Re-explaining tax
Two forms of the tax
Per-chat: a fresh conversation does not know what you set last week. Per-tool: what one app learns never crosses to another. Neither is dramatic alone. Together they eat a real slice of every session.
The tax compounds
Cumulative minutes re-explaining · illustrative
Without a context file
With a context file
Why the usual patches fail
- Custom instructions: short, per-account, one app only.
- Pasting a blurb: works once, then goes stale.
- Built-in memory: opaque, trapped inside one vendor.
What actually ends it
| Approach | Across chats | Across tools | Editable |
|---|---|---|---|
| Custom instructions | Inside one app | No | Capped |
| Pasting a blurb | Only if you paste | Only where you paste | Goes stale |
| Built-in memory | Inside one app | No | Partly |
| One context file | Yes | Yes | Plain Markdown |
- 1.Write the durable basics once.
- 2.Cut anything that would not change an answer.
- 3.Connect the file to each tool.
- 4.Approve agent updates as your work shifts.
Common questions
Context lives inside each app. New chats start cold, and what one tool learns never reaches another.
Only inside one app. They leave the cross-tool problem untouched.
One portable context file that every tool reads before it answers.