Context Philosophy

Cognitive trades conversational convenience for engineering certainty.

It's not about avoiding dynamics, but avoiding uncontrollable dynamics.

Core Distinction

Cognitive Modules' advantages come from contract-level determinism, but this doesn't mean "no dynamic context".

Type	Description	Cognitive
Implicit Context	Auto-accumulated conversation history, Agent scratchpad, model "remembering"	❌ Forbidden
Explicit Context	Structured state snapshots, event windows, upstream module outputs	✅ Allowed

Judgment Criteria: Is it declared in the input Schema?

• In Schema → Verifiable → Allowed
• Not in Schema → Uncontrollable → Forbidden

Why Forbid Implicit Context?

Implicit context breaks three things Cognitive values highly:

1. Reproducibility - Same input should produce predictable output
2. Verifiability - Output can be validated with Schema
3. Auditability - Can trace why the model produced specific output

Explicit Context Patterns

Pattern 1: State Snapshot

{
  "input": {
    "type": "object",
    "properties": {
      "code": { "type": "string" },
      "previous_review": {
        "type": "object",
        "description": "Previous review result for iteration"
      }
    }
  }
}

Pattern 2: Event Window

{
  "input": {
    "type": "object",
    "properties": {
      "current_event": { "type": "object" },
      "recent_events": {
        "type": "array",
        "maxItems": 10,
        "description": "Last 10 relevant events"
      }
    }
  }
}

Pattern 3: Upstream Results

{
  "input": {
    "type": "object",
    "properties": {
      "user_request": { "type": "string" },
      "code_review_result": {
        "$ref": "#/$defs/CodeReviewResult",
        "description": "Result from code-reviewer module"
      }
    }
  }
}

Benefits

1. Testable - Can write golden tests with fixed context
2. Debuggable - Know exact input for any call
3. Composable - Modules connect via explicit contracts
4. Cacheable - Same input = same output (potentially)

Anti-patterns

❌ Don't do this:

Remember what we discussed earlier...
Based on our conversation...
As I mentioned before...

✅ Do this instead:

Based on the provided `previous_context`:
- Previous decision: {{previous_context.decision}}
- Reasoning: {{previous_context.rationale}}