Context Engineering
Once capacity is limited, choosing the information in it becomes a design task.
Context engineering is the practice of selecting, organizing, and maintaining the information a model receives while it works. It includes instructions, tool descriptions, retrieved material, and conversation state.
[Anthropic]In practice
A travel assistant keeps the current itinerary and budget in view while removing obsolete search results from its next request.
[Anthropic]A little deeper
The task repeats as an agent runs: useful evidence arrives while older material can become irrelevant. The aim is useful context within a finite capacity, rather than simply adding more text. [Anthropic]
A common mix-up
Context engineering means making one prompt longer.
It includes managing changing information across multiple model calls. [Anthropic]
Helpful to know: Context Window