Your AI coding agent gets worse as your codebase grows. Here's why.

Most people don't notice their AI coding agent gets worse as their codebase grows. Not because the model degrades. Because the context does. The pattern 50 files: Claude Code or Cursor sees enough of the codebase to follow conventions, reuse utilities, avoid duplication. The output is coherent. 500 files: it can't. So it reimplements helpers that already exist three folders away. Introduces naming conventions that contradict the rest. Generates functions nobody will ever call. "Fixes" bugs by st