kbvc 0.1.3

Knowledge Operating System for AI/RAG — version control, semantic graph, full audit trails, and reproducible deployment for knowledge bases

KBVC — Knowledge Base Version Control

Knowledge Infrastructure Layer for AI/RAG systems.
Version control, semantic graph, full audit trails, and reproducible deployment — for your knowledge base.

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What is KBVC?

KBVC is a Knowledge Operating System — an infrastructure layer that sits between your documents and your vector database, giving your knowledge base the same discipline that Git gives your code.

It is not a RAG library. It is not a vector database.
It is the missing infrastructure layer that answers questions no existing tool can:

Question	Without KBVC	With KBVC
Which document version produced this embedding?	❌ Unknown	✅ kbvc explain <vector_id>
What was my knowledge state 3 months ago?	❌ Gone	✅ kbvc checkout <commit>
How do my documents relate to each other?	❌ No idea	✅ kbvc graph
Which documents are stale or contradictory?	❌ Manual audit	✅ kbvc stale / kbvc contradict list
Can I reproduce the exact RAG pipeline from last quarter?	❌ Never	✅ kbvc.lock
If my LLM gives a bad answer, what document caused it?	❌ Guessing	✅ kbvc trace + kbvc explain

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Architecture Overview

Feature Matrix

Phase	Commands	What It Unlocks
1	init add commit log	Git-style commit loop for knowledge
2	status checkout diff	Time travel — restore any past state
3	link query graph	Knowledge graph + semantic search
4	branch depends impact annotate history trace doctor	Audit trails + dependency management
5	ingest push remote analyze extract stale stats	Multi-source ingestion + intelligence
6	backend explain promote	Infrastructure management + provenance
7	gc migrate backend migrate schema	Maintenance + zero-downtime ops
8	sync	Volatility-aware auto-commit
9	contradict list/resolve	Contradiction detection + resolution
10	ask	Grounded knowledge Q&A

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Quick Start

Install

# Core (pick your embedding + vector DB extras)
pip install kbvc[openai,qdrant]

# Local-first setup (no external server)
pip install kbvc[openai,lancedb]

# Everything
pip install kbvc[all]

Initialize a Knowledge Repository

mkdir my-knowledge && cd my-knowledge
kbvc init

# Configure backends
kbvc config set embed.backend openai
kbvc config set embed.key sk-...
kbvc config set vectordb.backend lancedb   # no server needed

Create Your First Knowledge Object

Every document tracked by KBVC is a Knowledge Object (KO) — a Markdown file with a YAML frontmatter header:

---
id: caching-strategy
type: document
tags: [architecture, performance]
volatility: slow
source_type: file
---

## Caching Strategy

We use a two-tier cache: Redis for hot paths (TTL 60s) and
PostgreSQL materialized views for aggregate queries.

## Invalidation

Cache invalidation is triggered by...

kbvc add knowledge/caching-strategy.md
kbvc commit -m "Add caching strategy document"

Explore

kbvc log                         # View commit history
kbvc status                      # See staged vs. committed state
kbvc query "how does caching work?"   # Semantic search
kbvc ask "what is the cache TTL?"     # Grounded Q&A with citations
kbvc graph                       # Visualize knowledge graph
kbvc stats                       # Analytics report

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Core Concepts

Knowledge Objects (KOs)

A KO is the fundamental unit of KBVC. Each KO is:

• A Markdown file with YAML frontmatter
• Chunked into sections (one vector per section)
• Versioned independently (v1, v2, v3...)
• Connected to other KOs via typed relations

Volatility levels control how KBVC handles automatic commits:

Volatility	Meaning	Auto-commit
frozen	Never changes (e.g. archived decisions)	Never re-embedded
slow	Changes occasionally (most documents)	On explicit kbvc sync
live	Changes frequently (e.g. meeting notes)	On every kbvc sync

Commit DAG

Every kbvc commit creates an immutable CommitObject — a SHA-256 hash over:

• Parent commit ID
• Branch name
• Commit message
• All changed KO IDs + their chunk hashes
• Snapshot filenames for graph, prompt, retrieval config

This gives you a fully reproducible, tamper-evident history — just like Git, but for knowledge.

Knowledge Graph

KOs can be linked with typed relations:

kbvc link caching-strategy informed_by system-architecture
kbvc link new-api contradicts old-api
kbvc link auth-module extends base-security

Relation types: informed_by · contradicts · extends · derived_from · supersedes · depends_on · related_to

VSAL — Vector Storage Abstraction Layer

KBVC never touches Qdrant points, pgvector rows, or Pinecone vectors directly. All storage goes through ChunkRecord — a universal unit that every backend adapter maps to its native representation.

This means you can migrate between vector databases without re-embedding:

kbvc migrate backend --from qdrant --to pgvector

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Knowledge Object Frontmatter Reference

---
id: my-document              # required; used as ko_id
type: project                # project | education | patent | document | lesson | ...
tags: [ai, rag, python]      # free tags for filtering
volatility: slow             # frozen | slow | live
source_type: file            # file | web | github | pdf | notion | memory
valid_from: "2026-01-01"     # optional temporal validity window
valid_to: null               # null = still valid
---

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All Commands

Repository Setup

kbvc init [--name NAME] [--no-git]   # Initialize a KBVC repo
kbvc clone <url> [directory]          # Clone a KBVC repo from Git
kbvc config set <key> <value>         # Set a config value
kbvc config get <key>                 # Read a config value
kbvc config list                      # List all config

Knowledge Authoring

kbvc add <path|.>                     # Stage files for commit
kbvc add <path> --reason "why"       # Stage with an annotation
kbvc commit -m "message"             # Commit staged changes
kbvc commit -m "message" --dry-run   # Preview commit (no write)
kbvc status                          # Show staged vs. committed state

History & Diff

kbvc log                             # Commit history (newest first)
kbvc log --oneline                   # Compact history
kbvc diff                            # Diff staged against HEAD
kbvc diff <commit_id>                # Diff against a specific commit
kbvc history <ko_id>                 # Version history for one KO
kbvc checkout <commit_id>            # Restore knowledge state
kbvc checkout <commit_id> --ko <id>  # Restore single KO

Knowledge Graph

kbvc link <from> <type> <to>         # Create a relation
kbvc graph                           # Print graph summary
kbvc graph --dot                     # Export as DOT (Graphviz)
kbvc depends <ko_id>                 # Show KO dependencies
kbvc impact <ko_id>                  # What depends on this KO?

Search & Q&A

kbvc query "natural language question"  # Vector search
kbvc query "..." --top-k 10             # Return 10 results
kbvc ask "natural language question"    # Grounded Q&A with citations
kbvc ask "..." --top-k 5 --show-ids     # Show raw vector IDs

Intelligence & Analytics

kbvc analyze                         # Suggest relations between KOs
kbvc extract                         # Extract entities from KOs
kbvc stale                           # Find stale/orphaned KOs
kbvc contradict list                 # List contradictions
kbvc contradict resolve <rel_id>     # Resolve a contradiction
kbvc stats                           # Analytics report

Provenance & Audit

kbvc trace <ko_id>                   # Full version trail for a KO
kbvc explain <vector_id>             # Trace vector → source → commit
kbvc annotate <ko_id> "reason"       # Add change reason before commit
kbvc doctor                          # Repo health check

Ingestion

kbvc ingest website <url>            # Scrape a website
kbvc ingest github <repo_url>        # Import a GitHub repo
kbvc ingest pdf <file.pdf>           # Convert PDF to KO
kbvc ingest notion <page_url>        # Import a Notion page
kbvc ingest text <file.txt>          # Import a plain text file

Branches & Remotes

kbvc branch                          # List branches
kbvc branch <name>                   # Create a branch
kbvc branch checkout <name>          # Switch branch
kbvc remote add <name> <url>         # Add a remote
kbvc push                            # Push to configured remote

Infrastructure

kbvc backend init                    # Create vector DB schema
kbvc backend info                    # Show backend status
kbvc migrate backend --from X --to Y # Migrate vector store
kbvc migrate embeddings --from M --to M2  # Swap embedding model
kbvc migrate schema                  # Update lock file schema
kbvc gc                              # Garbage-collect orphan vectors
kbvc sync                            # Volatility-aware auto-commit
kbvc sync --volatility live          # Only sync live KOs
kbvc sync --dry-run                  # Preview what would be committed
kbvc promote "<memory text>"         # Promote agent memory to KO

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Backends

Embedding Backends

Backend	Install Extra	Models
OpenAI	kbvc[openai]	text-embedding-3-small (default), text-embedding-3-large, ada-002
Gemini	kbvc[gemini]	gemini-embedding-001
Ollama	kbvc[ollama]	any locally-served model (nomic-embed-text, etc.)
HuggingFace	kbvc[hf]	any sentence-transformers model

# OpenAI
kbvc config set embed.backend openai
kbvc config set embed.key sk-...
kbvc config set embed.model text-embedding-3-small

# Ollama (local, no API key)
kbvc config set embed.backend ollama
kbvc config set embed.model nomic-embed-text
kbvc config set embed.url http://localhost:11434

Vector DB Backends

Backend	Install Extra	Best For
LanceDB	kbvc[lancedb]	Local dev, no server, embedded
Qdrant	kbvc[qdrant]	Production, cloud-native
pgvector	kbvc[pgvector]	PostgreSQL shops
Chroma	kbvc[chroma]	Local dev, Python-first
Pinecone	kbvc[pinecone]	Managed serverless

# LanceDB (no server needed — best for local dev)
kbvc config set vectordb.backend lancedb
kbvc config set vectordb.url ./kbvc_lance

# Qdrant
kbvc config set vectordb.backend qdrant
kbvc config set vectordb.url http://localhost:6333
kbvc config set vectordb.collection kbvc

# pgvector
kbvc config set vectordb.backend pgvector
kbvc config set vectordb.url "postgresql://user:pass@localhost/mydb"

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The kbvc.lock File

Every commit writes a kbvc.lock file to your repo root — analogous to package-lock.json. It records:

kbvc_version: "0.1.0"
embedding:
  provider: openai
  model: text-embedding-3-small
  dimensions: 1536
vector_store:
  provider: qdrant
  collection: kbvc
committed_at: "2026-01-15T10:30:00Z"
commit_id: "a3f2c1d9..."

Commit kbvc.lock to Git. Anyone cloning your repo with kbvc clone will see exactly what backend configuration was used and can reproduce it.

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Use Cases

AI Product Teams

Track your RAG knowledge base like code. Every prompt change, every document update, every embedding model swap is versioned and auditable. Reproduce any past retrieval configuration exactly.

Research Labs

Manage evolving scientific knowledge with contradiction detection and lineage tracking. Know when a newer paper supersedes an older one. Build multi-hop knowledge graphs connecting related findings.

Enterprise Knowledge Management

Enforce governance over internal knowledge bases. Who changed what, when, and why. Detect when two documents contradict each other. Get alerts when downstream KOs depend on stale upstream content.

LLM Application Developers

Debug why your LLM gave a specific answer — trace it back to the exact document chunk, its version, and the commit that created its embedding. Swap embedding models without rewriting your pipeline.

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Development Setup

git clone https://github.com/Saiyam-Sandhir-Jain/kbvc.git
cd kbvc
pip install -e ".[dev,openai,qdrant]"
pytest tests/ -v

See CONTRIBUTING.md for the full contributor guide.

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License

MIT © Saiyam Jain

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_{Built by Saiyam Jain · VIT Bhopal}