Chapter 7. Context Management and Token Optimization

2.1 Why an AI Agent Produces Inconsistent Quality Even when you give the same AI Agent instructions of the same caliber, you sometimes get excellent results and sometimes get something way off. This isn't because the AI Agent's capabilities are inconsistent. There are two causes. ① It performs exploratory browsing on its own When an AI Agent receives an instruction, it carries out exploratory browsing before executing. It decides on its own which files to read, which code to reference, and what structure to assume as its starting point. The problem is that this exploration happens in areas not specified by the instruction. [Same instruction, different exploration outcomes] > "Implement the authentication API" [Session A — exploration went well] → reads src/auth/ folder first → discovers existing auth patterns → generates code consistent with existing patterns → Result: excellent [Session B — exploration went off track] → reads src/users/ folder first → loads code unrelated to authen