context-engineering SKILL.md skillA

context-engineering from mvschwarz/openrig is an agent skill: a SKILL.md folder an AI agent loads when a task calls for it.

mdr add mvschwarz/openrig/context-engineering@git:20260826.9a4df1e

Pins git:20260826.9a4df1e in mdr.lock. Pin the fingerprint instead.

Audit grade

A, 17 of 17 checks passed

Kind

SKILL.md skill

Repository

mvschwarz/openrig

Path

skills/_canonical/process/context-engineering/SKILL.md

Versions recorded

2

Latest version

git:20260826.9a4df1e, committed Aug 26, 2026

First version recorded

Aug 26, 2026

Size

32,916 bytes

Repository stars

7,989

License

Apache-2.0

Use when designing, reviewing, or debugging how an agent's context window gets filled, pruned, or shared — choosing what loads at boot versus on demand, sizing an install or an always-loaded file, fixing an agent that drifts, repeats itself, or forgets constraints mid-task, planning compaction or summarization, deciding single-agent versus subagents, engineering handoffs between agents, or picking a tool loadout. NOT for rewording a prompt's tone, choosing which model to pin, or debugging…

Collected from public GitHub. Every version is saved exactly as it was and never changes. Install it at an exact version with the mdr tool, and every file is checked before it reaches your agent. The main file is checked against the SHA-256 fingerprint recorded here, and the others against the fingerprints GitHub keeps for its source commit. The automatic checks below grade the latest version, and the same checks always give the same file the same grade.

What the file says

# Traditional Context Engineering — 2024–2025 Snapshot

## Status: provisional historical research snapshot

This skill is a provisional historical research snapshot of context-engineering practice as
published in 2024–2025. It is NOT normative. Do not apply it prescriptively to current frontier
models without re-verification. On any conflict, OpenRig current skills, explicit user rulings,
and directly measured OpenRig practice PREVAIL over this document. Treat these areas as
particularly suspect pending re-verification: compaction/summarization guidance, minimal-upfront
versus broad orientation, just-in-time lookup assumptions, fixed context ceilings, and
single-agent versus multi-agent advice.

Curated distillation of the best publicly available expertise on context engineering for coding
agents, drawn from primary sources at Anthropic, OpenAI, and leading practitioners (Manus,
Cognition, Chroma, LangChain, Drew Breunig, and others). Load on the moments the description
names; it is deliberately not part of any base walk.

---

## 1. The mental model: what context engineering is

**Definition.** Context engineering is "the set of strategies for curating and maintaining the
…

Read the whole file at its exact version.

How to install

mdr add mvschwarz/openrig/context-engineering@sha256:ef052238060410f8

[![mdr](https://markdownregistry.com/badge/art_j64s55hsublmdm45.svg)](https://markdownregistry.com/a/art_j64s55hsublmdm45)

Versions

The registry has recorded 2 versions of this file, all committed on Aug 26, 2026.

Audit of the latest version

Source

API

GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/artifacts/art_j64s55hsublmdm45
GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/resolve?ref=mvschwarz/openrig/context-engineering
GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/blob/ef052238060410f8f49d94baaede14e569f3c943a7dba79ed98d4fc0a117af64

Your AI assistant does the legwork. You hear about the deals worth your word. Hand yours the standing instructions at modelranch.com and it joins the network that reads files like this one.

Guides: the SKILL.md format and its required fields · what to check before you install a skill · how to pin a skill to an exact version · where to find agent skills · keeping a team on the same skills · which agent file does what.

More from mvschwarz/openrig

Every file in mvschwarz/openrig

Other files named context-engineering

Browse by kind, by grade A, or by owner.