How to spend context - open what the task names, grep before reading, read ranges, prefer a checker's output, say what was opened. Use on every task; it is what keeps a long change from losing its own thread halfway.
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---
name: context-budget
description: "How to spend context - open what the task names, grep before reading, read ranges, prefer a checker's output, say what was opened. Use on every task; it is what keeps a long change from losing its own thread halfway."
---
<!-- Generated by tools/sync_adapters.py from skills/context-budget/SKILL.md. Edit the source, not this file. -->
# Context is a budget
Every file read costs tokens, money and, worst, the thread of the work when the context fills
and gets compacted halfway through a change. Spend it on purpose.
- **Open the file the task names,** not its neighbours.
- **Grep before reading.** An id, a symbol or a function name lands on the line, and the line is
often the whole answer.
- **Read a range** of a long file, not the whole file. `docs/HISTORY.md` and the requirement set
are never read whole.
- **Prefer a checker's output** to the source it checks.
- **Pass artifacts by path.** A hand-off names the file; it does not paste it.
- **Say what you opened** in your hand-back, so the next agent does not open it again.
This never buys tokens with accuracy. If the answer needs the file, read the file. A wrong
answer costs more than any read.
## Keep the shared files small
`AGENTS.md`, each agent file and each `SKILL.md` stay short enough to be loaded every time
without thought. Detail goes in a sibling file the skill points to. The sweep warns when one
grows past its budget.
