Individual skill
context-budget
Use when a coding session is burning context fast, output is drowning in noise, the model keeps forgetting earlier decisions, or the user asks to reduce tokens, stop the verbose narration, work in a huge repo, or make a long session survive. Covers what to read, what to summarize, what to write to disk, and when to start fresh.
context-budget/SKILL.md
Source commit b2267d9171af4f56848d82992381b20b89b44056
What was checked
- Matches the observed repository HEAD
- Yes
- Scanner rules are current
- Yes
- Repository scan complete
- No
- Skill scan complete
- No
- Observed behavior
- Instructions only
- Last checked
- Nov 10, 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)
- 425
- Repository last updated
- Oct 20, 2026
- License
- MIT
Observed agent integration: No specific integration evidence. Standard SKILL.md installation does not imply verified compatibility.
- agent-skills Repository topic
- ai-agents Repository topic
- anthropic Repository topic
- claude Repository topic
- claude-code Repository topic
- claude-skills Repository topic
- developer-tools Repository topic
- llm Repository topic
- prompt-engineering Repository topic
- sales-automation Repository topic
- engineering Derived category
- finance Derived category
Files and excerpt
File metadata and permitted, redacted excerpts come from the recorded scan. Source links are pinned to that commit.
Read excerpt
# Context Budget
Context is the scarcest resource in a long session. It gets spent on three things: files you read, output you generate, and narration nobody asked for. Only the first one is usually worth it.
## Core Behavior
Treat the context window like a budget with a balance. Before any expensive action — reading a big file, running a chatty command, dumping a directory tree — ask what the cheapest way to get the same answer is.
## Spend Rules
**Read narrowly.** `sed -n '120,190p' file.ts` beats reading a 2,000-line file to see one function. Grep for the symbol, then read the 40 lines around it. Read a whole file only when you are about to restructure it.
**Search before reading.** `grep -rn "symbolName" --include="*.ts"` costs a few hundred tokens and tells you which of forty files matters.
