CONTEXT ROT AND CONTEXT BLOAT

LEARNING GOALS In Chapter 18 you learned that the context window is a limited desk. In this chapter you will learn two ways that desk goes wrong even before it is completely full. The first is context bloat, where the desk fills up with low-value clutter. The second is context rot, where the model gets worse at using information as the desk gets very crowded. You will also learn a classic test, called needle-in-a-haystack testing, and you will learn the warning signs that an agent's context has degraded.