diff --git a/codes/codes-mapping-context.h b/codes/codes-mapping-context.h
index 358f3e7d4eab36294fca5ca031e7e2f98b94f2c6..812b9446dcabefa9d6892a6653af2316fc6e2532 100644
--- a/codes/codes-mapping-context.h
+++ b/codes/codes-mapping-context.h
@@ -16,6 +16,10 @@
 #include <stdbool.h>
 #include <ross.h>
 
+/* for convenience - an annotation-ignoring "group_modulo" context,
+ * matching previous mapping behavior in most interfaces (modelnet and such) */
+extern struct codes_mctx const CODES_MCTX_DEFAULT;
+
 /* types of map contexts */
 enum codes_mctx_type {
     // instructs those using the context to map directly to an LP
diff --git a/src/util/codes-mapping-context.c b/src/util/codes-mapping-context.c
index 4236d333401a3ec3e84865874b2e87f3d77aca6d..61f2069c00fbfa8af171341c422f6dbaa14b83d0 100644
--- a/src/util/codes-mapping-context.c
+++ b/src/util/codes-mapping-context.c
@@ -7,6 +7,18 @@
 #include <codes/codes-mapping-context.h>
 #include <codes/codes_mapping.h>
 
+struct codes_mctx const CODES_MCTX_DEFAULT = {
+    .type = CODES_MCTX_GROUP_MODULO,
+    .u = {
+        .group_modulo = {
+            .anno = {
+                .annotation = NULL,
+                .ignore_annotations = true
+            }
+        }
+    }
+};
+
 struct codes_mctx codes_mctx_set_global_direct(tw_lpid lpid)
 {
     struct codes_mctx rtn;