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Time Machine for AI Agents โ€” Cognitive Version Control for LLM context

Project description

CVC Logo

๐Ÿง  CVC โ€” Cognitive Version Control

Time Machine for AI Agents

Git for code. CVC for context.
Save. Branch. Rewind. Merge. โ€” Your AI agent just got an undo button.


# ๐ŸŽง macOS / Linux / WSL
curl -fsSL https://jaimeena.com/cvc/install.sh | bash

# ๐ŸชŸ Windows PowerShell
irm https://jaimeena.com/cvc/install.ps1 | iex

PyPI version PyPI downloads Python 3.11+ License: MIT Code Style


๏ฟฝ Install via PyPI: pip install "tm-ai[all]" โ€” Full docs at jaimeena.com/cvc โ†’


๐Ÿ“ข Latest Updates

  • OpenClaw Integration (Beta): OpenClaw is now successfully installed on our Mac Mini host! We are currently working on a deep integration between CVC and OpenClaw to enable seamless cognitive versioning for all OpenClaw agents.
  • Enhanced Agent Tools: v1.8.50 includes updated prompt instructions for the built-in agent to better handle high-volume token responses and complex JSON structures.

Why CVC? Features Quick Start Docs Architecture
Integrations Community Development Roadmap FAQ
๏ฟฝ jaimeena.com/cvc โ€” Full Docs & Install Guide





๐Ÿš€ CVC 2.0: The Agentic Era

CVC has evolved from a simple context backup tool into a Cognitive Version Control system designed for Autonomous Agent Orchestration.

  • Semantic Merging: Resolve cognitive collisions between branches using ChromaDB vector embeddings. Merges insights, not just logs.
  • Quantum Branching (Tree of Thoughts): Race multiple LangGraph agents down parallel reality branches simultaneously. Merge the winning solution and archive failed attempts as learning data.
  • Micro-Rollbacks: Rewind execution histories at the thought-level or tool-call level using the new THOUGHT_STEP and TOOL_CALL commit states.
  • Context Distillation Checkpoints: Compress massive timelines dynamically to save LLM tokens while retaining semantic searchability.
  • Multi-Agent Telepathy: Pack a branch's exact cognitive state into a portable .cvcpack and beam it over the MCP protocol to another machine.
  • Claude-style Parallel Tool Execution: The CVC CLI Agent now supports running multiple destructive/write operations simultaneously via dynamic telepathy branching.

๐Ÿ’ฅ The Problem


Your AI coding agent is brilliant โ€” for about 20 minutes.

Then it forgets what it already fixed, contradicts its own plan,
and loops on the same error for eternity.


Sound familiar?


๐Ÿ˜ตโ€๐Ÿ’ซ

Context Rot
After 60% context fill,
quality falls off a cliff

๐Ÿ”

Error Loops
Same mistake,
different turn

๐Ÿง 

No Memory
Can't remember
what it just did

๐Ÿ’ธ

Token Waste
Re-processing the
same context

Bigger context windows don't fix this.

They just give the problem more room to spread.


โœจ The Solution: CVC

Give AI agents what they've never had: memory that actually works.




๐ŸŽฏ Why CVC?

CVC is Git for the AI's brain.
Instead of versioning source code, it versions the agent's entire cognitive state โ€” every thought, every decision, every conversation turn โ€” as an immutable, cryptographic Merkle DAG.


๐Ÿ’พ
Save
๐ŸŒฟ
Branch
โช
Rewind
๐Ÿ”€
Merge
๐Ÿ”
Search
Checkpoint the agent's brain at any stable moment Explore risky ideas in isolation without polluting main context Stuck in a loop? Time-travel back instantly Merge learnings back โ€” semantic, not syntactic Find when the agent solved similar problems before

๐Ÿ“Š Research-Backed Results

58.1%

Context reduction
via branching

ContextBranch paper โ†’

3.5ร—

Success rate improvement
with rollback

GCC paper โ†’

~90%

Cost reduction through
prompt caching

Caching study โ†’

~85%

Latency reduction
on restores

Anthropic docs โ†’



๐Ÿš€ Features

๐Ÿค– Built-in Agent ๐Ÿ”Œ Universal Proxy โฑ๏ธ Time Machine
Just type cvc for a powerful
AI coding assistant with
17 built-in tools and
5-provider support
Run any AI tool through
CVC's time machine via
API proxy or MCP server
Zero configuration required
Auto-checkpoint every N turns
Never lose context
Crash recovery built-in
Time-travel to any point
--no-think for faster responses

๐Ÿ†š How CVC Compares

FEATURE CLAUDE CODE / CODEX ANTIGRAVITY / CURSOR / VS CODE ๐Ÿ”ฅ CVC AGENT
Context Memory Linear (Lost on restart) Session-based / Linear โœ… Time-Travel (Project Isolated)
Branching No branching / rollback Not supported โœ… Full Branch Support
Undo Capability Single step (maybe) Single step / Ctrl+Z โœ… Instant Rewind (Any State)
Search History Current session only Current session only โœ… Global Semantic Search
Providers Single provider (usually) Vendor locked often โœ… Agnostic (5+ Providers)
Cost Full Re-prompting Full Re-prompting โœ… ~90% Cheaper (Cached)
Local / Offline Cloud Dependent Cloud Dependent โœ… 100% Local / Offline Capable
Context Merging Not available Not available โœ… Semantic Merge
Image Analysis Limited Limited โœ… Built-in Vision
Auto-checkpoint Not available Not available โœ… Configurable
Crash Recovery Session lost Session lost โœ… Full Restoration



โšก Quick Start

Installation

๐ŸŽฏ Recommended: One-Line Installer (Installs Python if needed)

# ๐ŸŽง macOS / Linux / WSL
curl -fsSL https://jaimeena.com/cvc/install.sh | bash

# ๐ŸชŸ Windows PowerShell
irm https://jaimeena.com/cvc/install.ps1 | iex
๐Ÿ“ฆ Alternative: pip / uv
# pip (all providers)
pip install "tm-ai[all]"

# uv (faster, recommended)
uv tool install "tm-ai[all]"

# Specific provider only
pip install "tm-ai[anthropic]"   # Claude
pip install "tm-ai[openai]"      # GPT
pip install "tm-ai[google]"      # Gemini

Usage

# ๐Ÿค– Agent Mode - Just type 'cvc'
cvc

# ๐Ÿ”Œ Proxy Mode - Zero-config launch
cvc launch claude          # Claude Code CLI
cvc launch aider           # Aider
cvc launch cursor          # Cursor IDE

# Or manual setup
cvc up                     # Setup + init + serve

Set API Keys

# Environment variables
export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY="sk-ant-..."
export OPENAI_API_KEY="sk-..."
export GOOGLE_API_KEY="AIza..."

# Or interactive setup
cvc setup

That''s it! ๐ŸŽ‰


๐ŸŒ Full documentation, installation guides, and examples at jaimeena.com/cvc




๐Ÿ“– Documentation

๐Ÿค–

Agent CLI Guide
Complete guide to the built-in agent

โŒจ๏ธ

Slash Commands
All slash commands reference

๐Ÿ”ง

Tools Reference
17 built-in tools documentation

๐Ÿ”Œ

MCP Integration
Model Context Protocol setup

๐Ÿ—บ๏ธ

Cross-Mode Guide
Agent + Proxy + MCP workflows

๐Ÿ“

Multi-Workspace
Multiple project management

๐Ÿ“š

Full Docs
Complete documentation

๐Ÿ“

Changelog
Version history

๐ŸŒ

Official Website
Full docs, installation guides, examples & more at jaimeena.com/cvc



๐Ÿ”Œ Integrations

Run ANY AI tool through CVC''s Time Machine


Tool How to Connect Command
๐Ÿ’Ž Claude Code CLIexport ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL=http://127.0.0.1:8000cvc launch claude
๐Ÿ› ๏ธ AiderStandard OpenAI-compatible endpointcvc launch aider
โŒจ๏ธ Codex CLImodel_provider = "cvc" in configcvc launch codex
๐Ÿ–ฑ๏ธ CursorSettings โ†’ Override Base URLcvc launch cursor
๐Ÿ’Ž VS Code + CopilotBYOK or MCP integrationcvc launch code
๐Ÿ„ WindsurfMCP integrationcvc launch windsurf
๐Ÿš€ AntigravityMCP integrationcvc mcp
๐Ÿ”„ Continue.devBase URL โ†’ http://127.0.0.1:8000/v1cvc serve
๐Ÿค– ClineBase URL โ†’ http://127.0.0.1:8000/v1cvc serve
๐Ÿฆœ LangChainUse CVC''s function-calling toolscvc serve
๐Ÿ‘ฅ CrewAIUse CVC''s function-calling toolscvc serve
๐Ÿค AutoGenUse CVC''s function-calling toolscvc serve
๐ŸŒ Open WebUIStandard OpenAI-compatible endpointcvc serve

๐Ÿ”‘ Auth pass-through: External tools can send their own API keys โ€” CVC forwards them to the upstream provider.


Run cvc connect for interactive setup instructions.




๐Ÿ—๏ธ Architecture

Three-Tiered Local Storage


๐Ÿ—„๏ธ SQLite

Commit graph
Branch pointers
Metadata
Fast traversal, zero-config

๐Ÿ“ฆ CAS Blobs

Context snapshots
Zstandard compression
Content-addressable
Deduplicated, efficient

๐Ÿ” Chroma

Semantic embeddings
Vector search
Optional
"Have I solved this before?"

โœจ Everything stays in .cvc/ inside your project
๐Ÿ”’ No cloud โ€ข No telemetry โ€ข Your agent''s thoughts are yours


๐Ÿ“ฆ Project Structure

cvc/
โ”œโ”€โ”€ agent/          # Built-in AI coding agent
โ”‚   โ”œโ”€โ”€ chat.py     # REPL loop, slash commands
โ”‚   โ”œโ”€โ”€ llm.py      # Unified LLM client (4 providers)
โ”‚   โ”œโ”€โ”€ tools.py    # 17 tool definitions
โ”‚   โ””โ”€โ”€ executor.py # Tool execution engine
โ”œโ”€โ”€ adapters/       # Provider-specific formatting
โ”‚   โ”œโ”€โ”€ anthropic.py # Prompt caching support
โ”‚   โ”œโ”€โ”€ openai.py
โ”‚   โ”œโ”€โ”€ google.py
โ”‚   โ””โ”€โ”€ ollama.py
โ”œโ”€โ”€ core/           # Data layer
โ”‚   โ”œโ”€โ”€ models.py   # Merkle DAG, Pydantic schemas
โ”‚   โ””โ”€โ”€ database.py # SQLite + CAS + Chroma
โ”œโ”€โ”€ operations/     # CVC engine
โ”‚   โ”œโ”€โ”€ engine.py   # Commit, branch, merge, restore
โ”‚   โ””โ”€โ”€ state_machine.py # LangGraph routing
โ””โ”€โ”€ vcs/            # Git bridge
    โ””โ”€โ”€ bridge.py   # Shadow branches, Git notes, hooks



๐Ÿค– Supported Providers

Provider Default Model Alternatives Notes
๐ŸŸฃ Anthropic claude-opus-4-6 claude-opus-4-5, claude-sonnet-4-5, claude-haiku-4-5 Prompt caching
๐ŸŸข OpenAI gpt-5.2 gpt-5.2-codex, gpt-5-mini, gpt-4.1 Auto prefix caching
๐Ÿ”ต Google gemini-3.1-pro-preview gemini-3-pro-preview, gemini-3-flash-preview Multimodal + reasoning
โšช Ollama qwen2.5-coder:7b qwen3-coder:30b, devstral:24b, deepseek-r1:8b 100% local, no API key
๐ŸŸค LM Studio qwen2.5-coder-32b-instruct devstral-small-2505, deepseek-r1-distill-qwen-32b, gemma-3-27b-it 100% local, OpenAI-compat



๐Ÿ’ฌ Community

Join the CVC community


๐Ÿ›

Issues
Report bugs & request features

๐Ÿ’ก

Discussions
Ask questions & share ideas

๐ŸŒ

Website
Docs, guides & examples



๐Ÿ› ๏ธ Development

Contributions welcome! See below for setup instructions.

All contributions go through code review via Pull Requests.


Fork โ†’ Branch โ†’ Commit โ†’ Pull Request


๐Ÿ› ๏ธ Dev Setup

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/mannuking/cvc.git
cd cvc
uv sync --extra dev



๐Ÿ—บ๏ธ Roadmap

Feature Status
๐Ÿค– Built-in Agent CLIโœ… Shipped v1.6.2 โ€” 17 tools, 5 providers, --no-think
โ˜๏ธ All 5 Provider Adaptersโœ… Shipped โ€” Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, Ollama, LM Studio
๐Ÿ”Œ MCP Serverโœ… Shipped โ€” stdio + SSE transports
๐Ÿš€ Zero-config Launchโœ… Shipped โ€” cvc launch for all tools
๐Ÿ”— Git Bridgeโœ… Shipped โ€” Shadow branches, hooks, notes
๐ŸŽจ VS Code Extension๐Ÿ“œ Q2 2026 โ€” Visual commit graph, time-travel
๐ŸŒ Web UI๐Ÿ“œ Q2 2026 โ€” Browser visualization & management
๐Ÿ‘ฅ Multi-agent support๐Ÿ“œ Q3 2026 โ€” Shared DB with conflict resolution
โ˜๏ธ Cloud sync๐Ÿ“œ Q3 2026 โ€” S3/MinIO for teams
๐Ÿ“Š Metrics dashboard๐Ÿ“œ Q4 2026 โ€” Cache hits, context utilization, analytics



โ“ FAQ

What is CVC?

CVC (Cognitive Version Control) is Git for AI agent context. It versions the agent''s entire cognitive state as an immutable Merkle DAG, enabling time-travel, branching, and merging for AI conversations.

How is CVC different from Claude Code or Cursor?

CVC adds: โช Time-travel โ€ข ๐ŸŒฟ Branching โ€ข ๐Ÿ” Semantic search โ€ข ๐Ÿ”€ Context merging โ€ข ๐Ÿ’พ Auto-checkpoint โ€ข ๐Ÿ”„ Crash recovery โ€ข ๐Ÿค– Multi-provider support (5 vs 1)

Does CVC work with my existing AI tools?

Yes! CVC works in two modes:

  1. Agent mode โ€” built-in AI assistant
  2. Proxy mode โ€” transparent proxy for Claude Code, Aider, Cursor, VS Code, Windsurf, Continue, Cline, LangChain, CrewAI, AutoGen, and more
Is my data sent to the cloud?

No. Everything stays local in .cvc/. CVC has:
๐Ÿ”’ No telemetry โ€ข ๐Ÿ”’ No cloud sync โ€ข ๐Ÿ”’ No data collection
Your agent''s thoughts are yours.

How much does it cost?

CVC is free and open-source (MIT license). You only pay for LLM API calls (Anthropic/OpenAI/Google), and CVC makes them ~90% cheaper via prompt caching and 58.1% less context via branching. Use Ollama for 100% free local operation.

Can I use CVC offline?

Yes! Use Ollama with local models like qwen2.5-coder:7b, deepseek-r1:8b, etc. 100% local, no API key needed.

What providers are supported?
  • ๐ŸŸฃ Anthropic (Claude Opus 4.6, Sonnet 4.5, Haiku 4.5)
  • ๐ŸŸข OpenAI (GPT-5.2, GPT-5.2-Codex, GPT-5-mini)
  • ๐Ÿ”ต Google (Gemini 3 Pro/Flash Preview, Gemini 2.5 Pro/Flash โ€” with thinking level control)
  • โšช Ollama (Qwen, DeepSeek, Devstral, etc.)
  • ๐ŸŸค LM Studio (any locally loaded model โ€” OpenAI-compatible)
Is there a GUI?

Not yet! But coming soon:
๐ŸŽจ VS Code extension (Q2 2026)
๐ŸŒ Web UI (Q2 2026)

For now, use the beautiful terminal UI with Rich formatting.

Can I use CVC in production?

Yes! CVC is production-ready (v1.8.50) with crash-resistant local storage, used by solo developers, teams, and enterprises.




๐Ÿ“š Research

CVC is grounded in published research


Paper Key Finding
ContextBranch58.1% context reduction via branching
GCC11.7% โ†’ 40.7% success with rollback (3.5ร— improvement)
Merkle-CRDTsStructural deduplication for content-addressable DAGs
Prompt CachingAnthropic/OpenAI/Google token reuse patterns



๐Ÿ“œ License

MIT License โ€” See LICENSE for details.

Free and open-source. Contributions welcome!





โœจ Because AI agents deserve an undo button โœจ


Made with โค๏ธ by developers who got tired of AI agents forgetting what they just did.




Open Source โ€” MIT License




Built with Python ๐Ÿ โ€ข FastAPI โšก โ€ข SQLite ๐Ÿ—„๏ธ โ€ข LangGraph ๐Ÿฆœ โ€ข Rich ๐ŸŽจ


  • 2026-03-24: Addressed rich text markdown editing in HydroMain's Venture Dashboard and proposed Project Aegis (native macOS sandbox for OpenClaw).

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