Cognitive Locality
Tasks requiring the same mental model of a codebase should be assigned to the same agent/context — splitting them by task rather than by shared knowledge forces independent, duplicated reconstruction of that understanding.
Also known as: cognitive locality, tasks that need the same mental model should stay together
Part of: Multi-Agent Orchestration
How authors use it
Oldest first (extraction date when no publication date is known).
| Author | Their term | Their meaning |
|---|---|---|
| The Orchestrator's Tax Rahul Garg (martinfowler.com; edited/guided by Martin Fowler) · 2026-07-28 | Cognitive locality | Tasks that require reconstructing the same mental model of a codebase (architecture, conventions, surrounding code) should be assigned to the same agent/context; splitting them by task rather than by the knowledge they require forces independent, duplicated reconstruction. |
Documents (1)
- The Orchestrator's Tax Rahul Garg (martinfowler.com; edited/guided by Martin Fowler) · 2026-07-28 source ↗ Reader 🖥️
The real value of a subagent is not the wall-clock time it saves through parallel execution but what it keeps out of the orchestrator's context, so multi-agent workflows should be designed and governed around protecting the orchestrator's limited working memory — via task splits that respect 'cognitive locality' and via minimal, fact-justified standing rules — rather than around maximizing delegation, agent count, or governance.
Propositions touching this concept (1)
By publication month, oldest first (extraction month when no publication date is known).
2026-07
- explicitTasks that require reconstructing the same mental model of a codebase should be assigned to the same agent/context ('cognitive locality'); splitting them by task rather than by the knowledge each task requires forces multiple agents to independently rebuild the same understanding from scratch.