Context-Driven Engineering

Context-Driven Engineering (CDE) is an approach to software development that treats context as the primary artifact and code as a secondary, derived outcome.

In AI-assisted development, generating code is no longer the bottleneck. Maintaining coherent intent is.

The core idea

Modern software systems encode large amounts of design intent implicitly: in code structure, conventions and individual developer judgment. As AI agents take on more implementation work, this implicit context becomes fragile.

CDE asserts that:

• Context should be made explicit
• Design intent should outlive individual implementations
• AI agents should operate within authored, reviewable context

CDE shifts effort from writing code to designing and curating intent.

What CDE is — and is not

CDE is:

• A conceptual framework and school of thought
• Worldview-agnostic and deliberately non-prescriptive
• Focused on coherence, meaning and authority

CDE is not:

• A methodology or step-by-step process
• A tooling framework
• A claim that systems can be fully specified upfront

Learn more

The authoritative and up-to-date definition of CDE lives in the public GitHub repository:

https://github.com/symbolicmatter/context-driven-engineering

That repository contains the core definitions, explanations and evolving thinking behind CDE.

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Context-Driven Engineering is developed and published by Symbolic Matter, a research-driven studio exploring the intersection of software design, meaning, and emerging AI-assisted development practices.