cc-expand patches the Claude Code binary to change hard-coded behavior. The most common use case is raising the context-window limit so longer conversations delay auto-compaction:

1. Break through the 200K context window limit to delay auto-compaction. When a model supports 256K, Claude Code's native 200K ceiling becomes a bottleneck.
2. Cap 1M models at a lower target to stay in the optimal performance range, since quality drops noticeably past 256K/512K.

| Before | After | |--------|-------| | 200K limit, ~110K free context | 270K limit, ~180K free context | | | |

Model performance degrades over very long contexts. Image from the mimo-v2.5 pro blog.

Install

The fastest way is to ask your agent:

Help me expand Claude Code's context window to 270k using cc-expand (npx -y cc-expand@latest)

Or install manually:

npm install -g cc-expand
# or
npx cc-expand <command>

Features

• Cross-platform: macOS, Windows, Linux
• Patch the context window up or down without losing auto-compaction
• Plugin system for third-party binary modifications
• Dynamic pattern updates from OSS; usually no npm reinstall required for new Claude Code versions

Usage

| Command | Description | |---------|-------------| | ccx install [version] | Download Claude Code to ~/.cc-expand/packages/ | | ccx patch <version> | Patch the binary and save it to ~/.cc-expand/bin/ | | ccx patch remove <version> [combo] | Remove a patched binary | | ccx run [combo] | Launch the patched Claude Code binary | | ccx setup | Install cc/c shell shortcuts | | ccx self-update [channel] | Update cc-expand itself; pass latest/alpha or an exact version to force a specific target | | ccx restore | Restore the original binary from backup | | ccx verify | Verify whether the binary has been patched | | ccx status | Show version and patch status | | ccx supports | List supported Claude Code versions | | ccx --version | Show cc-expand version |

• Install version: latest or 2.1.170
• Token counts accept plain numbers, k for thousands, or w for ten-thousands: 256000, 270k, and 27w all mean 270000 tokens.
• Patch options:

  <version>               Claude Code version to patch (e.g. 2.1.170)
  -t, --target <count>    Target context window size (default: 256000)
  -y, --yes               Skip confirmation and overwrite shell shortcuts

• After patch succeeds, cc/c shortcuts are maintained to use the patched binary.
• run accepts combos such as ccx run 270k or ccx run 27w-flow.

Supported Claude Code Versions

Supported versions are determined by remote pattern shards stored on Aliyun OSS. Run:

ccx supports

to see the dynamically updated list for your platform. Patterns are cached locally under ~/.cc-expand/cache/patterns/ with ETag conditional requests to minimize bandwidth.

When a new Claude Code version is released, the watch-patch skill discovers its obfuscated constants and uploads a new pattern shard. You usually do not need to update the cc-expand npm package to get support for a newer CC version.

If your CC version is not yet supported, temporarily use an older version (e.g. npx @anthropic-ai/[email protected]) or generate a pattern locally by running the watch-patch skill/agent against the project source.

Extending with Plugins

cc-expand treats every binary modification as a plugin. The context-window expansion is just one built-in plugin; you can install third-party plugins to alter other Claude Code behaviors.

ccx plugins add owner/repo        # install a plugin
ccx plugins list                  # list installed plugins
ccx plugins enable/disable <name> # enable or disable
ccx plugins remove <name>         # remove

When multiple plugins are enabled, ccx patch applies them all in one pass. The resulting binary name encodes the plugin set, e.g. claude-27w-flow.

Want to write your own? See the Plugin Authoring Guide and ADR 0003.

Support Me

Please star to support me in developing more interesting apps.

License

MIT © Lionad Morotar