A living wiki for your codebase, maintained by AI coding agents.
CodeAlmanac gives AI agents the context code alone cannot hold: why a system is shaped the way it is, what broke before, which invariants matter, and how workflows cross files and services. The wiki is plain markdown in your repo, indexed locally, and reviewed in Git like any other code change.
Supported today: macOS with Codex or Claude Code. Requires Python 3.12+.
uv tool install codealmanac@latest
codealmanac setup
See Setup for configuration options.
Once CodeAlmanac is set up:
cd your-repo
codealmanac init # Makes your wiki, if you don't have one
codealmanac search "getting started" # Shows matching wiki pages.
codealmanac show getting-started # Opens one page in the terminal
codealmanac serve # Shows the wiki in local web viewer.
Install global agent instructions for the local tools you use:
codealmanac setup
codealmanac setup --yes
codealmanac setup --yes --runner claude
Setup installs agent instructions for your chosen tools and three local macOS
launchd
jobs. The jobs and all wiki work run locally.
| Job | Default schedule | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Sync | Every 5 hours | Scans recent Codex and Claude conversations and queues useful knowledge for the relevant registered wiki. |
| Garden | Every 24 hours | Reviews every registered wiki for stale, duplicated, or poorly connected knowledge. |
| Update | Every 24 hours | Checks for and installs CodeAlmanac CLI updates when it is safe to do so. |
These schedules run locally in the background. Use
codealmanac automation status
to see what is installed.
The final setup step asks about anonymous telemetry and recommends Yes so we can
see which commands work and where the CLI breaks. It sends controlled command
and lifecycle outcomes plus sanitized unhandled crashes under a random install
UUID. It never sends code, paths, arguments, queries, prompts, transcripts,
repository/run IDs, locals, or credentials; GeoIP is disabled. Choose No in
setup, pass setup --no-telemetry
, set telemetry.enabled
to false
, or use
DO_NOT_TRACK=1
at any time. Without a future login, the UUID profile has no name or email.
If you don't have Codex or prefer Claude, use --runner claude
.
--target
only chooses which global agent instruction files to install; it does not choose the AI runner:
codealmanac setup --yes --target codex
codealmanac setup --yes --target claude
Customize automatic work during setup:
codealmanac setup --yes --sync-every 5h
codealmanac setup --yes --sync-off
codealmanac setup --yes --garden-off
codealmanac setup --yes --no-auto-update
To uninstall CodeAlmanac-owned local artifacts:
codealmanac uninstall --yes
Agents and humans use the same local read commands:
codealmanac search "checkout timeout"
codealmanac search --mentions src/checkout/
codealmanac show checkout-flow
codealmanac topics
codealmanac health
codealmanac validate
Use --wiki <name>
to read another registered local wiki. By default, commands target the exact current directory when it is a registered repository root.
Lifecycle commands run one of three explicit agents—build, ingest, or garden—
through the public Yoke SDK. The existing
packaged prompt files remain the complete task instructions and direct agents
to edit the wiki under almanac/
.
Lifecycle agents are trusted local coding agents. They run with the same broad,
non-interactive filesystem permissions CodeAlmanac historically provided, so
the almanac/
boundary is an instruction and commit policy, not an OS sandbox. Run lifecycle commands only in repositories where you accept that trust model, and review the resulting Git diff when automatic commits are disabled.
codealmanac ingest README.md --using codex
codealmanac ingest github:pr:123 --using claude
codealmanac garden --using codex
ingest
folds selected local material into the wiki. Inputs can include files, directories, Git diffs, commit ranges, GitHub PRs or issues, URLs, and local agent transcripts.
garden
improves the existing wiki graph: stale pages, links, topics, weak leads, duplicate pages, and unsupported claims.
No-op is valid. If the material adds no durable wiki knowledge, the harness should leave the wiki unchanged.
init
, ingest
, and garden
create queued runs and start a local worker. To
follow them visually, run codealmanac serve
and select Jobs in the
sidebar. To stay in the terminal, use codealmanac jobs attach <run-id>
.
CodeAlmanac can keep registered wikis current without requiring you to remember maintenance commands.
Sync scans local Codex and Claude transcript stores for conversations active since the previous completed sync. Conversations associated with registered repositories are queued as ordinary ingest jobs. Sync may decide that a conversation contains no durable knowledge and leave the wiki unchanged.
Garden periodically queues a maintenance job for each registered wiki. It improves stale pages, weak links, topics, duplicated knowledge, and graph structure.
Update keeps the locally installed CodeAlmanac CLI current. Scheduled updates are skipped when an update would be unsafe, such as while lifecycle work is active.
Automation is implemented with local macOS launchd
jobs, not a hosted service
or cloud sync. Logs are stored under ~/.codealmanac/logs/
.
codealmanac automation status
codealmanac config set automation.sync.every 5h
codealmanac config set automation.garden.every 24h
codealmanac config set automation.update.every 24h
codealmanac config set automation.sync.enabled false
codealmanac config set automation.sync.enabled true
config set
updates the user TOML and immediately makes launchd match. If you
edit the TOML directly, run codealmanac config apply
afterward.
Automation creates individual background runs. Inspect those runs separately
with codealmanac jobs
.
Lifecycle runs are recorded under ~/.codealmanac/
. Use these commands to inspect and control them:
codealmanac jobs
codealmanac jobs show <run-id>
codealmanac jobs logs <run-id>
codealmanac jobs attach <run-id>
codealmanac jobs cancel <run-id>
show
is a summary of the job; logs
is a snapshot of its event history;
attach
keeps watching and prints events as they arrive. All of these commands
read the same durable local job record, so they still work after the terminal
that started the job has closed. Add --json
when consuming their output from a script.
CodeAlmanac uses almanac-yoke
as its single provider boundary. Codex runs through app-server; Claude uses Yoke's default Claude surface (currently the Python Agent SDK). Existing Codex or Claude Code OAuth sessions are reused, and API credentials can be supplied through Yoke when embedding the SDK.
Build, ingest, and garden are packaged as a Yoke agent collection under
src/codealmanac/agents/
. Each agent uses Yoke's native folder contract:
agent.yaml
describes tools and permissions, while instructions.md
contains
the durable agent instructions. A lifecycle run passes only its typed runtime
context as the task prompt. Optional Yoke skills/
, subagents/
, and
workflows/
folders can be added to an agent when the product needs them; native Claude or Codex execution still decides how and when to use them.
codex login
claude auth login
codealmanac doctor
Read commands do not need provider credentials. Write-capable lifecycle commands need the selected harness to be available and authenticated.
With the default root:
your-repo/
|-- almanac/
| |-- README.md
| |-- topics.yaml
| |-- architecture/
| | |-- README.md
| | `-- indexer.md
| |-- decisions/
| | `-- local-first.md
| `-- guides/
| `-- setup.md
|-- src/
`-- ...
Markdown pages live directly under almanac/
in meaningful folders.
topics.yaml
organizes pages across folders. README.md
files act as landing pages for their folder routes.
For auto-detection, a repository counts as a CodeAlmanac wiki when
almanac/topics.yaml
and almanac/README.md
exist.
Derived local state lives under ~/.codealmanac/
:
~/.codealmanac/codealmanac.db
~/.codealmanac/repos/<repo-id>/index.db
The local database records repositories, runs, run events, worker locks, and
sync state. Per-repository runtime files contain derived indexes. They do not
belong in the committed almanac/
tree.
User config lives at:
~/.codealmanac/config.toml
The supported defaults are:
auto_commit = true
[harness]
default = "codex"
model = "gpt-5.5"
[automation.sync]
enabled = true
every = "5h"
[automation.garden]
enabled = true
every = "24h"
[automation.update]
enabled = true
every = "24h"
CLI flags still win over config.
Use codealmanac config set <key> <value>
for normal changes. It applies automation changes to launchd immediately. Direct file edits are supported but must be followed by:
codealmanac config apply
auto_commit
means lifecycle prompts may tell the selected agent to use normal Git commands for wiki source changes. CodeAlmanac does not stage files, split diffs, or commit internally.
codealmanac setup --no-auto-commit
codealmanac config set auto_commit false
codealmanac config set auto_commit true
codealmanac serve
The viewer is read-only. It renders pages, search, topics, backlinks, and
file-reference navigation from local wiki data. serve
opens it in your default
browser once the server is ready; use codealmanac serve --no-open
for headless
or scripted use. By default the viewer can switch across available registered
local wikis. Use codealmanac serve --wiki <name>
to narrow it to one wiki.
The legacy codealmanac
npm package is retired. PyPI is the only supported distribution. If you used the npm CLI, your machine may still carry the old global install plus the hooks and agent instructions it set up. Remove those before installing from PyPI.
Remove the old global package and any CodeAlmanac hooks or agent-instruction sections it installed, then install and set up the Python CLI:
npm uninstall -g codealmanac
uv tool install codealmanac@latest
codealmanac setup --yes
codealmanac doctor
Also remove old bun, pnpm, or yarn installs and any stray legacy binaries from
PATH
. Leave repo-local almanac/
trees alone; they are committed wiki content, not part of the CLI install.
The Codex CLI on this machine is broken or missing: the @openai/codex
package is installed but its native binary is gone (a common result of an interrupted install or a Node version switch under nvm/volta/fnm). Verify with:
codex --version
If that fails with the same spawn ... ENOENT
, reinstall the Codex CLI:
npm install -g @openai/codex
codex --version # confirm the binary runs
codex login status # confirm you are still signed in
Reinstalling does not sign you out: codex keeps its login under ~/.codex
, outside the npm package.
Or switch CodeAlmanac to the Claude harness instead:
codealmanac config set harness.default claude
The same applies to harness claude failed
errors: check
claude --version
, reinstall the Claude Code CLI if broken, or switch the
default harness. codealmanac doctor
reports harness availability.
This rewrite is local-only for now.
-
Public command:
codealmanac -
Short alias:
ca -
Repo wiki root:
almanac/
only - Alternate repo wiki roots: none
-
User state root:
~/.codealmanac/ -
Runtime: Python 3.12+
-
Storage: local markdown plus derived state under
~/.codealmanac/ -
No hosted login/connect/upload commands.
-
No public SDK or MCP package.
-
No legacy compatibility aliases beyond the supported
ca
shorthand. - No alternate wiki roots.
- Optional anonymous usage and sanitized crash telemetry; disable it with
codealmanac config set telemetry.enabled false
or--no-telemetry
in setup. - No wiki, source, prompt, transcript, path, or command-argument upload path.
- No second canonical product name.
This is the Python/PyPI product surface. Hosted integration can be added later around the same repo-owned wiki artifact, but it is not part of this release surface.