Add the Smallest Useful Context

Once you know which information matters, decide how to make it available for the request. In many assistants you can reference a file, attach an item or select a relevant passage. The exact control names differ. The useful habit is deliberate selection: identify the material the assistant needs for this question and make its role clear in your request.

For our two-sentence invitation, the current session facts and the audience are usually enough. The assistant does not need every supplier invoice, last year’s marketing plan or the whole customer database. A smaller set is easier for you to review and reduces the chance that unrelated material influences the wording. More attachments do not automatically make the answer more reliable.

In VS Code, supported chat context can include explicit references and information gathered through tools. A file reference does not always mean the full contents of every nearby folder enter the model’s request. Search tools may retrieve relevant parts. Ask the assistant to name what it actually consulted if the distinction affects the result. Treat source awareness as something to verify, not a guess based on an open tab.

The prepared prompt says: use current-facts.md for session details and working-preferences.md for the tone. Draft two sentences only; do not send them. Notice that it also explains why each file is present. If the assistant sees the old fact sheet while searching, the project overview’s source rule helps it recognize that the archive does not control the current invitation.

You can start with a smaller excerpt when that is sufficient and permitted. For example, the confirmed time and booking rule may be enough for a reminder. Keep enough surrounding detail to avoid distorting the meaning. If a sentence says a discount applies only to members, selecting the price without that condition would be misleading context, even though the excerpt is short.

Choose the relevant pair in the browser activity. The lesson is not asking you to master every attachment control. It is teaching you to connect a source to a purpose. When you use a different assistant later, that decision still applies even if the button says Add Context, Attach, Reference or something else.