Context engineering for design work¶
Purpose: How to load design-knowledge/ efficiently in Cursor — right information, right time, minimal token waste.
Companion: AGENTS.md · ../ai-engineering/context-engineering.md
Harvest / review: 2026-05
Principles¶
| Principle | Practice |
|---|---|
| Task-first loading | Pick docs from AGENTS.md tables — not the whole tree |
| Separate global vs project | design-knowledge/ = any project; projects/<name>/ = one vertical only |
| Summarize, then link | Our docs hold patterns; SOURCE_INDEX.md holds authorities |
| Accessibility is non-optional | Include ui-design/accessibility.md for any public web UI |
| Refresh on ship | After major UI ship, note what docs were wrong/missing in session-log.md |
Context layers¶
flowchart TB
L1[Layer 1 - AGENTS.md task map]
L2[Layer 2 - 3 to 5 topic docs]
L3[Layer 3 - SOURCE_INDEX deep links]
L4[Layer 4 - projects sub-folder if applicable]
L1 --> L2
L2 --> L3
L2 --> L4
| Layer | What | When |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | AGENTS.md |
Start of every design session |
| 2 | Topic docs (principles, a11y, e-commerce, etc.) | Implementation + review |
| 3 | External URLs from SOURCE_INDEX.md |
Disputes, audits, “what does WCAG say?” |
| 4 | projects/* |
Only for named sub-projects |
Suggested prompt prefix (copy into project rules)¶
Before UI or API design changes, read design-knowledge/AGENTS.md and load the task-matched docs listed there. Apply ui-design/accessibility.md for public web. Do not load projects/ unless this session is for that sub-project.
Chunking for long builds¶
| Phase | Load |
|---|---|
| Discovery / IA | website-design/information-architecture.md, design-thinking/human-centered-process.md |
| Visual / components | ui-design/principles.md, ui-design/design-systems.md |
| Build static pages | design-patterns/static-site-patterns.md, ui-design/accessibility.md |
| Checkout / donate | e-commerce/checkout-and-payments.md or e-commerce/donations-nonprofit.md |
| API layer | backend-design/api-design-rest.md, full-stack/contract-first.md |
| Pre-launch QA | design-thinking/ux-research-methods.md, ui-design/accessibility.md |
Unload prior phase docs from active context when switching phases if the window is tight.
Agent hint¶
When the user says “design knowledge” or “use our design KB,” resolve to this folder — not equine projects/ unless they name that project.