Section 2 — Sessions, Context Windows & Turns
Context window
Everything the model sees on each model provider request. Finite, modelspecific, and the only surface through which the model perceives anything.
Matt Pocock
Everything the model sees on each model provider request. Finite, model-specific, and the only surface through which the model perceives anything.
Avoid: "memory" — the context window is working state and doesn't persist across sessions. Memory is a separate concept layered on top.
Usage:
"Can I just paste the whole monorepo into the prompt?"
"The context window's 200k tokens — that's maybe a fifth of the repo. Pick the files the task touches, leave the rest behind a tool call."
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