quackspace 0.1.1

A DuckDB-backed knowledge layer over your local work that helps LLMs navigate everything

quack

A DuckDB-backed knowledge layer over your local work — any files: notes, docs, code, configs, assets — that helps LLMs navigate everything. It generates a cheap, precise meta layer from your files; you author metadata in one editable place (.index.yaml), and everything else is derived. Plays well with Obsidian but does not require it.

PyPI package: quackspace · command: quack

Install

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Ocramaru/quackspace/main/install.sh | bash

This installs uv (if needed) and the quack CLI globally. Then create a space anywhere:

quack init my-workspace   # make & scaffold the folder (or `quack init` to use the current one)
cd my-workspace
quack mcp install         # connect an LLM (Claude Code, Kiro, …) over MCP

Prefer Python packaging? uv tool install quackspace (or pipx install quackspace) does the same as the one-liner's second step.

Releasing

Releases publish to PyPI via GitHub Actions + Trusted Publishing (no stored token). One-time: add a PyPI pending publisher (project quackspace, owner Ocramaru, repo quackspace, workflow publish.yml, environment pypi) and a GitHub environment named pypi. Then bump version in pyproject.toml, tag, and publish a GitHub Release — the workflow builds and uploads. Manual fallback: uv build && uv publish --token <pypi-token>.

Architecture

<your-root>/                ← any directory; quack finds it by the .quack/ marker
├── .quack/                 ← the toolkit (and the root marker)
│   ├── GUIDE.md            hand-written: how an AI should search the tree
│   ├── map.yaml            GENERATED: folder tree + folder descriptions
│   ├── quack.duckdb        GENERATED: catalog (files, tags, links, FTS) — the queryable store
│   ├── diagram.md          GENERATED: whole-graph Mermaid link diagram
│   ├── config.yaml         your AI assistant choice
│   └── src/quack/          the CLI + library
├── .quackignore            optional: extra ignore patterns
├── QUACK.md                visible navigation anchor for LLMs
├── src/  docs/  notes/ …   ANY files: code, configs, markdown, assets
│   ├── .index.yaml         EDITABLE: per-file description + tags (links derived)
│   └── _diagrams.md        GENERATED: this folder's Mermaid link graph
└── …

One rule: the only thing you edit is each folder's .index.yaml (description + tags per file; Markdown may also use frontmatter). quack reindex MERGES it — preserving your text — and regenerates every map, catalog, and diagram from the files + [[wikilinks]], so the navigation layer can never drift. The root can be named anything; quack locates it by walking up for .quack/ (like git finds .git).

The catalog (DuckDB)

quack reindex builds .quack/quack.duckdb, a single embedded catalog of all metadata: files (name, rel, folder, ext, description, tags_csv, n_links, n_inbound, is_orphan, is_binary, file_modified, described_at, stale, body), tags(name, tag), and links(src, dst, dst_exists), plus a BM25 full-text index over name/description/body. (stale is true when a file changed after its description was written — see quack generate --stale.)

It is the queryable store and the graph lives here too: the links table is the edge list, and multi-hop traversal is a recursive CTE behind quack search and quack graph. There is no separate graph.json: a query pulls only the relevant slice into context instead of loading the whole graph, which matters as the tree grows. The catalog is derived, never authoritative; delete it and quack reindex rebuilds it from the files.

quack sql "SELECT folder, count(*) FROM files GROUP BY folder"
quack sql "SELECT rel FROM files WHERE stale"                 # descriptions to refresh
quack sql "SELECT src, dst FROM links WHERE NOT dst_exists"   # broken links
quack search "regex" --fts                                    # BM25 ranking
quack graph path file-a file-b                                # shortest link path

The quack command

Once installed (see Install), quack is on your PATH and finds the root from any directory inside it by walking up for .quack/ — so commands work no matter where you invoke them. (Developing on a checkout instead? uv run quack inside .quack/ is the equivalent.)

quack init [dir]       # create & scaffold a new space (dir, or the current folder)
quack reindex          # regenerate everything (indexes, map, catalog, diagrams)
quack reindex --no-diagrams
quack diagram          # diagrams only
quack doctor           # check files + MCP registration
quack doctor --files   # only files;  --mcp only MCP;  --strict to fail on issues
quack new "Title" -f projects -d "one-line description" -t tag,tag   # new markdown note
quack describe PATH -d "…" -t tag,tag   # record a description + tags for any file
quack setup            # choose the AI assistant (arrow-key menu)
quack generate         # AI: write description + tags for files missing one
quack generate --stale # also refresh descriptions whose file changed since
quack search "terms"   # auto-hybrid: structural + FTS + semantic + graph
quack search "terms" --fts        # force DuckDB BM25 full-text ranking
quack search "terms" --semantic   # force vss semantic ranking
quack embed            # build semantic embeddings (DuckDB vss)
quack graph path|central|clusters # graph queries
quack sql "SELECT ..." # query the catalog directly
quack mcp install      # register the MCP server with clients
quack where            # show root / toolkit / command paths

Root resolution: --root > walk up for .quack/ > $QUACK_ROOT > $OBSIDIAN_VAULT > the package location.

LLM access (MCP)

quack mcp install writes a project-root .mcp.json (the auto-discover convention Claude Code and others pick up) and offers to register with installed client CLIs (kiro-cli, claude). The server exposes typed tools, map, search, get_file, sql, graph_path, central, clusters (read), plus describe and reindex (write), each returning root so the LLM can join root + relative path. QUACK.md at the root is a visible anchor telling any LLM how to navigate even without MCP.

Seeding quack on a repo an agent already knows. Point the MCP server at a codebase and ask the assistant to annotate it: for each relevant file it calls describe(path, description, tags) (writing into .index.yaml — the file itself is untouched), then reindex() once. No per-file model shell-out; the agent records what it already understands, and the catalog becomes searchable.

AI is optional

The assistant is used for one thing: writing short descriptions + tags for your files (quack generate) so the search index is rich. quack works fully without it — you just author descriptions yourself by editing each folder's .index.yaml.

• quack setup shows an arrow-key menu of assistants (kiro-cli, claude, a custom command, or "use without AI"), probes which are installed, and writes the choice to .quack/config.yaml. quack init is an alias that runs it.
• quack generate fills in missing descriptions using that command. If none is set up, it explains what the AI is for and offers to run setup.
• Set ai.skip: true in config.yaml to use quack without AI permanently; generate then stops offering to set one up.
• Swap assistants anytime by editing ai.command (use {prompt} for the prompt, or omit it to pipe on stdin) or re-running quack setup.

Keeping it in sync

Run quack reindex after structural changes. To automate, wire it to one of:

• Obsidian Shell Commands plugin (run on save),
• a git pre-commit hook (quack doctor --strict --files && quack reindex),
• a file-watcher,
• quack kiro install (writes a Kiro reindex-on-save hook).