{
  "schema_version": "1.0",
  "surface_type": "guide_answer",
  "guide_id": "context-bloat-in-rag",
  "question": "How do I trim context bloat in an agent or RAG workflow without hurting answer quality?",
  "canonical_url": "https://www.unitcostai.com/guides/context-bloat-in-rag",
  "related_tool_url": "https://www.unitcostai.com/tools/context-window-cost",
  "formula": "candidate_input_tokens = task_tokens + target_non_task_tokens; cost_delta = cost_candidate - cost_baseline",
  "assumptions": [
    "Task tokens stay constant between baseline and candidate runs",
    "Non-task tokens are measured on production-like requests",
    "Quality is validated on sampled prompts before broad rollout"
  ],
  "example": "Baseline input 1800 with 850 non-task tokens trimmed to 300 lowers candidate input to 1250 before pricing is applied."
}