- title
- Context budget - always-on vs on-demand
- kind
- sop
- triggers
- tools
Standard Operating Procedure: Context budget
Keep always-on agent context small. Load philosophy, SOPs, and skills on demand. Prefer kit-knowledge and memory MCP over dumping files into the prompt.
Targets
| Surface | Target |
|---|---|
Always-on bootstrap (AGENTS.md + project handshake + thin IDE rules) | < ~2k tokens (~8KB chars combined when possible) |
| Skill discovery (descriptions only) | Acceptable; do not pre-load skill bodies |
| Full SOP / philosophy read on typo or debug routes | Zero unless the route needs that procedure |
| MCP servers enabled | One profile matching the work; match skill mcp: frontmatter |
Split
| Mechanism | Holds |
|---|---|
| Always-on | Invariants + phase→skill index (AGENTS.md) |
| Skills | Role/phase behavior when triggered |
| File read / kit-knowledge | SOP slices, philosophy sections, handovers |
| memory MCP | Glossary, SLOs, prefs across sessions (never secrets) |
| Other MCP | Live systems (GitHub, Context7, browsers, …) |
Measure
pnpm kit measure-context
Reports character/token estimates for always-on surfaces and flags when over budget. Re-run after editing AGENTS.md or project handshake templates. Public write-up: docs/kit.md.
Session checklist
- Did not bulk-read
CODING_PHILOSOPHY.mdor multiple SOPs before the first edit on a small route - Loaded at most one phase skill body for the active route
- Used kit-knowledge or a single SOP path when a procedure was needed
- Spec/XFN stored durable facts in memory MCP (or N/A in handover)
- Only one MCP profile active; unused heavy servers not installed globally