AI context too large — which files should I actually send?

Pasting "the whole project" never fits. Paste your file list with sizes (e.g. from du -b or your editor) — see the token budget, what is noise, and the shortlist worth sending. Fully local.

What counts as noise in a context dump?

• Dependency trees — node_modules, site-packages, vendor: the AI already knows these.
• Build output — dist/, .min.js, .map: generated, huge, zero signal.
• Lockfiles — package-lock.json alone can eat 50k+ tokens.
• Test snapshots & fixtures — __snapshots__, giant JSON fixtures.

The shortlist rule

When the shortlist still does not fit: send the error, the stack trace, and the 3–5 files the trace touches. That covers 95% of debugging sessions — the context optimizer can then compress each file further.

Is my file list uploaded anywhere?

No. This page is a single static HTML file — budgeting runs entirely in your browser. Disconnect from the internet after it loads.

Need the full toolbox?

This page is one tool from LocalDevToolbox — 15+ local developer tools: context optimizer, stack trace analyzer, log doctor, JWT decoder and more.