From 7776d87d530bf3a89e1a5137bd195d5fabd629af Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Kent Overstreet <kent.overstreet@linux.dev>
Date: Thu, 2 Apr 2026 01:50:36 -0400
Subject: [PATCH] Journal: walk backwards with token budget, not load-all

Iterate journal entries backwards from the conversation cutoff,
accumulating within ~10K token budget (~8% of context window).
Stops when budget is full, keeps at least one entry. Much more
efficient than loading all entries and trimming.

Co-Authored-By: Proof of Concept <poc@bcachefs.org>
---
 src/agent/runner.rs | 58 ++++++++++++++++++++++-----------------------
 1 file changed, 29 insertions(+), 29 deletions(-)

diff --git a/src/agent/runner.rs b/src/agent/runner.rs
index dee8bac..dd22d66 100644
--- a/src/agent/runner.rs
+++ b/src/agent/runner.rs
@@ -800,51 +800,51 @@ impl Agent {
             .collect();
         journal_nodes.sort_by_key(|n| n.created_at);
 
-        // Filter: entries older than oldest conversation message,
-        // plus the first one that overlaps (no gap)
-        let entries: Vec<journal::JournalEntry> = if let Some(cutoff) = oldest_msg_ts {
-            let mut result = Vec::new();
-            let mut included_overlap = false;
-            for node in &journal_nodes {
+        // Find the cutoff index — entries older than conversation, plus one overlap
+        let cutoff_idx = if let Some(cutoff) = oldest_msg_ts {
+            let mut idx = journal_nodes.len();
+            for (i, node) in journal_nodes.iter().enumerate() {
                 let ts = chrono::DateTime::from_timestamp(node.created_at, 0)
                     .unwrap_or_default();
-                if ts < cutoff || !included_overlap {
-                    result.push(journal::JournalEntry {
-                        timestamp: ts,
-                        content: node.content.clone(),
-                    });
-                    if ts >= cutoff {
-                        included_overlap = true;
-                    }
-                } else {
+                if ts >= cutoff {
+                    idx = i + 1; // include this overlapping entry
                     break;
                 }
             }
-            result
+            idx
         } else {
-            // No conversation yet — include recent entries for orientation
-            let n = 20;
-            let skip = journal_nodes.len().saturating_sub(n);
-            journal_nodes.iter().skip(skip).map(|node| {
-                journal::JournalEntry {
-                    timestamp: chrono::DateTime::from_timestamp(node.created_at, 0)
-                        .unwrap_or_default(),
-                    content: node.content.clone(),
-                }
-            }).collect()
+            journal_nodes.len()
         };
 
+        // Walk backwards from cutoff, accumulating entries within token budget
+        let count = |s: &str| self.tokenizer.encode_with_special_tokens(s).len();
+        let journal_budget_tokens = 10_000; // ~8% of 128K context
+        let mut entries = Vec::new();
+        let mut total_tokens = 0;
+
+        for node in journal_nodes[..cutoff_idx].iter().rev() {
+            let tokens = count(&node.content);
+            if total_tokens + tokens > journal_budget_tokens && !entries.is_empty() {
+                break;
+            }
+            entries.push(journal::JournalEntry {
+                timestamp: chrono::DateTime::from_timestamp(node.created_at, 0)
+                    .unwrap_or_default(),
+                content: node.content.clone(),
+            });
+            total_tokens += tokens;
+        }
+        entries.reverse(); // chronological order
+
         if entries.is_empty() {
             return;
         }
 
-        let count = |s: &str| self.tokenizer.encode_with_special_tokens(s).len();
         let context_message = self.context.render_context_message();
-
         let plan = crate::agent::context::plan_context(
             &self.context.system_prompt,
             &context_message,
-            &[],  // no conversation yet
+            &[],
             &entries,
             &self.client.model,
             &count,