# ContextSniper: AntTrail's Token-Efficient Code Memory for Repository-Level Program Repair

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2607.01916 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2607.01916/

## Key facts

- Cited by 1 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Placed in Software engineering coding agents, one of 16 directions in LLM agents and tool use.
- Builds on 20 of its 39 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 2 Jul 2026.

## Placed in

- LLM agents and tool use / [Software engineering coding agents](https://mlsanity.com/agents/software-engineering-coding-agents/)

## Builds on (most cited first, 20 of 20)

- [Retrieval-Augmented Generation for Knowledge-Intensive NLP Tasks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2005.11401/) (2020)
- [Lost in the Middle: How Language Models Use Long Contexts](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2307.03172/) (2023)
- [SWE-bench: Can Language Models Resolve Real-World GitHub Issues?](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.06770/) (2023)
- [SWE-agent: Agent-Computer Interfaces Enable Automated Software Engineering](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.15793/) (2024)
- [Agentless: Demystifying LLM-based Software Engineering Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.01489/) (2024)
- [LLMLingua: Compressing Prompts for Accelerated Inference of Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.05736/) (2023)
- [AutoCodeRover: Autonomous Program Improvement](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.05427/) (2024)
- [RECOMP: Improving Retrieval-Augmented LMs with Compression and Selective Augmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.04408/) (2023)
- [Compressing Context to Enhance Inference Efficiency of Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.06201/) (2023)
- [ACON: Optimizing Context Compression for Long-horizon LLM Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.00615/) (2025)
- [RepoGraph: Enhancing AI Software Engineering with Repository-level Code Graph](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.14684/) (2024)
- [SWE-Exp: Experience-Driven Software Issue Resolution](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.23361/) (2025)
- [CompAct: Compressing Retrieved Documents Actively for Question Answering](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.09014/) (2024)
- [EXPEREPAIR: Dual-Memory Enhanced LLM-based Repository-Level Program Repair](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.10484/) (2025)
- [Enhancing repository-level software repair via repository-aware knowledge graphs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.21710/) (2025)
- [Improving Code Localization with Repository Memory](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.01003/) (2025)
- [Structurally Aligned Subtask-Level Memory for Software Engineering Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.21611/) (2026)
- [MemGovern: Enhancing Code Agents through Learning from Governed Human Experiences](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2601.06789/) (2026)
- [Codebase-Memory: Tree-Sitter-Based Knowledge Graphs for LLM Code Exploration via MCP](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.27277/) (2026)
- [Learning to Commit: Generating Organic Pull Requests via Online Repository Memory](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.26664/) (2026)

## Built on by (most cited first, 1 of 1)

- [Analyzing and Mitigating Cost-Inefficient Behaviors in Coding Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.30725/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Large language model agents can repair real repository issues, but they often spend large context budgets on whole-file reads, broad searches, and long terminal outputs where useful evidence is mixed with irrelevant code and logs. This paper presents ContextSniper, AntTrail's code-repair module for precision evidence selection in repository-level program repair, as part of AntTrail's broader agent-memory engine. AntTrail is available at https://gitcode.com/datagallery/AntTrail. ContextSniper indexes code and action memory at three levels of abstraction, retrieves candidates with a hybrid ranker, filters long tool output through an intention-aware context gate, and returns compact evidence packets while keeping full source recoverable on demand. In matched 50-task-per-condition comparisons, ContextSniper reduces total token use by 51.5% and logged cost by 36.4% for OpenClaw on SWE-bench Lite, and reduces total token use by 40.0% and average interaction rounds by 28.1% for OpenCode on SWE-bench Pro. Submitted-resolution rates differ by one task out of 50 in each host-agent setting. In a separate five-task comparison, ContextSniper outperforms existing memory- and retrieval-augmented generation (RAG)-style integrations in token efficiency. These results suggest that ContextSniper can substantially reduce token and interaction overhead for repository-level repair agents without a measurable loss in repair quality. The evaluation harness is available at https://gitcode.com/lukchiwang/ContextSniper.