Context-Driven Development

Guide for implementing and maintaining context as a managed artifact alongside code, enabling consistent AI interactions and team alignment through structured project documentation.

When to Use This Skill

• Setting up new projects with Conductor
• Understanding the relationship between context artifacts
• Maintaining consistency across AI-assisted development sessions
• Onboarding team members to an existing Conductor project
• Deciding when to update context documents
• Managing greenfield vs brownfield project contexts

Detailed patterns and worked examples

Detailed pattern documentation lives in references/details.md. Read that file when the navigation tier above is insufficient.

Best Practices

1. Read context first: Always read relevant artifacts before starting work
2. Small updates: Make incremental context changes, not massive rewrites
3. Link decisions: Reference context when making implementation choices
4. Version context: Commit context changes alongside code changes
5. Review context: Include context artifact reviews in code reviews
6. Validate regularly: Run context validation checklist before major work
7. Communicate changes: Notify team when context artifacts change significantly
8. Preserve history: Use git to track context evolution over time
9. Question staleness: If context feels wrong, investigate and update
10. Keep it actionable: Every context item should inform a decision or behavior