The 1-2 files per request constraint is interesting. I do the same thing, but I've started thinking of it as a symptom rather than a solution. The reason you have to constrain scope is because the agent doesn't know what it doesn't know — it can't tell you "this change will break something 4 layers away." So you manually limit blast radius as a substitute for actual understanding.

Doesn't feel like that's where this should end up?