Agent Spec Vault

agent-spec-vault is a tiny global Markdown vault for AI coding agents.

It stores durable specs, cross-repo contracts, and decisions in plain Markdown under a user-level directory. It is intentionally not a task tracker, Kanban board, daemon, hook system, or project management platform.

Why

Coding agents often need historical context:

• previous product and architecture specs
• cross-repository contracts
• decisions and tradeoffs
• validation rules that should survive chat resets

Tools such as Beads and Backlog.md are great when you need task tracking. This tool keeps the narrower part: Markdown-native, agent-readable specs and decisions that are global rather than tied to one repository.

Install

For most Python environments:

python3 -m pip install agent-spec-vault
specv init

If your Python installation blocks global CLI installs, or you prefer isolated command-line tools:

pipx install agent-spec-vault
specv init

Inside a virtual environment:

python3 -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate
python3 -m pip install agent-spec-vault
specv init

Unreleased development builds can still be installed from GitHub:

pipx install git+https://github.com/xixifast/agent-spec-vault.git

For local development from a checkout:

python3 -m pip install -e .

Or run from a checkout without installing:

python3 -m specv --help

Quick Start

specv init
specv new "Quality analysis display contract" \
  --repos lippi-smart-customer,aics-web-repos,lippi-dingagent-graph-engine \
  --tags quality-analysis,contract \
  --current-codex-session
specv decision "Use Markdown vault instead of Beads for historical specs" \
  --tags tooling,specs \
  --codex-session 019f2767-c31f-7e31-b1e5-a0274051789d
specv link-session spec-20260704-process-trace-running \
  --codex-session 019f1111-example,019f2222-example
specv list
specv search "quality analysis"
specv show spec-20260703-quality-analysis-display-contract
specv index --print
specv prime --repo lippi-smart-customer

Default vault location:

~/.agents/spec-vault

Override it with:

SPECV_HOME=/path/to/vault specv list
specv --home /path/to/vault list

Data Model

Everything is ordinary Markdown:

~/.agents/spec-vault/
  README.md
  index.jsonl
  templates/
    spec.md
    decision.md
  specs/
    2026-07-03-quality-analysis-display-contract.md
  decisions/
    2026-07-03-use-markdown-vault.md

Each document has a small frontmatter block:

---
id: spec-20260703-quality-analysis-display-contract
kind: spec
title: Quality analysis display contract
status: active
created: 2026-07-03
updated: 2026-07-03
repos:
  - lippi-smart-customer
  - aics-web-repos
tags:
  - quality-analysis
  - contract
codex_sessions:
  - 019f2767-c31f-7e31-b1e5-a0274051789d
---

specv index writes index.jsonl, a compact surface for scripts and agents.

Commands

Suggested Agent Rule

Add a small rule to your global agent instructions:

When a task needs historical specs, cross-repo contracts, or prior design
decisions, search ~/.agents/spec-vault first with specv search or rg. When asked
to preserve a durable spec or decision, write it there instead of creating an
ad hoc file in a business repository.

Scope

This project does:

• global spec and decision storage
• Markdown-native files
• frontmatter metadata for repos, tags, status, and dates
• multiple Codex session links per spec or decision
• JSONL index generation
• agent-friendly summary output

This project does not:

• track task claim/close state
• manage dependencies or blockers
• run a daemon or hooks
• replace GitHub Issues, Beads, or Backlog.md
• write into business repositories by default

Development

python3 -m unittest discover -s tests -p 'test_*.py'
python3 -m specv --home /tmp/specv-demo init

License

MIT