[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":150},["ShallowReactive",2],{"glossary-en":3},{"id":4,"title":5,"attribution":6,"body":7,"definition":140,"description":141,"extension":142,"eyebrow":143,"meta":144,"navigation":145,"path":146,"seo":147,"stem":148,"__hash__":149},"docs\u002Fen\u002Fglossary.md","Glossary: Context Architecture and adjacent terms",null,{"type":8,"value":9,"toc":128},"minimark",[10,20,25,28,32,35,39,42,46,57,61,64,68,93,97,100,104],[11,12,13,14,19],"p",{},"The terms around AI agents and code are used loosely and get confused. This glossary gives each one\na short, self-contained definition and says how it relates to Context Architecture. For the full\ntreatment of the three disciplines, see the ",[15,16,18],"a",{"href":17},"\u002Fcomparison","comparison",".",[21,22,24],"h2",{"id":23},"context-architecture","Context Architecture",[11,26,27],{},"A software architecture for the age of AI agents: the practice of structuring a codebase so that its\nintent and behavior are equally legible to people and AI agents. It treats the repository itself\n(its file tree, boundaries, conventions, and embedded context) as a designed artifact, not an\naccident of growth. It operates at design time, and it is the structural counterpart to context\nengineering and harness engineering. Introduced by Sergio Azócar in October 2025.",[21,29,31],{"id":30},"context-engineering","Context engineering",[11,33,34],{},"The runtime discipline of deciding what enters the model's context window at each step: which files,\ninstructions, and tool results are loaded. It designs the contents of the window. Context\nArchitecture designs the thing the window looks at, the codebase. Better Context Architecture means\nthere is less to compress at runtime.",[21,36,38],{"id":37},"harness-engineering","Harness engineering",[11,40,41],{},"The operational discipline of designing the environment an agent runs in: the execution loop, the\ntools it can call, and the guardrails that keep it safe and let it self-correct. It designs the\nagent's operating environment. Context Architecture designs the codebase that environment operates\non. Better Context Architecture means fewer corrective guardrails in the harness.",[21,43,45],{"id":44},"agentsmd","AGENTS.md",[11,47,48,49,53,54,56],{},"A file of embedded context placed at a meaningful boundary in a repository, holding only what cannot\nbe learned by reading the code: the source of truth, the invariants, the accepted tech debt, and the\nrationale a spec leaves behind. Because it sits next to the code, it is reviewed in the same pull\nrequest, ages at the same rate, and is found by the same agent about to edit it. ",[50,51,52],"code",{},"CLAUDE.md"," is the\ntool-specific equivalent some agents read. In Context Architecture, an ",[50,55,45],{}," is the artifact of\nthe second principle (Context Lives With Code), and each claim it makes should be bound to a\nmechanism.",[21,58,60],{"id":59},"spec-driven-development","Spec-driven development",[11,62,63],{},"Writing intent as a specification before the code exists: the spec defines the what, not the how,\nwith acceptance criteria the implementation is checked against. In Context Architecture (third\nprinciple, Intent Becomes Mechanism), the spec is design-time scaffolding, not a durable artifact.\nOnce its acceptance criteria become tests, its contracts become types, and its conventions become\nlint, it has done its job and is removed, so it cannot drift. It is kept only when it stays\ngenerative, feeding code generation or a spec-driven loop.",[21,65,67],{"id":66},"screaming-architecture","Screaming Architecture",[11,69,70,71,74,75,78,79,82,83,74,86,74,89,92],{},"The principle, named by Robert C. Martin in 2011, that a software system's structure should announce\nwhat it does, not which framework built it: the top level should scream ",[50,72,73],{},"billing",", ",[50,76,77],{},"payments",",\n",[50,80,81],{},"onboarding",", not ",[50,84,85],{},"controllers",[50,87,88],{},"services",[50,90,91],{},"utils",". Context Architecture is its heir. It inherits\nthe ideal and extends it to a reader with no memory, the AI agent, for whom the structure must scream\neven more legibly, because the agent will not paper over ambiguity with intuition.",[21,94,96],{"id":95},"context-rot","Context-rot",[11,98,99],{},"The silent decay of documentation as the code it describes changes: a doc that cites a deleted file,\nnames a renamed module, or contradicts the current behavior, while still reading as authoritative. A\nconfident reader obeys it, so rotted context is worse than none. The rule at the heart of Context\nArchitecture exists to prevent it: every claim a repository makes about itself must be bound to a\nmechanism that fails when the claim stops being true.",[21,101,103],{"id":102},"where-to-go-next","Where to go next",[105,106,107,116,121],"ul",{},[108,109,110,111,115],"li",{},"The ",[15,112,114],{"href":113},"\u002F","specification",": the rule, the four pillars, the mechanism, and the eight principles.",[108,117,110,118,120],{},[15,119,18],{"href":17},": Context Architecture vs. context engineering vs. harness\nengineering.",[108,122,110,123,127],{},[15,124,126],{"href":125},"\u002Fguide","guide",": how to apply it to an existing codebase.",{"title":129,"searchDepth":130,"depth":130,"links":131},"",2,[132,133,134,135,136,137,138,139],{"id":23,"depth":130,"text":24},{"id":30,"depth":130,"text":31},{"id":37,"depth":130,"text":38},{"id":44,"depth":130,"text":45},{"id":59,"depth":130,"text":60},{"id":66,"depth":130,"text":67},{"id":95,"depth":130,"text":96},{"id":102,"depth":130,"text":103},"Context Architecture is the design-time discipline of structuring a codebase so it is legible to people and AI agents. This glossary defines it alongside the adjacent terms it is most often confused with, so each can be cited precisely.","Concise, citable definitions of Context Architecture and the terms it is most often confused with: context engineering, harness engineering, AGENTS.md, spec-driven development, and Screaming Architecture. A specification by Sergio Azócar.","md","Glossary",{},true,"\u002Fen\u002Fglossary",{"title":5,"description":141},"en\u002Fglossary","Ktoo-mj-sw5fghIUlMhP0ccIFFgONNlPXzws9lGSmAM",1781920627983]