18 lines
2.4 KiB
Markdown
18 lines
2.4 KiB
Markdown
# Producer Brief — Episode 007: Context Engineering (It's Not Just Prompts)
|
|
|
|
## Topic
|
|
The discipline of getting the *right information* to the model at the *right time* — and the 2026 reframing that "prompt engineering" was the wrong name. Context engineering splits into four levers: instructions (system prompt / behavioral framing), retrieval (RAG / grounded search), memory (short-term conversation + long-term persistent state), and tools (the function-calling surface, increasingly standardized via MCP).
|
|
|
|
## Why It Matters
|
|
This is the connective tissue for everything in episodes 004-006. MoA is about context *from peers*; verification is context *about correctness*; computer use is context *about the screen*. Context engineering is the meta-skill: a coding agent that forgets your architecture decisions after two sessions is broken *even if its prompt is perfect*. The high-signal point — most agents fail not on model quality but on context design (what's in the window, what's retrieved, what's remembered, what's scoped out).
|
|
|
|
## Seed Question (goes to Leonard first)
|
|
"People keep calling it 'prompt engineering' like it's about writing a clever instruction. But the 2026 take is that the real discipline is context engineering — four levers: instructions, retrieval, memory, and tools. A coding agent with a perfect prompt that forgets your architecture after two sessions is still broken. So what actually separates an agent that has context from one that's just got a big prompt?"
|
|
|
|
## Context Notes (background depth — NOT a script)
|
|
- Four-component model (Sourcegraph, May 2026; Anthropic guidance): instructions, retrieval (RAG/grounded search), memory (short + long-term persistent), tools (MCP-standardized function surface).
|
|
- Mem0 / Supermemory framing: shift from crafting better prompts → designing memory architectures; separates functional prototypes from agents that provide genuine value.
|
|
- Anthropic "Effective context engineering": keep context informative yet *tight*; dynamically retrieve context at runtime rather than stuffing the window.
|
|
- Long-term memory is the unsolved part: external scratchpads/files/memory stores that survive beyond a single window and are recalled deliberately.
|
|
- Builder angle: Hermes itself — persistent memory across sessions, MCP tools, retrieval. Is the talk-show's own Leonard/Charlie design (no persistent memory per their CORE RULES) a feature or a bug for a *show*? Good tension to land on.
|