diff --git a/packages/core/src/context/config/profiles.ts b/packages/core/src/context/config/profiles.ts
index 662b88c2da..e938668500 100644
--- a/packages/core/src/context/config/profiles.ts
+++ b/packages/core/src/context/config/profiles.ts
@@ -88,24 +88,32 @@ export const generalistProfile: ContextProfile = {
             }),
           ),
           createBlobDegradationProcessor('BlobDegradation', env), // No options
+          // Automatically distill extremely large blocks (e.g. huge source files pasted by the user)
+          createNodeDistillationProcessor(
+            'ImmediateNodeDistillation',
+            env,
+            resolveProcessorOptions(config, 'ImmediateNodeDistillation', {
+              nodeThresholdTokens: 15000,
+            }),
+          ),
         ],
       },
       {
         name: 'Normalization',
         triggers: ['retained_exceeded'],
         processors: [
-          createNodeTruncationProcessor(
-            'NodeTruncation',
-            env,
-            resolveProcessorOptions(config, 'NodeTruncation', {
-              maxTokensPerNode: 3000,
-            }),
-          ),
           createNodeDistillationProcessor(
             'NodeDistillation',
             env,
             resolveProcessorOptions(config, 'NodeDistillation', {
-              nodeThresholdTokens: 5000,
+              nodeThresholdTokens: 3000,
+            }),
+          ),
+          createNodeTruncationProcessor(
+            'NodeTruncation',
+            env,
+            resolveProcessorOptions(config, 'NodeTruncation', {
+              maxTokensPerNode: 2000,
             }),
           ),
         ],
diff --git a/packages/core/src/context/processors/toolMaskingProcessor.ts b/packages/core/src/context/processors/toolMaskingProcessor.ts
index 1ce07d1f6c..af960f0d0b 100644
--- a/packages/core/src/context/processors/toolMaskingProcessor.ts
+++ b/packages/core/src/context/processors/toolMaskingProcessor.ts
@@ -129,7 +129,10 @@ export function createToolMaskingProcessor(
           1024
         ).toFixed(2);
         const totalLines = content.split('\n').length;
-        return `<tool_output_masked>\n[Tool ${nodeType} string (${fileSizeMB}MB, ${totalLines} lines) masked to preserve context window. Full string saved to: ${filePath}]\n</tool_output_masked>`;
+
+        // Ensure consistent path separators for LLM tokenization and deterministic tests across OSes
+        const normalizedPath = filePath.split(path.sep).join('/');
+        return `<tool_output_masked>\n[Tool ${nodeType} string (${fileSizeMB}MB, ${totalLines} lines) masked to preserve context window. Full string saved to: ${normalizedPath}]\n</tool_output_masked>`;
       };
 
       const returnedNodes: ConcreteNode[] = [];
diff --git a/packages/core/src/context/system-tests/__snapshots__/lifecycle.golden.test.ts.snap b/packages/core/src/context/system-tests/__snapshots__/lifecycle.golden.test.ts.snap
index cc63c4c177..9174cfb727 100644
--- a/packages/core/src/context/system-tests/__snapshots__/lifecycle.golden.test.ts.snap
+++ b/packages/core/src/context/system-tests/__snapshots__/lifecycle.golden.test.ts.snap
@@ -43,12 +43,12 @@ exports[`System Lifecycle Golden Tests > Scenario 1: Organic Growth with Huge To
       "turnIndex": 1,
     },
     {
-      "tokensAfterBackground": 436,
+      "tokensAfterBackground": 440,
       "tokensBeforeBackground": 20148,
       "turnIndex": 2,
     },
     {
-      "tokensAfterBackground": 61,
+      "tokensAfterBackground": 62,
       "tokensBeforeBackground": 3017,
       "turnIndex": 3,
     },
diff --git a/packages/core/src/context/system-tests/simulationHarness.ts b/packages/core/src/context/system-tests/simulationHarness.ts
index 2bf377f8cc..530ce0343e 100644
--- a/packages/core/src/context/system-tests/simulationHarness.ts
+++ b/packages/core/src/context/system-tests/simulationHarness.ts
@@ -35,7 +35,7 @@ export class SimulationHarness {
   static async create(
     config: ContextProfile,
     mockLlmClient: BaseLlmClient,
-    mockTempDir = '/tmp/sim',
+    mockTempDir = 'mock/sim/dir',
   ): Promise<SimulationHarness> {
     const harness = new SimulationHarness();
     await harness.init(config, mockLlmClient, mockTempDir);