Progressive Context Disclosure

Give the AI the rules it needs. Nothing more.

Most developers set up AI coding rules once and call it done. They create a single file, drop every style guide, architecture pattern and database convention into it, and ship. Then they wonder why the AI still seems distracted.

The problem isn't the rules. It's the delivery mechanism.

**A monolithic rule file is like handing a chef the entire culinary encyclopedia every time they need to slice an onion.** The information is accurate. The timing is terrible. Every request to fix a CSS typo now pays the token cost of your database schema rules, your deployment checklist and your brand voice guidelines sitting right there in context.

And attention isn't free. When the AI reads a 400-line rule file, the relevant rules compete with irrelevant ones for the model's focus. The signal gets diluted.

The fix is simpler than it sounds: stop front-loading context. Instead, deliver rules on-demand.

**The SKILL.md paradigm** breaks one monolithic file into isolated skill sheets. A frontend project might have `skills/css-modules.md`, `skills/redux-state.md` and `skills/api-fetching.md` sitting in a dedicated directory. Each file is small, focused and expert on exactly one thing.

To activate this automatically, you configure a session-start hook. It's lightweight. When you begin a task, the hook scans what you're working on. Opening a `.tsx` file? The React skill loads. Touching a database migration? The schema conventions load. Nothing else.

This is Progressive Context Disclosure: the AI receives context progressively, based on what is actually needed right now.

The downstream effect compounds fast. Token costs drop because you stop sending rules that don't apply. Code quality improves because the AI's attention isn't split across irrelevant instructions. Onboarding new rules becomes surgical. Add a file, activate it for the right tasks. Done.

The key insight is that rule quality and rule quantity are different problems. Most teams solve quality. Delivery is the unlock.