---
name: attention-filters
description: Use when spawning archetype agents to decide what context each agent receives. Reduces token waste and sharpens focus by passing only relevant artifacts.
---

# Attention Filters

Each archetype needs different context. Pass only what's relevant — not everything.

| Archetype | Receives | Does NOT Receive |
|-----------|----------|-----------------|
| Explorer | Task description, codebase access | Prior proposals or reviews |
| Creator | Explorer's research + task description | Implementation details |
| Maker | Creator's proposal | Explorer's research, reviews |
| Guardian | Maker's git diff + proposal risk section | Explorer's research |
| Skeptic | Creator's proposal (focus: assumptions) | Git diff details |
| Trickster | Maker's git diff only | Everything else |
| Sage | Proposal + implementation + diff | Explorer's raw research |

## Why This Matters

- **Token cost:** A Guardian reading the Explorer's 2000-word research wastes ~2600 tokens on irrelevant context
- **Focus:** An agent with too much context drifts from its archetype's concern
- **Shadow prevention:** Over-loading context encourages rabbit-holing (Explorer) and scope creep (Maker)

## In Practice

When spawning a Check-phase agent, include only the filtered context in the prompt:

```
# Guardian receives:
"Review these changes: <git diff output>
The proposal identified these risks: <risks section only>
Verdict: APPROVED or REJECTED with findings."

# NOT:
"Here is the full research, the full proposal, the full implementation,
the full git log, and everything else we have..."
```

## Prompt Construction Templates

### Explorer
- **Receives:** Task description, file tree (max 200 lines), prior-cycle feedback (if cycle 2+)
- **Excludes:** Creator proposals, Maker diffs, reviewer outputs
- **Token target:** ~2000 tokens input

### Creator
- **Receives:** Task description, Explorer research (if available), prior-cycle feedback (if cycle 2+)
- **Excludes:** Maker diffs, reviewer outputs
- **Token target:** ~3000 tokens input

### Maker
- **Receives:** Creator's proposal (full), test strategy section, file list
- **Excludes:** Explorer research, reviewer outputs, prior-cycle feedback
- **Token target:** ~2500 tokens input

### Guardian
- **Receives:** Maker's git diff, proposal risk section, test results
- **Excludes:** Explorer research, Creator rationale, Skeptic/Sage outputs
- **Token target:** ~2000 tokens input

### Skeptic
- **Receives:** Creator's proposal (assumptions + architecture decision), confidence scores
- **Excludes:** Git diff details, Explorer raw research, other reviewer outputs
- **Token target:** ~1500 tokens input

### Trickster
- **Receives:** Maker's git diff only, attack surface summary (file types + entry points)
- **Excludes:** Proposal, research, other reviewer outputs
- **Token target:** ~1500 tokens input

### Sage
- **Receives:** Creator's proposal, Maker's implementation summary + diff, test results
- **Excludes:** Explorer raw research, other reviewer verdicts
- **Token target:** ~2500 tokens input

## Token Budget Targets

| Archetype | Fast | Standard | Thorough |
|-----------|------|----------|----------|
| Explorer  | skip | 2000     | 3000     |
| Creator   | 2000 | 3000     | 4000     |
| Maker     | 2000 | 2500     | 3000     |
| Guardian  | 1500 | 2000     | 2500     |
| Skeptic   | skip | 1500     | 2000     |
| Trickster | skip | skip     | 1500     |
| Sage      | skip | 2500     | 3000     |

"skip" means the archetype is not spawned in that workflow tier.

## Cycle-Back Filtering

When injecting prior-cycle feedback into cycle 2+:

1. **Summary only** — pass the structured feedback table (issue, source, severity), not full reviewer artifacts
2. **Strip resolved items** — if a finding was marked Fixed in the Act phase, exclude it
3. **Compress context** — prior proposal diffs reduce to "What Changed" section only (not full re-proposal)
4. **Cap at 500 tokens** — if feedback exceeds this, summarize by severity (CRITICAL first, then WARNING, drop INFO)

## Filter Verification Checklist

Before spawning each agent, verify:

- [ ] Prompt contains ONLY the artifacts listed in that archetype's "Receives" above
- [ ] No cross-contamination from other reviewers' outputs
- [ ] Token count is within 20% of the target for the current workflow tier
- [ ] Prior-cycle feedback (if any) is summarized, not raw
- [ ] Excluded artifacts are genuinely absent (search for keywords like file paths from excluded sources)

## Context Isolation

Attention filters control *what* each agent receives. Context isolation controls *how* that context is constructed — ensuring agents operate on provided facts, not ambient knowledge.

### Rules

1. **No session bleed.** Agents receive fresh context only — constructed from task description, artifact files, or extracted sections. They must not inherit session state, chat history, or prior agent prompts.
2. **No cross-agent contamination.** An agent receives another agent's output only if the attention filter table above explicitly allows it. Guardian does not see Skeptic's output. Skeptic does not see the Maker's diff. Violations produce unreliable reviews.
3. **Controller-constructed only.** All agent context is assembled by the orchestrator from: (a) the task description, (b) artifact files on disk, or (c) extracted sections of those artifacts. Agents never pull their own context.
4. **No ambient knowledge.** Agents cannot "remember" findings from prior phases or cycles unless that information is explicitly injected via the cycle-back filtering protocol above. An agent that references information not in its prompt is hallucinating.
5. **Verification.** Before spawning each agent, confirm the constructed prompt has zero references to other agents' raw outputs that are not in the "Receives" column. Search for file paths, archetype names, and finding descriptions from excluded sources.