Context Engineering

---
name: context-engineering
description: Optimizes agent context setup. Use when starting a new session, when agent output quality degrades, when switching between tasks, or when you need to configure rules files and context for a project.
---

# Context Engineering

## Overview

Feed agents the right information at the right time. Context is the single biggest lever for agent output quality — too little and the agent hallucinates, too much and it loses focus. Context engineering is the practice of deliberately curating what the agent sees, when it sees it, and how it's structured.

## When to Use

- Starting a new coding session
- Agent output quality is declining (wrong patterns, hallucinated APIs, ignoring conventions)
- Switching between different parts of a codebase
- Setting up a new project for AI-assisted development
- The agent is not following project conventions

## The Context Hierarchy

Structure context from most persistent to most transient:

```
┌─────────────────────────────────────┐… load the full skill through Skill Me