The Context Ladder
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The Context Ladder
Think of context as having layers, and think about which layer each piece of information belongs in.
Permanent context — things that are always true and never change much. Your name, your voice, your core preferences, your professional identity. This lives in CLAUDE.md or SOUL.md and loads every session.
Project context — things that are true for a specific body of work. The tech stack you’re using, the constraints of the project, decisions already made. This lives in a project-level CLAUDE.md in the relevant directory, or in a dedicated project notes file.
Session context — things that are true for this particular piece of work right now. The specific task, any recent decisions, relevant background for this session. This goes in the prompt or in a file you reference explicitly at the start of the session.
Task context — the immediate request. What you want, in what format, with what constraints. The prompt itself.
Most prompting advice conflates all four layers and tries to put everything in the task context. That’s why prompts get long and unwieldy. When your permanent context is properly established in files, your prompts can be short and precise.