Master context engineering for AI agent systems. Use when designing agent architectures, debugging context failures, optimizing token usage, implementing memory systems, building multi-agent coordination, evaluating agent performance, or developing LLM-powered pipelines. Covers context fundamentals, degradation patterns, optimization techniques (compaction, masking, caching), compression strategies, memory architectures, multi-agent patterns, LLM-as-Judge evaluation, tool design, and project…
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
# Context Engineering
Context engineering curates the smallest high-signal token set for LLM tasks. The goal: maximize reasoning quality while minimizing token usage.
## When to Activate
- Designing/debugging agent systems
- Context limits constrain performance
- Optimizing cost/latency
- Building multi-agent coordination
- Implementing memory systems
- Evaluating agent performance
- Developing LLM-powered pipelines
## Core Principles
1. **Context quality > quantity** - High-signal tokens beat exhaustive content
2. **Attention is finite** - U-shaped curve favors beginning/end positions
3. **Progressive disclosure** - Load information just-in-time
4. **Isolation prevents degradation** - Partition work across sub-agents
5. **Measure before optimizing** - Know your baseline
## Quick Reference
| Topic | When to Use | Reference |
|-------|-------------|-----------|
| **Fundamentals** | Understanding context anatomy, attention mechanics | [context-fundamentals.md](./references/context-fundamentals.md) |
| **Degradation** | Debugging failures, lost-in-middle, poisoning | [context-degradation.md](./references/context-degradation.md) |
…
The line at the top of this page pins the label v1.0.0, which is what most people want. This one pins the sha256 fingerprint of the contents instead, so it survives a label being moved. Either way the exact version is written to mdr.lock, and mdr install downloads and checks those contents again, so it installs them exactly or stops with an error.
GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/artifacts/art_yhlt6fyfydw5llnw
GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/resolve?ref=vodailocz/kilo-kit-mcp/context-engineering
GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/blob/b02e54448e1fa00dec3a0858d90b3e902627f591e3e124c0149937acf303bf33
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