Individual skill
context-degradation
This skill should be used for diagnosing and mitigating context degradation: lost-in-middle failures, context poisoning, context clash, context confusion, attention-pattern issues, and agent performance degradation caused by accumulated or conflicting context.
skills/context-degradation/SKILL.md
Source commit 9ff0c99108b36d3b886defd825d8ac1f47dba374
What was checked
- Matches the observed repository HEAD
- Yes
- Scanner rules are current
- Yes
- Repository scan complete
- No
- Skill scan complete
- No
- Observed behavior
- Network or broad shell
- Last checked
- Nov 9, 2026
These are observations at the recorded commit, not a guarantee of safety. Review the source before running it.
Install this skill
Choose an agent in your Stack or copy a command below. Commands fetch the pinned commit and copy only this skill directory. Existing destinations are refused. Copying a command does not install anything.
An install command is unavailable: current rules, complete repository and skill scans, an eligible behavior level and a permitted license are required.
Repository context
- Repository stars (not skill ratings)
- 18,338
- Repository last updated
- Oct 12, 2026
- License
- MIT
Observed agent integration: No specific integration evidence. Standard SKILL.md installation does not imply verified compatibility.
- engineering Derived category
Files and excerpt
File metadata and permitted, redacted excerpts come from the recorded scan. Source links are pinned to that commit.
Browse files
SKILL.mdcore · 19,180 bytesSKILL.mdcore · 19,180 bytesSKILL.mdcore · 19,180 bytesSKILL.mdcore · 19,180 bytesSKILL.mdcore · 19,180 bytesSKILL.mdcore · 19,180 bytesSKILL.mdcore · 19,180 bytesSKILL.mdcore · 19,180 bytesreferences/patterns.mddoc · 9,963 bytesscripts/degradation_detector.pyruns · 22,496 bytes
Read excerpt
# Context Degradation Patterns
Diagnose and fix context failures before they cascade. Context degradation is not binary — it is a continuum that manifests through five distinct, predictable patterns: lost-in-middle, poisoning, distraction, confusion, and clash. Each pattern has specific detection signals and mitigation strategies. Treat degradation as an engineering problem with measurable thresholds, not an unpredictable failure mode.
## When to Activate
Activate this skill when:
- Agent performance degrades unexpectedly during long conversations
- Debugging cases where agents produce incorrect or irrelevant outputs
- Designing systems that must handle large contexts reliably
- Evaluating context engineering choices for production systems
- Investigating "lost in middle" phenomena in agent outputs
- Analyzing context-related failures in agent behavior