The stuff that's showing up under the "context engineering" banner feels a whole lot less alchemical to me than the older prompt engineering tricks.

Alchemical is "you are the world's top expert on marketing, and if you get it right I'll tip you $100, and if you get it wrong a kitten will die".

The techniques in https://www.dbreunig.com/2025/06/26/how-to-fix-your-context.... seem a whole lot more rational to me than that.