# RFC-0003: Engineering Context

**Status:** Proposed
**Phase:** The Bedrock Phase

## Abstract

This RFC proposes that "preserving engineering context" be the defining purpose of the standard, and establishes the minimum required structure for a context record.

## Motivation

When engineers lose the reasoning behind decisions, they re-derive understanding from first principles. This is wasteful and error-prone. The most valuable thing a standard can preserve is not the final artifact, but the context that produced it.

## Observation

Engineers across all disciplines report that inherited systems without context records require significantly more effort to maintain, modify, or extend than systems with preserved reasoning.

## Engineering Principle

Open Engineer is an open standard for preserving engineering context. The context record — a structured document with defined required fields — is the unit of preservation.

## Reasoning

Context preservation is the thread made concrete. The minimum required fields (defined in OE-0003) give the standard an implementable artifact: a practitioner can produce a context record, and a subsequent practitioner can evaluate whether it meets the completeness criterion.

## Relationship to Existing Concepts

Engineering context is defined in OE-0003. Context records are the output of the decision process (OE-0008).