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The Context Window

  1. 01The Context Window
  2. 02Memory card
  3. 03What the model sees
  4. 04Fill it up
  5. 05What gets cut
  6. 06No memory between chats
  7. 07Take a breath
  8. 08Reinforce your understanding
  9. 09Question: What fits in the window
  10. 10Question: The illusion of memory
  11. 11Quiz: answer
  12. 12The window is the world
  13. 13Want to go deeper?
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Module IX

Talking to the Model

Chapter I

The Context Window

In this chapter

  • What the model seesthe single block of text it reads each turn
  • No memory between chatswhy the continuity is an illusion
  • What gets cutwhat happens when the window fills up
  • The window is the worldwhy what you put in shapes what comes out

The last module left us with a model whose knowledge is frozen and which keeps no memory between conversations. That sounds like a dead end. It is the opposite. If the model itself cannot change, then everything you actually steer happens in the text you hand it. That text has a name, and a shape, and edges.

A conversation with a language model can feel like talking to someone who is following along. The model is doing nothing of the kind. Each time it replies, it starts cold and reads one block of text from the top: the window. Whatever is in that window is its entire world for that moment. Whatever is not in it does not exist.

So the window is the one lever you hold. Fill it well and you get sharp, useful answers. Let it clog with noise, or let the part that mattered slide off the edge, and the model works with what is left, never knowing anything is missing.

This chapter is about that window: what is in it, why it has a hard edge, and what happens when it overflows.

Citations