Context Engineering

Overview

Core principle: Context is a finite resource with diminishing returns. Find the smallest high-signal token set, not the largest.

200K tokens is shared space: system prompt + conversation history + your processing. As context grows, performance degrades predictably.

When to Use

• Session > 30 minutes or 50k+ tokens
• Instructions being ignored or forgotten
• Repeated clarifications needed
• Planning multi-agent workflows
• Preparing handoffs between sessions

Quick Reference