Aider actually prompts the model to say if it needs to see additional files. Whenever the model mentions file names, aider asks the user if they should be added to context.

As well, any files or symbols mentioned by the model are noted. They influence the repomap ranking algorithm, so subsequent requests have even more relevant repository context.

This is designed as a sort of implicit search and ranking flow. The blog article doesn’t get into any of this detail, but much of this has been around and working well since 2023.