Agent-Skills.md

Agent Skills: Context Management Skill

Use for projects, tasks, or code that involve context engineering and context management for AI agents: keep prompt prefixes stable for KV-cache, use append-only context, prefer tool masking over tool removal, offload large observations into filesystem memory, recite goals/todos to control attention, preserve errors for recovery, and avoid few-shot pattern lock-in. Use when building or debugging agent loops, prompt/context schemas, memory strategies, or tool-availability policies.

UncategorizedID: hawkingrei/tidb-dev-prompt/context-management

Repository

hawkingrei/tidb-dev-prompt
hawkingrei

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pnpm dlx add-skill https://github.com/hawkingrei/tidb-dev-prompt/tree/HEAD/context-management

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context-management/SKILL.md

Skill Metadata

Name
context-management
Description
"Use for projects, tasks, or code that involve context engineering and context management for AI agents: keep prompt prefixes stable for KV-cache, use append-only context, prefer tool masking over tool removal, offload large observations into filesystem memory, recite goals/todos to control attention, preserve errors for recovery, and avoid few-shot pattern lock-in. Use when building or debugging agent loops, prompt/context schemas, memory strategies, or tool-availability policies."

Context Management Skill

Design and operate agent context so it is fast, cheap, stable, and robust over long tool-using loops. Use a two-layer model:

  1. Global context (stable, cross-project, rarely edited; e.g. ~/.codex/)
  2. Local context (project-specific, frequently updated; lives in repo)

Workflow

  1. Separate global vs local context

    • Global: invariant rules, assembly templates, stable checklists.
    • Local: project goals, current state, logs, errors, and per-run artifacts.
    • Prefer read-only access to global context during runs; update it only by explicit request.
    • Ensure project .gitignore includes .cache/ (keep .cache/.gitkeep if you want the directory tracked).

  2. Define the invariant prefix

    • Keep system/developer prompt prefixes stable across turns and sessions.
    • Avoid timestamps, run IDs, random salts, or non-deterministic serialization in the prefix.
    • Keep tool definitions stable; avoid dynamic add/remove mid-episode.

  3. Make context append-only

    • Never rewrite or "clean up" earlier actions/observations; only append corrections.
    • Ensure deterministic ordering for any serialized data you add to context (stable key order, stable formatting).

  4. Constrain actions without editing tool definitions

    • Prefer masking/forcing at decode time if you own the runtime.
    • If you only control prompts, keep tool definitions unchanged and append an Allowed actions block near the end of the context to gate behavior.
    • Group tool names with consistent prefixes (e.g., browser_*, shell_*) so you can constrain by group.

  5. Use the filesystem as external memory

    • Store large observations (pages, logs, diffs, stack traces, CSVs) in files, not in the prompt.
    • Keep context compression reversible: retain pointers (file paths, URLs, IDs) so content can be reloaded on demand.
    • Put only a short summary + pointer in the model context.
    • Prefer per-run directories to avoid file contention (e.g. .cache/context/run/YYYYMMDD-HHMM/).

  6. Recite goals to control attention

    • Maintain a todo.md (or equivalent) and rewrite it as the task progresses.
    • Re-state the current objective and "next action" near the end of the context before each decision step.

  7. Preserve errors

    • Keep failed attempts and error outputs visible in context (or in files referenced from context).
    • Add a short postmortem note: "what failed / why / what to try next".

  8. Avoid few-shot pattern lock-in

    • Do not let the context become a long chain of near-identical action/observation pairs.
    • Introduce controlled variation in formatting/wording/order in the late (non-cached) part of context to break brittle imitation, while keeping the prefix stable.

  9. Concurrency safety

    • Use a single-writer rule for local context files.
    • Use a lock file (e.g. .cache/context/.lock) when writing shared local files.
    • Prefer append-only logs and run-scoped subdirectories to avoid merge conflicts.

Deliverables

  • A compact "context contract" describing what is stable vs dynamic.
  • A filesystem memory layout (folders + key files) that the agent reads/writes.
  • A prompt assembly template for each agent step (decision, tool-call, user-response).

References

  • Templates: context-management/references/templates.md
  • Context contract: context-management/references/context_contract.md
  • Errors template: context-management/references/errors.md
  • Checklists: context-management/references/checklists.md