
  • Removes oldest messages when the limit is exceeded
  • Always keeps the most recent user message
  • Optionally preserves developer/system messages

This is the simplest and most efficient context management strategy, suitable for most use cases where older context can be safely discarded.

Usage Example

// Basic sliding window
ContextWindowStrategy strategy = new SlidingWindowStrategy();
// Preserve developer messages at the start
ContextWindowStrategy strategy = SlidingWindowStrategy.preservingDeveloperMessages();
// Use with agent
Agent agent = Agent.builder()
    .name("Assistant")
    .model("openai/gpt-4o")
    .instructions("You are a helpful assistant.")
    .responder(responder)
    .contextWindow(strategy, 4000)
    .build();

See Also

  • ContextWindowStrategy
  • SummarizationStrategy

Since: 1.0

Methods

SlidingWindowStrategy

public SlidingWindowStrategy()

Creates a sliding window strategy with default settings.

By default, all messages including developer messages may be removed when the context limit is exceeded.

SlidingWindowStrategy

public SlidingWindowStrategy(boolean preserveDeveloperMessages)

Creates a sliding window strategy with configurable developer message preservation.

Parameters

Name Description
preserveDeveloperMessages if true, developer messages at the start of the conversation will never be removed

preservingDeveloperMessage

public static @NonNull SlidingWindowStrategy preservingDeveloperMessage()

Creates a strategy that preserves the developer message.

The developer message (system prompt) at the start of the conversation will be preserved even when the context limit is exceeded.

Returns

a new strategy that preserves the developer message

preservesDeveloperMessage

public boolean preservesDeveloperMessage()

Returns whether this strategy preserves the developer message.

Returns

true if the developer message is preserved