Context References

Context references let you attach files, directories, git diffs, and URLs directly into your chat messages using @ syntax.

Syntax

@README.md summarize this file
@src/components/ list all components
@HEAD~1 show the last commit diff
@https://example.com fetch and summarize this page

File references

Attach a single file:

@src/auth.ts why is this function async?

Attach multiple files:

@src/auth.ts @src/middleware.ts how do these interact?

Directory references

Attach an entire directory:

@src/components/ what's the component structure?

Mona reads the directory listing and key files automatically.

Git references

Attach git diffs:

@HEAD~3 what's changed in the last 3 commits?

Attach a specific branch diff:

@main...feature-branch summarize the feature branch changes

Attach a specific file's history:

@src/api.ts:HEAD~5 what did this file look like 5 commits ago?

URL references

Attach web pages:

@https://docs.python.org/3/library/asyncio.html explain asyncio

Mona fetches the page and includes it in context.

Combined references

Mix and match:

@README.md @src/ @https://api.example.com/docs explain how this project uses the API

Limits

• Max files — 10 per message
• Max directories — 3 per message
• Max URLs — 5 per message
• Total context — Subject to model context window

Best practices

• Be specific — Reference exact files rather than entire directories
• Check size — Large files consume context window
• Use git refs — For code review, @branch...main is cleaner than pasting diffs
• Combine with skills — @src/k8s/ use the kubernetes skill to review these manifests

Troubleshooting