Lesson 7: Context Engineering and Teaching AI About Your Project

An AI may know how to program without knowing how one particular project works. In an imagined login-timeout request, the words “Add a login timeout” give less decision-making information than details about the authentication architecture, relevant files, local conventions and compatibility requirements. A safe change must add the requested behaviour while preserving existing behaviours outside its boundary. The central challenge is supplying enough relevant project knowledge without overwhelming the agent with unrelated material.