What is Progressive Disclosure?

Supplying a person or model with the minimum useful context first, then revealing deeper detail when the task or evidence requires it.

Why does Progressive Disclosure matter?

It limits context noise and cost while keeping authoritative detail available on demand.

Give a coding agent repository rules and a map first; load full implementation files only after it identifies the relevant module.

Progressive disclosure is staged access to detail, not deliberate withholding of information required for a decision.

Start with

The Workbench on a Real Repo
Eleven lessons of surfaces are worth nothing if they do not survive contact with a real codebase. This lesson runs the same task twice on a small sample app: prompt-only versus workbench-guided.
Phase 14: Agent Engineering

Lessons that name Progressive Disclosure in a title or section

Skill Discovery and Progressive Disclosure
A skill becomes useful before its body is loaded. Its name and description earn a place in the catalog; its deeper files earn context only when the task reaches them.
Phase 13: Tools & Protocols
Agent Instructions as Executable Constraints
Instructions written as prose are wishes. Instructions written as constraints are tests. The workbench turns each rule into something an agent can check at runtime and a reviewer can verify after…
Phase 14: Agent Engineering

Context EngineeringDesigning the full information environment supplied to a model at each step, including instructions, selected files, retrieved evidence,…
Repository MapA compact, maintained description of a repository's important directories, ownership boundaries, entry points, build commands, tests,…
Token BudgetAn explicit allocation of token capacity across instructions, evidence, history, tool results, reasoning or working space, and output.
HandoffA structured transfer of a task between people or agents that preserves the objective, current state, evidence, decisions, constraints,…
Agent SkillA discoverable directory of procedural instructions whose entry point is `SKILL.md`, with optional references, scripts, and assets that a…
Context CompressionReducing the token footprint of source material while attempting to preserve the information required for a later model decision.
Repository InstructionsVersion-controlled guidance that tells coding agents how a repository is organized, which commands and conventions apply, what boundaries…
Skill CatalogThe compact model-visible inventory of eligible skills, usually containing routing metadata such as name, description, and an internal…
Skill DiscoveryA runtime pipeline that searches configured roots, identifies candidate skill directories, validates their package contract, attaches…