Context Is a Living Layer, Not a Document

What this chapter covers

Most teams write a context document once, celebrate, and watch it rot. Definitions drift, products launch, macro conditions shift, and agents quietly relearn the wrong thing. Context is not a deliverable — it is a living layer that needs ownership, versioning, review cadence, and change management, exactly like production code.

Key takeaways

• Why static context documents decay faster than most teams expect
• How to version context and review changes like pull requests
• Assigning clear ownership so definitions have a name attached
• Detecting drift between what the business means and what the agent believes
• A practical review cadence that scales past the first few domains