Managing work context — Knowledge data 2026 | Stack Overflow Developer Survey

Developer Survey 2026

Question

Which of the following do you do to manage or prepare context for your work? Select all that apply.

multi select
Optional
v2026.1

Data

	Respondents	Percent
Keep notes or prompts in a separate document	6,495	53.9%
Maintain personal documentation or notes	6,482	53.8%
Start new AI chats or sessions to reset context	5,415	45.0%
Maintain team documentation or wikis	5,178	43.0%
Ask teammates where to find information	4,572	38.0%
Manually select files or documents for AI tools	4,174	34.7%
Search across multiple tools	3,993	33.2%
Copy and paste information between tools	3,939	32.7%
Reuse saved prompts or templates	1,892	15.7%
Limit the context I share because of privacy/security concerns	1,198	10.0%
I do not do anything specific to manage context	829	6.9%
Other	199	1.7%

Use this data

Citation

Response data is released under the ODbL 1.0, which asks that you attribute it.

Stack Exchange Inc. (2026). “Managing work context”. Stack Overflow Developer Survey 2026. Licensed under ODbL 1.0. https://survey.stackoverflow.co/2026/knowledge/data/context-work

JSON

Structured for code, with the question, the year and the source url alongside the numbers.

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  "question": "Managing work context",
  "dataId": "ContextWork",
  "asked": "Which of the following do you do to manage or prepare context for your work? Select all that apply.",
  "year": "2026",
  "url": "https://survey.stackoverflow.co/2026/knowledge/data/context-work",
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  "data": [
    {
      "response": "Keep notes or prompts in a separate document",
      "count": 6495,
      "pct": 0.539
    },
    {
      "response": "Maintain personal documentation or notes",
      "count": 6482,
      "pct": 0.538
    },
    {
      "response": "Start new AI chats or sessions to reset context",
      "count": 5415,
      "pct": 0.45
    },
    {
      "response": "Maintain team documentation or wikis",
      "count": 5178,
      "pct": 0.43
    },
    {
      "response": "Ask teammates where to find information",
      "count": 4572,
      "pct": 0.38
    },
    {
      "response": "Manually select files or documents for AI tools",
      "count": 4174,
      "pct": 0.347
    },
    {
      "response": "Search across multiple tools",
      "count": 3993,
      "pct": 0.332
    },
    {
      "response": "Copy and paste information between tools",
      "count": 3939,
      "pct": 0.327
    },
    {
      "response": "Reuse saved prompts or templates",
      "count": 1892,
      "pct": 0.157
    },
    {
      "response": "Limit the context I share because of privacy/security concerns",
      "count": 1198,
      "pct": 0.1
    },
    {
      "response": "I do not do anything specific to manage context",
      "count": 829,
      "pct": 0.069
    },
    {
      "response": "Other",
      "count": 199,
      "pct": 0.017
    }
  ]
}

Markdown

A formatted table, ready to paste into a document, an issue or a prompt.

|  | Respondents | Percent |
| --- | ---: | ---: |
| Keep notes or prompts in a separate document | 6,495 | 53.9% |
| Maintain personal documentation or notes | 6,482 | 53.8% |
| Start new AI chats or sessions to reset context | 5,415 | 45.0% |
| Maintain team documentation or wikis | 5,178 | 43.0% |
| Ask teammates where to find information | 4,572 | 38.0% |
| Manually select files or documents for AI tools | 4,174 | 34.7% |
| Search across multiple tools | 3,993 | 33.2% |
| Copy and paste information between tools | 3,939 | 32.7% |
| Reuse saved prompts or templates | 1,892 | 15.7% |
| Limit the context I share because of privacy/security concerns | 1,198 | 10.0% |
| I do not do anything specific to manage context | 829 | 6.9% |
| Other | 199 | 1.7% |

Spreadsheet

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