Principle Guard The Context Window

Guard the Context Window

The context window is finite and non-renewable within a session. Every token that enters should earn its place.

Why: Context overflow degrades reasoning quality, creates compression artifacts, and halts progress. Unlike compute or time, context spent inside a session cannot be reclaimed.

Pattern:

• Filter before delegating. Narrow verbose outputs and reads locally first. For separable exploration that still needs substantial context, read ../david-mode/references/agent-runtime.md before dispatch. Require concise findings with exact evidence paths; the parent checks decisive evidence itself. If delegation does not pass its gates, continue sequentially.
• Don't read what you won't use. Read selectively based on relevance. If a file isn't needed for the current task, skip it.
• Keep frequently used content inline. Templates and references used on every invocation belong in the skill file, not in separate files that cost a read each time.
• Size phases and cap scope. Limit files per phase, set turn budgets, account for mechanism costs.