selvedge 0.3.15

selvedge.sh  ·  PyPI  ·  GitHub

Persistent decision memory for AI coding agents.

Selvedge records why code changed, which approaches were rejected, and when decisions deserve another look, so future sessions can retrieve that context before editing. Query a function, database column, API route or dependency instead of reconstructing its history from an old conversation.

Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Copilot, Gemini CLI and Windsurf can connect through MCP. The CLI works independently. Decisions live in a local SQLite store, with no required hosted account and no LLM in the core storage or retrieval path. See the compatibility and capability reference for setup targets, released capabilities, dependencies and privacy boundaries. The agent hook guide documents native lifecycle adapters and distinguishes protocol-tested behavior from client activation.

A saved explanation is testimony supplied by a person or agent. Selvedge does not extract hidden model reasoning, verify that an explanation is true, or guarantee that an agent will consult it. The useful test is whether the next session retrieves the right decision and applies it appropriately.

Six months ago, your AI agent added a column called user_tier_v2. You don't know why. git blame points to a commit from claude-code with a generated message that says "Update schema." The session that made the change is long gone — and so is the prompt that produced it.

With Selvedge, you run this instead:

$ selvedge blame user_tier_v2

  user_tier_v2
  Changed     2025-10-14 09:31:02
  Agent       claude-code
  Commit      3e7a991
  Reasoning   User asked to add a grandfathering flag for legacy free-tier
              users during the pricing migration. Stores the original tier
              so we can backfill discounts without touching billing history.

This illustrative record shows rationale logged while the context was available. Real records are only as informative as the explanations supplied. Imported history may contain inferred or missing rationale; retain that distinction.

Who Selvedge is for

Selvedge has two audiences. Same tool, same pip install, same SQLite file under .selvedge/. Different scale of pain.

Teams running long-term, AI-coded codebases. When the project is big enough that you (or someone else) will touch it again in six months, twelve months, three years — but most of it was written by an agent whose context evaporated the day each PR shipped. git blame tells you what changed. Selvedge tells you why — even after the agent session, the prompt template, the developer who asked for it, and the model version are all long gone. This is the original use case: production codebases, schema decisions, migrations, dependency changes that need an audit trail that survives turnover.

Solo developers using Claude Code on everyday projects. Side projects, weekend builds, the small internal tool you keep poking at. You don't need enterprise governance — you just need to remember why you (or your agent) did the thing you did yesterday, last week, last sprint. Run selvedge init once. Add four lines to your CLAUDE.md. From then on, selvedge blame is muscle memory — a way to talk to your past self when your past self was an LLM.

If you've ever come back to your own AI-built project and thought "what was this for again?", Selvedge is the missing piece.

The problem

Both human and AI coding workflows can leave intent scattered across commits, PRs and conversations. When a session ends, a later agent may see the code without the constraint or rejected approach that explains it.

Six months later, your team is debugging a schema decision with no trail. git blame tells you what changed and when. It can't tell you why.

Selvedge captures the why — live, by the agent itself, as the change is made. The diff is git's job. The why is Selvedge's.

What's new in v0.3.15

Native lifecycle adapters for all six setup targets.

Setup now offers hooks for Codex, Cursor, VS Code Copilot Local, Gemini CLI and Windsurf/Cascade alongside Claude Code. Startup context and watched-edit checks are available where the client supports them; compaction notifications are advisory. Windsurf provides edit and command checks only. Existing configuration is preserved, with backups and visible conflicts for customized hooks.

See capabilities, activation and verification. The new adapters have protocol and subprocess coverage; client versions and harnesses still matter. No new dependencies, MCP tools, migrations or default telemetry.

The configuration pilot publishes all 48 measured trials and controls, including failures. It does not establish an advantage over a maintained file or the same information in a prompt.

What's new in v0.3.14

Explicit seven-day lookups work as documented.

The MCP prior_attempts tool now accepts window_minutes=10080, matching its seven-day default. Previously, sending that value explicitly failed validation because the time window incorrectly shared the 1,000-result pagination cap. The allowed window is 1–10,080 minutes; result limits remain capped at 1,000. No new dependencies, migrations or MCP tools.

Where Selvedge fits

AI agents call Selvedge as they work. Selvedge stores explicitly supplied rationale and makes it queryable later. Export formats support downstream workflows, including Agent Trace interchange. A provenance record is evidence of what was recorded, not a certification of correctness or compliance.

Selvedge does not replace git (line-level what/when), PR review tools (review-time quality), agent observability (LLM call traces), or general-purpose code-host AI features. It sits between them — the provenance-as-first-class-citizen layer that everything else references.

How Selvedge compares

Choose the simplest memory mechanism that fits your workflow:

These approaches can be used together. Read the source-linked comparison and instructions versus ADRs versus decision memory for specific selection criteria and limitations.

Why entity history matters. users.email, env/STRIPE_SECRET_KEY, api/v1/checkout and deps/stripe remain useful query targets when their code moves. Explicit rejection and superseding records let a later session inspect what was tried and whether the original constraint still applies.

Why capture time matters. Recording a reason while the context is available can preserve information a diff does not contain. It does not make the reason infallible. Retrieval uses stored records; the coding agent remains responsible for checking applicability and testing its change.

Why changesets matter. Tag events with a shared changeset such as add-stripe-billing to retrieve a task's decisions across tables, environment variables, routes and functions.

Selvedge ↔ Agent Trace. Agent Trace is an open AI code-attribution wire format published by Cursor (RFC, Jan 2026). Its original GitHub home went 404 in August 2026 and the multi-vendor momentum behind it has faded, but the spec and schema still resolve at agent-trace.dev, frozen at v0.1.0. Since v0.3.9, selvedge export --format agent-trace emits Agent Trace v0.1.0 records and selvedge import --format agent-trace reads them back — a portable, documented interchange format for file/line AI attribution, with reasoning and entity-level provenance carried in each record's dev.selvedge metadata. The mapping is in docs/agent-trace-interop.md; Selvedge vendors the schema and has no runtime dependency on the upstream project.

Quickstart

Claude Code — install the plugin (recommended)

Two commands, inside Claude Code. No prior pip install — the plugin bootstraps the server itself via uvx (or pipx):

/plugin marketplace add masondelan/selvedge
/plugin install selvedge@selvedge

That's the whole agent-facing surface in one step:

• the MCP server — 8 tools (log_change, prior_attempts, blame, diff, history, changeset, search, stale_decisions);
• a skill that tells the agent when to call them — before editing a tracked entity, after any substantive change;
• the PreToolUse enforcement hook — schema/migration edits are blocked until prior_attempts has been checked this session, with the prior reasoning in the block message;
• slash commands — /selvedge:status, /selvedge:blame <entity>, /selvedge:history, /selvedge:prior-attempts <entity>.

The store (.selvedge/selvedge.db) creates itself on the first logged change. Two optional extras stay CLI-side: the post-commit hook that stamps each event with its commit hash (selvedge install-hook), and — if you want the selvedge command on your own shell PATH — pip install selvedge, which the launcher then prefers over uvx for an exact pinned version.

Plugin or selvedge setup for Claude Code? Pick one. Both wire the MCP server; running both registers it twice. The plugin is the lighter path and the one that updates itself. If you're on the plugin and only want the post-commit commit-hash stamping, run selvedge install-hook on its own.

Choose your coding agent

With uv installed:

uv tool install --upgrade selvedge
selvedge demo
cd your-project
selvedge setup --agent codex

Use codex, claude-code, cursor, copilot, gemini or windsurf. Repeat --agent for multiple tools, or omit it to detect installed agents. Prefer pip? Use python -m pip install --upgrade selvedge in a virtual environment. The selvedge-server executable must be on your editor's PATH; launch the editor from that environment or use the executable's absolute path in its MCP config.

Setup asks before changing files, backs up existing content, installs MCP and agent instructions, initializes the project, and offers a Git post-commit hook. For Codex it writes .codex/config.toml and AGENTS.md; Gemini CLI gets .gemini/settings.json and GEMINI.md; Copilot gets .vscode/mcp.json and .github/copilot-instructions.md. Custom Codex TOML entries require manual reconciliation, even with --force.

Restart your agent in the project and approve Selvedge's tools if prompted. Codex must trust the project to load project-scoped configuration. Ask the agent:

Use Selvedge to record one real approach we considered and rejected in this project. Include the entity, why, and what would change our mind. Do not invent a decision. Show the saved entity path and record ID.

Start a new session and look up the same entity to verify that the decision carries forward. Follow the first-decision verification guide and cross-agent handoff guide for observable checks. MCP access does not automatically capture every decision: the installed instructions guide the agent to use it. Native lifecycle adapters cover supported client events; startup delivery, watched-edit checks and compaction notifications vary by harness. See the agent hook guide before enabling them.

For CI bootstrap or devcontainer.json postCreateCommand:

selvedge setup --non-interactive --yes

Verify the wiring — open a second terminal in the same project:

selvedge watch

Make any change in your AI tool — add a column, rename a function, add an env var. selvedge watch should print the new event within a second of the agent calling log_change. If nothing arrives, run selvedge doctor for a single-command health check that tells you which step is silently broken.

Query your history:

selvedge status                        # recent activity + missing-commit count
selvedge diff users                    # all changes to the users table
selvedge diff users.email              # changes to a specific column
selvedge blame payments.amount         # what changed last and why
selvedge history --since 30d           # last 30 days of changes
selvedge history --since 15m           # last 15 minutes ('m' = minutes)
selvedge changeset add-stripe-billing  # all events for a feature/task
selvedge search "stripe"               # full-text search
selvedge stats                         # observed tool calls and explanation quality
selvedge import migrations/            # backfill from migration files
selvedge export --format csv           # dump history to CSV

cd your-project
selvedge init

claude mcp add selvedge -- selvedge-server

selvedge prompt --install CLAUDE.md

selvedge prompt | tee -a CLAUDE.md

selvedge install-hook

Works with any MCP client

Selvedge is a standard stdio MCP server — its launch command is selvedge-server, put on your PATH by pip install selvedge. Any MCP-capable client can run it. Pick yours:

claude mcp add selvedge -- selvedge-server

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "selvedge": { "command": "selvedge-server" }
  }
}

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "selvedge": { "command": "selvedge-server" }
  }
}

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "selvedge": { "command": "selvedge-server" }
  }
}

[mcp_servers.selvedge]
command = "selvedge-server"

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "selvedge": { "command": "selvedge-server" }
  }
}

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "selvedge": { "command": "selvedge-server" }
  }
}

How it works

Selvedge runs as an MCP server. AI agents in tools like Claude Code call Selvedge's tools as they work — logging structured change events to a local SQLite database.

Each event records:

• What changed (entity path, change type, diff)
• When (timestamp)
• Who (agent, session ID)
• Why (reasoning — captured from the agent's context in the moment)
• Where (git commit, project)

The diff is git's job. The why is Selvedge's.

Selvedge tracks its own history

This repo dogfoods Selvedge: its .selvedge/selvedge.db is committed, so a fresh clone ships with Selvedge's own why-history. Clone it and ask why any part of Selvedge changed:

git clone https://github.com/masondelan/selvedge
cd selvedge
selvedge status                       # recent changes to Selvedge itself
selvedge search "telemetry"           # why the opt-in heartbeat shipped
selvedge blame selvedge/semantic.py   # why semantic search was added

Every event was logged by the agents that built Selvedge — the same log_change calls this README asks you to make in your own project.

Entity path conventions

users.email           DB column (table.column)
users                 DB table
src/auth.py::login    Function in a file (path::symbol)
src/auth.py           File
api/v1/users          API route
deps/stripe           Dependency
env/STRIPE_SECRET_KEY Environment variable

Prefix queries work everywhere: users returns users, users.email, users.created_at, and any other entity under the users. namespace.

MCP tools

When connected as an MCP server, Selvedge exposes:

CLI reference

selvedge init [--path PATH]               Initialize in project
selvedge status                           Recent activity summary
selvedge diff ENTITY [--limit N]          Change history for entity
selvedge blame ENTITY                     Most recent change + context
selvedge history [--since SINCE]          Browse all history
              [--entity ENTITY]
              [--project PROJECT]
              [--changeset CS]
              [--summarize]
              [--limit N]
selvedge changeset [CHANGESET_ID]         Show events in a changeset
                  [--list]                or list all changesets
                  [--project NAME]
                  [--since SINCE]
selvedge search QUERY [--limit N]         Full-text search
selvedge prior-attempts ENTITY            Prior attempts + inferred outcome,
                       [--description T]   with the tried → reverted →
                       [--all]             re-opened trail + status line
                       [--window 7d]       (--all widens recall)
                       [--fuzzy TEXT]      add semantic matches (needs the
                                           semantic extra; substring fallback)
selvedge supersede ENTITY                 Re-open a reverted decision —
                  --reasoning TEXT         append-only, links the prior
                  [--constraint TEXT]      reverted event (or --supersedes ID)
                  [--stale-when TEXT]
                  [--supersedes ID]
selvedge index [--model NAME]             Build/update the optional semantic
              [--json]                     embeddings index (selvedge[semantic])
selvedge stale [--entity ENTITY]          Decisions due for a revisit: past
              [--project NAME]            revisit_after + still in use, or
              [--agent NAME]              stale_when matched by a later change
              [--json]                    ("review suggested")
selvedge stats [--since SINCE]            Tool call coverage report (per-tool, per-agent)
selvedge doctor [--json]                  Health check: DB path, schema, hook, MCP wiring
selvedge install-hook [--path PATH]       Install git post-commit hook
                     [--window MIN]       (default 60 minutes)
selvedge backfill-commit --hash HASH      Backfill git_commit on recent events
                        [--window MIN]    (default 60 minutes)
selvedge import PATH                      Import migrations (SQL / Alembic) or
              [--format auto|sql|         an Agent Trace file (agent-trace)
                 alembic|agent-trace]
              [--from-git]                or walk git history for reverts:
              [--since REF|DATE]          revert-message commits + deletions
              [--project NAME]            become change_type="revert" events
              [--dry-run]                 (idempotent on commit + entity)
selvedge export [--format json|csv|       Export history (agent-trace =
                 markdown|agent-trace]      Agent Trace v0.1.0 records;
                                            markdown = reviewable digest)
              [--since SINCE]
              [--entity ENTITY]
              [--ndjson]                  agent-trace: one record per line
              [--collapse-by-session]     agent-trace: merge a session into one
              [--output FILE]
selvedge log ENTITY CHANGE_TYPE           Manually log a change
             [--diff TEXT]                CHANGE_TYPE: add, remove, modify,
             [--reasoning TEXT]           rename, retype, create, delete,
             [--agent NAME]               index_add, index_remove, migrate,
             [--commit HASH]              revert, supersede
             [--project NAME]
             [--changeset CS]
             [--revisit-after WHEN]       ISO date or offset (e.g. 90d)
             [--rename-from OLD]          OLD path when CHANGE_TYPE is 'rename'
             [--constraint TEXT]          the principle behind the decision
             [--stale-when TEXT]          what would invalidate it
             [--supersedes ID]            with CHANGE_TYPE 'supersede'
selvedge migrate-paths                    Re-canonicalize stored entity paths
                      [--apply]           (dry-run by default; --apply writes)
                      [--json]

All read commands support --json for machine-readable output.

Relative time in --since:

• 15m → last 15 minutes (m = minutes)
• 24h → last 24 hours
• 7d → last 7 days
• 5mo → last 5 months (mo or mon = months)
• 1y → last year

Unparseable inputs (e.g. --since yesterday) exit with a clear error rather than silently returning empty results. ISO 8601 timestamps are also accepted and normalized to UTC.

Configuration

.selvedge/config.toml

Every key is optional; a missing file means the defaults below. Precedence is CLI flag → env var → project .selvedge/config.toml → global ~/.selvedge/config.toml → default. SELVEDGE_DB is the one exception: it always wins for database resolution, because the config file is found by resolving that path. selvedge doctor prints the effective value and the step that produced it for every setting.

retention_days_events     = 0       # 0 = never delete events (the default)
retention_days_tool_calls = 90      # local telemetry retention
backup_keep_last          = 7
diff_bytes                = 65536   # truncate oversized diffs at log time
reasoning_bytes           = 32768   # truncate oversized reasoning
db_size_warn_mb           = 500     # doctor warns above this
stale_days                = 0       # 0 = off
digest_max_bytes          = 4096    # cap on the session-start digest
redaction_patterns        = []      # extra secret shapes to warn about

[hook]
watch_globs = ["**/migrations/**", "db/**/*.sql"]

Every key also has an env override (SELVEDGE_DIFF_BYTES, SELVEDGE_RETENTION_DAYS_EVENTS, …).

Reviewing captured intent in a pull request

.selvedge/selvedge.db is a SQLite file, so the reasoning inside it doesn't show up in a diff. Export a Markdown digest next to it and commit both:

selvedge export --format markdown -o .selvedge/DECISIONS.md
git add .selvedge/

The digest is grouped by entity with reverted decisions first, and it is deterministic — regenerating with no new events produces a zero-line diff, so it stays reviewable instead of becoming noise everyone learns to skip. Heading anchors derive from the entity path, so links into it keep working as it grows. Regenerate it in the same commit as the code, or from a pre-commit hook.

Coverage checking

Wondering how often your agent actually calls log_change? Two ways to check:

# Quick summary in the terminal
selvedge stats

# Cross-reference against git commits
python scripts/coverage_check.py --since 30d

The coverage script compares your git log against Selvedge events and shows which commits have associated change events. Low coverage usually means the system prompt needs strengthening — see docs/fallbacks.md for guidance.

In CI (GitHub Action)

The same check ships as the Selvedge Coverage Check composite Action, so you can track agent coverage on every push — and optionally fail the build when it drops:

# .github/workflows/selvedge-coverage.yml
name: Selvedge coverage
on: [push, pull_request]
jobs:
  coverage:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
        with:
          fetch-depth: 0            # full history so commits can be matched
      - uses: masondelan/selvedge@v0.3.15   # pin to a release tag (or @main for latest)
        with:
          since: 30d
          fail-under: "0.5"         # optional: fail below 50% coverage; omit to report only

It writes a coverage summary to the job summary and exposes coverage-ratio, covered, and total as step outputs. The action cross-references your git history against the Selvedge event log, so the runner needs the project's .selvedge/selvedge.db (commit it, or restore it before this step) and full git history (fetch-depth: 0). Inputs: since, window, limit, fail-under, selvedge-version, python-version, working-directory, db-path.

Contributing

Read the feedback and review process for reporting problems, evaluating feature requests and following up on discussions.

git clone https://github.com/masondelan/selvedge
cd selvedge
pip install -e ".[dev]"
pytest

See CLAUDE.md for architecture details and the phase roadmap.

License

MIT — see LICENSE.