Why one developer ditched prompt engineering for context engineering

A developer writing for DEV Community and IndieCore.net argues that the real lever for effective AI-assisted coding is not crafting better prompts but building a well-documented repository. Over roughly a year, he shifted from writing lengthy, carefully phrased prompts to embedding conventions, rules, and architectural context directly into README and CONTRIBUTING files across the codebase. He found that AI agents perform consistently only when relevant context is present in the repository itself, since prompts are ephemeral while documentation persists across sessions. He also emphasises that rules should be enforced through failing builds wherever possible, reducing the need to re-explain constraints in every interaction. His conclusion is that good context engineering is largely the same as good documentation practice — work that benefits human collaborators and AI agents equally.