Phase 2: Context Engineering for Builders · 40 min · Claude Code · Python

What Context Engineering Actually Is

The context window is RAM, not a diary. What you load, and what you evict, is the actual engineering.

Real-world application: Explaining why 'just paste more context' makes an agent worse, not better, shows you understand context engineering as an active discipline rather than a synonym for 'give it more information.'

What you will learn

Explain the context window as a RAM-like budget: small, fast, expensive, and volatile
Name the four context types: instructions, knowledge, tools, feedback
Explain why adding more context can degrade an agent's output instead of improving it
Classify a real context item into its correct type and compute whether a context budget has been exceeded

Introduction

What Context Engineering Actually Is

Objective

Classify real context items into the four context types, sum their tokens against a stated budget, and recommend what to evict first when the budget is exceeded.

Unlock the full lesson

You've read the first 2 sections. The rest of this lesson covers The Problem, The Concept, Build, Check Yourself, Key Terms & Next — plus a hands-on lab, quiz, and project artifact.

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