Context engineering versus prompt engineering
Key Takeaway
Context engineering goes beyond the prompt text. It tunes everything available to the model so the agent's context stays consistent, focused, and accurate.
Prompt engineering is the practice of crafting prompts in a systematic and rigorous way to get better, more reliable results from a model. Context engineering is broader. It means giving an AI agent the right information, tools, and instructions to reach its goals. It covers everything the model has available, not just the prompt text. In Agentforce, good context engineering keeps an agent's context consistent, focused, and accurate, so the agent behaves reliably.
How context engineering differs from prompt engineering
Context engineering is wider in scope than prompt engineering or RAG. Each one has its own focus:
- Prompt engineering is a discipline focused on getting the best performance and reliability from models. Its focus is the direct instructions you give the model.
- RAG focuses on retrieving the right content.
- Context engineering covers the full perspective of everything available to the model.