Give Just Enough Context

Relax. We'll talk through this in plain words — no textbook voice.

What you'll walk away with

Understand Give Just Enough Context without it feeling intimidating
Get hands-on practice using it yourself
Learn to spot and sidestep invented facts and secret-sharing, with a smile

Take a breath — this chapter is written to be read like a conversation, not a textbook, so it's easy to follow.

Let's Think About It for a Second

Context gives the model a small world to work in — who's reading, what they already know, what text to work from. A week of chat history, a whole PDF, your diary — that's not context, that's a trash bin. Just as RAG says don't paste in a whole file, don't paste your whole life into a prompt either. Add only what you could read over one cup of tea.

Connect It to Everyday Life

Enough context — audience, one line on the subject, short notes, what you don't want. Too much — everyone's name in the class, last year's grades, the teacher's mood, ten unrelated web pages. In your first study prompts, keep context under 8 lines. Need more? Go fetch it with RAG first, then add it. Don't dump a whole bag of salt into the broth.

Audience + short notes + what to exclude
Start with under 8 lines
Don't paste in a whole book

Let's Try It Together

markdown

Context:
- Reader: age 14
- Topic: photosynthesis
- Notes: plants use sunlight to make food
- Do not: exam jargon

You should see

You can write short, sufficient context.

Try It in 5 Minutes

Write 8 lines of context for a task. Cut it to 3. Explain what you dropped and why.

A Quick Heads-Up

If your context has a phone number or a password in it, that's not broth anymore — that's a fire hazard.

Easy traps

Pasting an entire chat thread
Asking it to guess with no context at all

Try It Yourself Now

Write 8 lines of context for a task. Cut it to 3. Explain what you dropped and why.

You'll know it worked when: You can write short, sufficient context.