context-engineering-fundamentals
Installation
SKILL.md
Context engineering fundamentals
Context engineering is the practice of managing an LLM's limited attention budget. Use this skill to keep instructions, evidence, and state available during long work.
Core concept
Context windows are constrained by attention mechanics, not only token capacity. A large context limit does not guarantee equal use of every item.
The lost-in-middle effect
The "Lost in the Middle" experiments show that retrieval quality can change with information position. The result depends on the model, task, context length, and number of documents.
| Position | Common test result |
|---|---|
| Beginning | Often easier to retrieve |
| Middle | Can be harder to retrieve |
| End | Often benefits from recency |
Implication: Keep critical constraints easy to find and repeat them near the decision that uses them. Do not assume position alone predicts recall.