Move 2: Offload context

Context offloading means storing information outside the window and pulling it back only when needed. This is the move that compaction depends on, and the agent's computer is what makes it work. There are two flavors.

Offload tool results to the filesystem

Because Manus has a filesystem, it saves full tool results to disk and keeps only references in context. When it needs to look something back up, it uses basic utilities like glob and grep to search the files directly. Notice what this avoids: there is no need to build and maintain a vector database just to find things again. This is agentic search, and it is simpler than semantic search.

Offload actions to the sandbox

Instead of binding hundreds of tools to the model (which causes context confusion), Manus exposes a small set of general tools (a Bash tool, a few filesystem tools, a code execution tool) and lets the model do most things by running commands in the sandbox. Even MCP tools are reached through a command-line interface that the agent calls with its Bash tool, which keeps the tool definitions out of the context window. Claude's "skills" feature uses the same idea: skills live on the filesystem and are loaded only when needed, an example of progressive disclosure, rather than all being bound as tools up front.