Context Engineering Kung Fu

When agents fail, it’s rarely because the model is weak, it’s because the context is weak. LLMs behave like pure functions: what goes in determines what comes out. That makes context the true battleground, and mastery of it a form of kung fu. Context Engineering Kung Fu is about developing precision, restraint, and control over what a model sees. This session goes teaches the fundamentals: how to write clean instructions, select only what matters, compress information without losing force, and isolate signals so they don’t interfere with each other. You’ll learn how context decays over time, why bloated prompts make agents slower and less reliable, and how to recognize when a model is overwhelmed rather than underpowered. We’ll also cover advanced techniques: when memory strengthens an agent and when it quietly sabotages one, how to structure context so it remains stable under iteration, and how to break complex problems into smaller, deliberate moves that models can execute with confidence.