Progressive Disclosure: What, Where, When, and Why

As coding agents become more integrated into development workflows, developers often struggle with bloated instruction files like CLAUDE.md. This article argues that keeping all instructions in a single, always-on file leads to context rot and diluted model attention. Instead, the author advocates for 'progressive disclosure,' a strategy that breaks down instructions into modular components. By defining 'what' loads (skills), 'where' it loads (path-based scoping), and 'when' it loads (event-based triggers), developers can ensure that AI agents receive only the relevant context for a specific task. This approach prevents instruction competition and improves the quality of AI-assisted coding. The piece emphasizes that managing AI instructions is no longer about maintaining a single document, but about architecting a system of scoped rules that load on cue, ultimately optimizing the agent's limited attention budget for better performance.