context-engineer

name	context-engineer
description	Determines WHAT context an agent needs and packages it optimally. Actions: analyze (identify needed context), load (assemble from sources), prune (trim to token budget), inject (write to .claude/context-payload.md). Use when: (1) before spawning teammates, (2) context window is limited, (3) multi-source context assembly. Triggers: /context-engineer, 'prepare context', 'package context', 'context for agent'.
argument-hint	<task description>
user-invocable	true

Context Engineer v3.0

Determine what context an agent needs and package it within token budget.

Actions

/context-engineer analyze <task>

Identify what context sources are relevant:

1. Parse task description for domain keywords
2. Check for DESIGN.md (frontend tasks)
3. Check for .spec.md files (spec-driven tasks)
4. Check memory sources (vault, handoffs, ledgers)
5. Check codebase files (Glob/Grep for related code)
6. Output: ranked list of context sources with estimated tokens

/context-engineer load <task>

Assemble context from identified sources:

1. Run analyze if not already done
2. Read each source, extract relevant sections
3. Prioritize by relevance score
4. Output: assembled context block

/context-engineer prune <budget>

Trim assembled context to fit token budget:

1. Default budget: 8000 tokens
2. Remove low-relevance sections first
3. Summarize long sections instead of including full text
4. Preserve: interfaces, invariants, design tokens (high signal)
5. Output: pruned context within budget

/context-engineer inject

Write packaged context to .claude/context-payload.md:

1. Write pruned context to file
2. The ralph-subagent-start.sh hook reads this file and injects into teammate prompt
3. File is gitignored (per Item 0a)

Context Sources (Priority Order)

Source	When Relevant	Token Cost
.spec.md	Task has a spec	~500-2000
DESIGN.md	Frontend task	~1000-3000
Related code files	Always	~500-5000
Memory (vault)	Prior work exists	~200-500
Handoffs	Cross-session	~300-800
Vault (future)	Curated knowledge	~200-1000

Integration

• Orchestrator Step 5 (DELEGATE): invoke before spawning teammate
• ralph-subagent-start.sh: reads .claude/context-payload.md if exists
• Token budget: default 8000, adjustable per task complexity

Anti-Rationalization

Excuse	Rebuttal
"The agent has enough context from the prompt"	Agents lose 40% accuracy without structured context. Package it.
"Context engineering is overhead"	5 seconds of packaging saves 5 minutes of wrong output.
"I'll just include everything"	Token flooding degrades quality. Prune to signal.