Contextual knowledge

Facts the agent can read directly from the context right now — the user's task, files the agent has read in, tool results, AGENTS.md content loaded at session start. Counterpart to parametric knowledge: parametric is recalled from the parameters; contextual is read from the window. Hallucinations are much less common when the agent works from contextual knowledge — the answer is right in front of it, not dredged up from a blurred memory.

Reach for this term only when contrasting with parametric knowledge; otherwise just say context.

Avoid: "working memory" — contextual knowledge is what's in the window now; a memory system is what gets cross-session content into it. Different scales, don't conflate.

Usage:

"Why does it nail the API when I paste the docs and fabricate it when I don't?"

"With the docs in, it's contextual knowledge — reading off the page. Without, it's parametric and the rare endpoints blur."