The context packet

A coding assistant that starts a session by reading the whole project record pays for every line of it, every time. Past a certain size the record no longer fits, and “read the hub” quietly becomes “read the tail and hope”. The context packet replaces that.

rigger context <project> prints, in this order:

1. State - one line: current version, tier, last tag and its date, commits since.
2. Current stage - the version in progress and its open items.
3. Waiting for the owner - open questions, oldest first.
4. Recent events - the last few decisions, findings, pitfalls and changes.
5. Next step - the one line the previous session left behind.

The packet has a budget, measured in an approximation of tokens and enforced by a test in the repository. When a project outgrows it, the packet shortens the recent events and says so; it never truncates silently.

The packet is the contract

The same content is served by the MCP context tool, so a session started from the command line and one started from an editor see the same thing. Recording goes the other way through the same server: record_decision, record_finding, record_pitfall, record_change, set_next_step, ask_owner. The assistant never edits the record as text.

--json prints the packet as data for scripts and skills.