PATTERNCONTEXT ENGINEERING4 MIN
Budgeted retrieval
Open with the claim in two sentences — what the pattern does and when it earns its keep.
WHY IT WORKS
Two or three paragraphs of reasoning on why small context wins.
THE TEMPLATE
RETRIEVAL BUDGET <max items / tokens, stated explicitly> TASK <the instruction>
WHERE IT FAILS
One short paragraph on the case where this pattern makes things worse.