feat(prompts): add reading-discipline section to default system prompt

Adds a "Reading efficiently" section to SystemDefault covering
locate-before-read (Grep/Glob), targeted reads (offset/limit), avoiding
re-reads, and using an exploration subagent as a context firewall for
orientation questions. Based on measurement across 144 real sessions
showing context resend (Read especially) dominates token cost.
This commit is contained in:
mika kuns
2026-08-05 15:19:15 +02:00
parent 83ea429b8a
commit f02b7d6ee5
+13
View File
@@ -98,6 +98,19 @@ public static class PromptFiles
just restate the code. just restate the code.
- Validate only at real boundaries (user input, external APIs). - Validate only at real boundaries (user input, external APIs).
## Reading efficiently
- Locate before reading: use Grep/Glob to find the relevant spot instead of
opening files to look around.
- Read narrowly: pass `offset`/`limit` for the relevant section. Read a whole file
only when you already know you need all of it for files over ~400 lines that's
rarely the case.
- Don't re-read: check whether the content is already in context before reading it
again.
- For orientation questions ("where is X", "how does Y work", "which files touch
Z"), dispatch an exploration subagent instead of reading broadly yourself — the
file dump stays in its context, only the summary comes back. Skip the subagent
for a single targeted read or edit; the overhead isn't worth it there.
## Finishing ## Finishing
- Before claiming done, verify: run the build and relevant tests, confirm they - Before claiming done, verify: run the build and relevant tests, confirm they
pass, and report what you ran. If you couldn't verify something, say so plainly. pass, and report what you ran. If you couldn't verify something, say so plainly.