# Context Isolation

Source: https://customlabs.io/glossary/context-isolation/
Updated: 2026-09-13

Agents

# Context Isolation

Context isolation gives each delegated unit of work its own scoped context window.

The boundary between units carries a structured handoff, not the parent's raw transcript.

That handoff states what was asked, what was decided, and what is still open.

What crosses the boundary is an explicit allowlist, not an open channel.

Skipping isolation is a common, quiet source of an agent doing the wrong thing for unexplained reasons.

[Context Engineering](https://customlabs.io/context-engineering/#surface-isolation)[The Agentic Delivery Playbook](https://customlabs.io/agentic-delivery/)

[← Back to the full glossary](https://customlabs.io/glossary/)

## Related terms

[Context Engineering Context engineering decides what occupies a model's context window at every step, and in what order.](https://customlabs.io/glossary/context-engineering/)[Context Window The context window is the maximum text, measured in tokens, a model can consider at once.](https://customlabs.io/glossary/context-window/)

## More in Agents

[Agent (Agentic AI) An agent is an LLM given a loop, memory, and tools it can call.](https://customlabs.io/glossary/agent/)[Tool Calling Tool calling lets a model request a structured action instead of only generating text.](https://customlabs.io/glossary/tool-calling/)[Model Context Protocol (MCP) MCP is an open standard for connecting LLM applications to tools and data sources.](https://customlabs.io/glossary/model-context-protocol/)[Tool Contract A tool contract is the schema a tool exposes to a model.](https://customlabs.io/glossary/tool-contract/)