--- title: "The constitutional structure of context" date: "2026-03" category: "Working with AI" tags: ["Working with AI"] description: "This paper is also interesting. It shows that even with a context file like agents.md, writing everything into it isn't always best..." source: "https://enriquemark.com/en/posts/%E4%B8%8A%E4%B8%8B%E6%96%87%E7%9A%84%E5%AE%AA%E6%B3%95%E7%BB%93%E6%9E%84" --- [This paper](https://arxiv.org/html/2602.11988v1) is also interesting. It shows that even with a context file like agents.md, writing everything into it isn't always best. That's the classic context pollution problem, because the weights are distributed like this: system -> agnets.md -> user. So with the weights being different, even if you add some new condition down at the user level, the agent may still go by the old stuff written in the md. So keeping that document updated matters. The paper shows that a file generated automatically by /init may pile on too many constraints and drag performance down, and that content should be written in the most minimal form. Personally I think the best way to manage md context files is to follow the idea behind Claude's constitutional AI. A file like agents.md or claude.md is like the supreme constitution, a set of rules of principle, which as a rule should change fairly rarely. The specific, recurring rules can go through "subordinate law", meaning you maintain an index pointing at other context and let the agent go look at it on its own when it wants. For the things that change often, like progress.md, I don't need to update the constitution every time. I only need the constitution to require it to check progress every time, and then maintain a progress structure that keeps changing. This is how skills are managed, a lean md file of principles plus specific md files that may change often, together forming a constitution - subordinate law - regulation system. Bigger projects are probably the only ones that need the regulation layer. For an ordinary small or mid-size project the two-layer constitution - subordinate law system is enough. --- **Translation note.** I wrote this in Chinese. This English version is an LLM translation, so the wording is not mine even though the thinking is. Original: [上下文的宪法结构]().