Project Context

Project context is the durable information that explains how a repository should be understood by agents and tools.

Typical examples

• architecture roles
• review constraints
• naming conventions
• release practices
• domain terminology
• long-lived product facts

This information is often rediscovered repeatedly in chat sessions or copied into tool-specific configuration. APC treats that as a project modeling problem.

Why it matters

Without a project context layer:

• instructions drift
• memory becomes private to one runtime
• different IDEs see different slices of the same project
• onboarding becomes slower and less predictable

With APC, the project can expose its intended context in a stable, inspectable way.

APC boundary

Project context should include information that remains meaningful after:

• restarting the editor
• switching machines
• changing model providers
• delegating work to a different agent runtime

Session-local scratch notes, UI preferences, and ephemeral prompts usually do not belong in APC unless the project explicitly chooses to preserve them.