Same task, two contexts

kind: drill

Give an agent the same task twice: once with only the task, once with the spec, the relevant file and the error message. Compare the two results.

Solution

The first answer usually invents names that do not exist in your project and ignores your conventions; the second fits. The comparison is the point — it makes "context matters" an observation rather than a claim.

Write a continuation note and hand it over

kind: drill

Work on something for twenty minutes, write a continuation note, and give it to a classmate who then continues in a fresh session.

Solution

Whatever they have to ask you is what was missing from the note. Usually it is the decision, not the state: they can see where the code is, but not which of two paths you had already rejected — which is why they take it again.

Provoke a context overflow

kind: drill

Run a long session with many files and watch for the moment the agent contradicts an earlier decision. Note what triggered it.

Solution

Typically after long file dumps or a long back-and-forth. Restart with a two-line summary of the decision it forgot and observe that the problem disappears — that is the practical difference between "it forgot" and "the text left the window".

Add continuation notes to your project routine

kind: project

Agree in your team where continuation notes live in the repository, and write the first one at the end of today’s session.