Context Collapse

When the AI lacks the information it needs to do the job. It’s working blind, so its actions miss the mark.

Theory

Missing context. The AI doesn’t have information it needs. You’re asking about a bug, but it hasn’t seen the error message. You want changes to a file it hasn’t read.

Lost runtime state. The AI spawns processes but doesn’t track them. It forgets what’s running, which ports are bound, which PIDs to kill.

Drowned context. Noise buries the signal. After enough retries, guesses, and failed attempts, the original goal gets pushed out of effective attention.

Ambiguous names. This website once had both a “tools” page explaining tool calling and a “tools” collection listing coding assistants. “Edit the tools page” was ambiguous for AI and humans alike. We renamed them to “tool use” and “coding assistants”—clearer for everyone.

Symptoms

• Actions that don’t relate to the actual task
• Ignoring key details you provided earlier
• Solving a problem you didn’t ask about

Mitigation

For missing context: give it what it needs. Point to the file, paste the error, show the output.

For drowned context: start fresh. Summarize where you are and what you need, or begin a new conversation.

For ambiguous names: rename things. If disambiguation helps the AI, it probably helps your users too.