Context Engineering — A Comprehensive Hands-On Tutorial with DSPy

Context engineering is an advanced method for building LLM applications that breaks down complex problems into a series of smaller, manageable tasks. Instead of feeding all information to a single model, this approach uses multiple specialized AI agents in a structured workflow, each handling a specific subproblem with tailored context. This modular system prevents "context rot," where too much irrelevant data degrades performance, and allows for using different-sized models appropriate for each task's complexity. Frameworks like DSPy facilitate this process by separating data definitions from control logic, making it easier to build robust, multi-step agentic systems.