How do I install the Context Engineering skill?

Run npx skillmds@latest add modbender/context-engineering in your terminal (requires Node.js), paste this page's agent-chat prompt into Claude, Cursor, or any MCP-connected agent, or download the SKILL.md file and copy it into your agent's skills directory.

Is Context Engineering safe to use?

This skill has not completed SkillMD's automated safety review yet. Independent scanners report: SkillSpector: PASS, Skill Scanner: PASS. Capability flags: makes network calls, reads secrets. SkillMD never runs a skill's scripts for you; review the SKILL.md before installing.

Which AI agents work with Context Engineering?

This skill is tagged as working with Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex. SKILL.md is an open format, so most agents that read a skills directory can load it too.

Is Context Engineering free to use?

Yes. Installing skills from SkillMD is free, and the skill stays under its author's original license.

Who published Context Engineering?

modbender (@modbender) published this skill. Their other Agent Skills are listed on their SkillMD profile.

Context Engineering by modbender — Agent Skill

Name: Context Engineering
Rating: 4.5 (4 reviews)
Author: modbender

Context Engineering

Comprehensive context engineering guidance for AI agent systems. Routes to specialized sub-skills for production agent work. Use when the user asks to: "optimize context", "reduce token costs", "context compression", "summarize conversation history", "design multi-agent system", "implement supervisor pattern", "create swarm architecture", "implement memory", "build memory system", "offload context to files", "use filesystem for agent memory", "debug agent failure", "diagnose context problems", "fix lost-in-middle", "build agent tools", "design agent tools", "evaluate agent performance", "build test framework", "implement LLM-as-judge", "understand context", "explain context windows", "build background agent", "implement BDI architecture", "start an LLM project", or any discussion of context degradation, attention patterns, multi-agent coordination, or production agent architecture.

modbender Updated Sep 9, 2026 12 repo stars

File contents

Context Engineering Skill

Routes to the appropriate sub-skill from Koylan's Agent-Skills-for-Context-Engineering collection, located at:

references/context-engineering-skills/skills/<sub-skill>/SKILL.md

Setup

No setup required. This skill uses GitHub raw URLs as the primary method to fetch sub-skill documentation.

Sub-skill SKILL.md files are loaded directly from GitHub:

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/muratcankoylan/Agent-Skills-for-Context-Engineering/main/skills/<sub-skill>/SKILL.md

Example: For context-optimization, use:

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/muratcankoylan/Agent-Skills-for-Context-Engineering/main/skills/context-optimization/SKILL.md

Optional Enhancement (Offline Use): For offline access or faster local reads, you can optionally initialize the git submodule:

git submodule update --init

This will populate the references/context-engineering-skills/ directory locally. When the local directory exists, the skill loader will prefer local files over GitHub fetches.

Sub-Skill Routing Table

Match the user's task to one sub-skill and read its SKILL.md before proceeding. Load additional sub-skills only if the task spans multiple domains.

Task / trigger phrase	Sub-skill directory
"optimize context", reduce token costs, KV-cache, context budgeting	`context-optimization`
"context compression", summarize history, compaction, long sessions	`context-compression`
"design multi-agent", supervisor pattern, swarm architecture, agent handoffs	`multi-agent-patterns`
"implement memory", memory frameworks, Mem0, Zep, Letta, vector RAG	`memory-systems`
"offload context to files", filesystem memory, scratch pads, dynamic discovery	`filesystem-context`
"debug agent failure", lost-in-middle, context poisoning, degradation patterns	`context-degradation`
"build agent tools", tool descriptions, MCP tools, tool consolidation	`tool-design`
"evaluate agent", LLM-as-judge, test framework, quality gates	`evaluation`
Advanced evaluation: rubrics, pairwise comparison, position bias	`advanced-evaluation`
"understand context", context windows, attention mechanics, fundamentals	`context-fundamentals`
"build background agent", sandboxed execution, hosted coding agent	`hosted-agents`
"implement BDI", mental state modeling, belief-desire-intention	`bdi-mental-states`
"start an LLM project", batch pipeline, task-model fit, project structure	`project-development`

How to Load a Sub-Skill

Identify the best-matching row above.

Check if the local sub-skill SKILL.md exists:

references/context-engineering-skills/skills/<sub-skill>/SKILL.md

If the file exists locally: Read it directly.

If the file does NOT exist (e.g., submodule not initialized): Fetch from GitHub:

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/muratcankoylan/Agent-Skills-for-Context-Engineering/main/skills/<sub-skill>/SKILL.md

Follow the instructions in that file. Most sub-skills have a references/ directory with detailed patterns — read those files only when the relevant pattern is needed (progressive disclosure).
If the user's task spans two sub-skills (e.g., memory + multi-agent), read both SKILL.md files before responding.

Progressive Disclosure

Sub-skill SKILL.md files are compact routing documents. The deep content lives in each sub-skill's references/ folder. Load reference files only when the specific topic is active — do not bulk-load all references upfront.

Example:

references/context-engineering-skills/skills/context-optimization/references/

Read individual reference files from that directory only when the matching pattern is needed.

---name: context-engineeringdescription: Comprehensive context engineering guidance for AI agent systems. Routes to specialized sub-skills for production agent work. Use when the user asks to: "optimize context", "reduce token costs", "context compression", "summarize conversation history", "design multi-agent system", "implement supervisor pattern", "create swarm architecture", "implement memory", "build memory system", "offload context to files", "use filesystem for agent memory", "debug agent failure", "diagnose context problems", "fix lost-in-middle", "build agent tools", "design agent tools", "evaluate agent performance", "build test framework", "implement LLM-as-judge", "understand context", "explain context windows", "build background agent", "implement BDI architecture", "start an LLM project", or any discussion of context degradation, attention patterns, multi-agent coordination, or production agent architecture.--- # Context Engineering Skill Routes to the appropriate sub-skill from Koylan's [Agent-Skills-for-Context-Engineering](https://github.com/muratcankoylan/Agent-Skills-for-Context-Engineering) collection, located at: ``` references/context-engineering-skills/skills/<sub-skill>/SKILL.md ``` ## Setup **No setup required.** This skill uses GitHub raw URLs as the primary method to fetch sub-skill documentation. Sub-skill SKILL.md files are loaded directly from GitHub: ``` https://raw.githubusercontent.com/muratcankoylan/Agent-Skills-for-Context-Engineering/main/skills/<sub-skill>/SKILL.md ``` Example: For `context-optimization`, use: ``` https://raw.githubusercontent.com/muratcankoylan/Agent-Skills-for-Context-Engineering/main/skills/context-optimization/SKILL.md ``` **Optional Enhancement (Offline Use):** For offline access or faster local reads, you can optionally initialize the git submodule: ```bash git submodule update --init ``` This will populate the `references/context-engineering-skills/` directory locally. When the local directory exists, the skill loader will prefer local files over GitHub fetches. ## Sub-Skill Routing Table Match the user's task to one sub-skill and **read its SKILL.md before proceeding**. Load additional sub-skills only if the task spans multiple domains. | Task / trigger phrase | Sub-skill directory | |---|---| | "optimize context", reduce token costs, KV-cache, context budgeting | `context-optimization` | | "context compression", summarize history, compaction, long sessions | `context-compression` | | "design multi-agent", supervisor pattern, swarm architecture, agent handoffs | `multi-agent-patterns` | | "implement memory", memory frameworks, Mem0, Zep, Letta, vector RAG | `memory-systems` | | "offload context to files", filesystem memory, scratch pads, dynamic discovery | `filesystem-context` | | "debug agent failure", lost-in-middle, context poisoning, degradation patterns | `context-degradation` | | "build agent tools", tool descriptions, MCP tools, tool consolidation | `tool-design` | | "evaluate agent", LLM-as-judge, test framework, quality gates | `evaluation` | | Advanced evaluation: rubrics, pairwise comparison, position bias | `advanced-evaluation` | | "understand context", context windows, attention mechanics, fundamentals | `context-fundamentals` | | "build background agent", sandboxed execution, hosted coding agent | `hosted-agents` | | "implement BDI", mental state modeling, belief-desire-intention | `bdi-mental-states` | | "start an LLM project", batch pipeline, task-model fit, project structure | `project-development` | ## How to Load a Sub-Skill 1. Identify the best-matching row above. 2. Check if the local sub-skill SKILL.md exists: ``` references/context-engineering-skills/skills/<sub-skill>/SKILL.md ``` - **If the file exists locally:** Read it directly. - **If the file does NOT exist** (e.g., submodule not initialized): Fetch from GitHub: ``` https://raw.githubusercontent.com/muratcankoylan/Agent-Skills-for-Context-Engineering/main/skills/<sub-skill>/SKILL.md ``` 3. Follow the instructions in that file. Most sub-skills have a `references/` directory with detailed patterns — read those files only when the relevant pattern is needed (progressive disclosure). 4. If the user's task spans two sub-skills (e.g., memory + multi-agent), read both SKILL.md files before responding. ## Progressive Disclosure Sub-skill SKILL.md files are compact routing documents. The deep content lives in each sub-skill's `references/` folder. Load reference files only when the specific topic is active — do not bulk-load all references upfront. Example: ``` references/context-engineering-skills/skills/context-optimization/references/ ``` Read individual reference files from that directory only when the matching pattern is needed.

Frequently asked questions