gitreins 0.7.8

Git-native AI agent co-harness — MCP server, static guards, and agentic evaluator for LLM-assisted coding

GitReins

Git-Native Agent Co-Harness — static guards + agentic evaluator for AI-assisted code

GitReins lives inside your git repository as a quality harness. It provides MCP tools for task lifecycle management, an agentic evaluator that judges code completeness against task definitions, and git hooks that ensure nothing bypasses the quality gates.

✅ v0.7.0 — Verdict persistence, task dependencies, smart init, diff/full test modes, ~410 tests pass.

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Quick Start

pip install gitreins
cd /path/to/your-project
gitreins install        # creates .gitreins/config.yaml + pre-commit hook
gitreins init           # smart init — detects language, size, optimal config

How It Works

1. Create tasks — Define criteria via CLI or MCP tools
2. Work with your AI agent — Claude, Hermes, Codex, or Pi does code generation
3. Complete tasks — gitreins task complete <id> triggers automatic evaluation
4. Tier 1: Static guards — secrets, build, lint, tests (configurable)
5. Tier 2: Agentic evaluator — LLM loop reads files, runs tests, delivers per-criterion PASS/FAIL
6. Verdicts persisted — stored in .gitreins/history/, browsable via gitreins report
7. Commit through harness — pre-commit hook runs guards, blocks if checks fail

Commands

gitreins install                      # Install hooks + config
gitreins init                         # Smart init (language, size, optimal config)
gitreins guard                        # Run Tier 1 static checks
gitreins report [-n N] [--interactive]  # Browse verdict history
gitreins task create <id> <title> [criteria...] [--depends-on ...]
gitreins task start <id>
gitreins task complete <id> [--force]
gitreins task list [--status pending|in_progress|complete]
gitreins task delete <id>
gitreins judge <id>                   # Evaluate a task
gitreins commit <message>             # Commit with guard checks
gitreins mcp-server                   # Run MCP stdio server (for AI agents)

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Test Modes: full vs diff

GitReins supports two strategies for when tests run on commit, controlled by test_mode in .gitreins/config.yaml.

test_mode: "full" (default for new projects)

The entire test suite runs on every commit. Safe and thorough.

Best for:

• New projects with a small, fast test suite
• Projects where all tests pass reliably
• When you want maximum safety on every commit

Tradeoff: Slow on large projects. Pre-existing failures in untouched code block unrelated commits.

guards:
  test_mode: "full"

test_mode: "diff" (recommended for mature projects)

Only tests for packages you actually changed. Uses basename mapping:

Changed file	Test run
engine/guard_manager.py	tests/test_guard_manager.py
gitreins/cli.py	tests/test_cli.py
gitreins_mcp/server.py	tests/test_mcp_server.py

Best for:

• Projects with 5+ packages where full suite is slow
• Projects with pre-existing test failures in untouched code
• When you want fast feedback on the code you actually changed

Safety nets — diff mode falls back to full suite when:

• pyproject.toml, .gitreins/config.yaml, Makefile, or setup.cfg changed
• A test file itself changed (always included, plus its source-mapped siblings)
• Changed files don't map to any known test files (unknown file = safety)
• No staged files at all
• Test command isn't pytest (custom runners can't be narrowed)

Tradeoff: Less safety on cross-cutting changes. Config changes always trigger full suite.

guards:
  test_mode: "diff"

Which mode should I use?

Project state	Recommended mode
Brand new, <5 packages	full
Mature, 5+ packages, tests pass	diff
Mature, pre-existing test failures	diff
Refactoring across packages	full (temporarily)
CI / PR checks	full (safety over speed)

Output examples

Full mode:

Tier 1 Guards: PASS  (test mode: full)
  ✓ secrets — clean
  ✓ lint — ok
  ✓ tests — passed

Diff mode (targeted):

Tier 1 Guards: PASS  (test mode: diff, 3 test file(s))
  ✓ secrets — clean
  ✓ tests — passed

Diff mode (safety trigger — full suite):

Tier 1 Guards: PASS  (test mode: diff, full suite — safety trigger)
  ✓ secrets — clean
  ✓ tests — passed

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Verdict History

Every gitreins task complete and gitreins judge saves a verdict to .gitreins/history/. Configure in .gitreins/config.yaml:

history:
  enabled: true              # false = don't save verdicts
  storage: "git"             # "git" = auto-commit to gitreins branch
                             # "filesystem" = write files only, no git commits
  max_verdicts: 1000         # auto-prune old entries

Browse history:

gitreins report              # last 10 evaluations
gitreins report -n 20        # last 20
gitreins report --interactive  # TUI with arrow-key navigation (requires textual)

Task Dependencies

Tasks can depend on other tasks. Evaluation is blocked until dependencies pass:

gitreins task create build "Project builds" \
  "CGO_ENABLED=0 go build ./cmd/server exits 0"

gitreins task create api-crud "CRUD endpoints" --depends-on build \
  "POST /api/users creates a user" \
  "GET /api/users lists users"

gitreins task complete api-crud
# → "Cannot complete 'api-crud' — depends on: build"

gitreins task complete build      # complete the dependency first
gitreins task complete api-crud   # now this works

# Or force-skip dependency checks:
gitreins task complete api-crud --force

Configuration

Full .gitreins/config.yaml reference:

# ── Global defaults ──────────────────────────────────
defaults:
  model: deepseek-v4-flash
  max_iterations: 100
  check_for_updates: true

# ── Tier 1 guards ────────────────────────────────────
guards:
  secrets: true
  lint: true
  tests: true
  test_mode: "full"          # "full" or "diff"
  test_command: "pytest -x --tb=short"

  # Go projects (auto-detected via go.mod):
  go:
    build: true
    lint: true
    tests: true

# ── Tier 2 evaluator caps ────────────────────────────
evaluator:
  max_iterations: 25         # LLM reasoning turns
  max_time: "5m"             # wall clock cap
  max_input_tokens: "200k"
  max_output_tokens: "50k"
  tool_call_weight: 0.1      # tool calls cost 0.1 iterations

# ── Verdict history ──────────────────────────────────
history:
  enabled: true
  storage: "git"
  max_verdicts: 1000

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Tech Stack

• Language: Python 3.10+
• Dependencies: mcp, pyyaml, requests, packaging (4 packages)
• MCP Transport: stdio (26 tools)
• Config: YAML in .gitreins/ directory
• Evaluator Default Model: DeepSeek V4 Flash (~$0.01/eval)
• Test suite: ~410 tests, real LLM integration tests included

Architecture & Docs

Document	What it covers
Full Architecture	System design and data flow
Component Map	Module inventory with paths and line counts
Agentic Evaluator Design	How the evaluator loop works

License

MIT