Conversation becomes durable rules. The agent classifies each turn, links rules to project docs, and recalls before the next edit. You talk normally; you do not maintain the vault.

How it works

	When	Example
ADD	New long-term preference	Naming rule, workflow, architecture boundary
REINFORCE	Same policy again	“Yes, still PascalCase for exports”
SUPERSEDE	Policy changed	Narrow scope, widen scope, replace claim
IGNORE	Task-only turn	One-off refactor, chit-chat, secrets

When the user rejects a stored rule (“don’t record that”), the agent finds and calls forget. Write loop: Memory writes.

Vault holds claim, evidence, and optional doc pointers (sources). Shelves indexes markdown under roots so one find returns rules, snippets, and links.

Quick start

go install github.com/SteamedBread2333/imprint/cmd/imprint@latest
go install github.com/SteamedBread2333/imprint/cmd/imprint-mcp@latest
cd your-project && imprint init

Mount imprint MCP in your editor (docs/mcp.md). CLI fallback: imprint --json.

	You	imprint
1	Install + init	Writes imprint.yaml and editor rules (Cursor, Claude Code, Codex, Trae, Workbuddy)
2	Speak normally	Agent find (vault + shelves) → classify → add / reinforce / … (optional sources)
3	Browser audit (optional)	imprint up → imprint desk open

Agent loop (flowchart)

flowchart TB
  U((User<br/>speaks normally))

  subgraph Agent["Agent · imprint-mcp"]
    direction TB
    F["find(scope, query)"]
    C{"Classify<br/>ADD · REINFORCE · SUPERSEDE · IGNORE"}
    W["add / supersede<br/>optional sources"]
    R["find again before coding · cite [r-id]"]
  end

  subgraph Store["imprint storage"]
    direction LR
    Vault[(".imprint/vault.db<br/>claim · evidence · sources")]
    Shelves[(".imprint/state/shelves.db<br/>roots doc BM25")]
  end

  subgraph FindOut["one find call"]
    direction LR
    FR["rules<br/>resolved_sources"]
    FD["documents<br/>snippet"]
    FL["links"]
  end

  subgraph Audit["Optional · human audit"]
    H((You)) --> Desk["desk · show"]
  end

  UP["imprint up"] -.->|host indexes| Shelves

  U -->|speak / task| Agent
  F --> Vault
  F --> Shelves
  Vault --> FR
  Shelves --> FD
  Vault --> FL
  Shelves --> FL
  FR & FD & FL --> C
  C -->|persist| W
  W --> Vault
  R --> F
  Desk --> Vault
  Desk --> Shelves

Before coding (sequence)

sequenceDiagram
  participant U as User
  participant A as Agent
  participant V as vault
  participant S as shelves

  U->>A: new task / continue coding
  A->>V: find(scope, query)
  V->>S: BM25 docs (when shelves on)
  V-->>A: rules · documents · links
  A->>A: code from imprints + excerpts
  Note over A: cite [r-id] and doc path

Storage

Commit imprint.yaml (roots, plugin switches, tunables). Private runtime is gitignored under .imprint/.

Default vault directory: ./.imprint/ (walk up for imprint.yaml or .imprint/). --global → ~/.imprint. Override with --vault or IMPRINT_VAULT.

imprint.yaml            # git: host + shelves.roots + plugins + supersede.inheritance_alpha
.imprint/               # gitignore: private runtime
  vault.db              # SQLite vault (rules, evidence, edges, sources)
  vault.db-wal          # WAL journal; created while a process has the vault open
  vault.db-shm          # WAL shared-memory index (same lifetime)
  state/
    shelves.db          # rebuildable doc index (also uses WAL; may show -wal/-shm)
    plugins/            # plugin derived state
  export/               # optional md/json projections
docs/                   # typical shelves root
.cursor/rules/          # typical shelves root

Vault and shelves open SQLite in WAL mode so CLI, MCP, and host can read and write across processes. -wal / -shm next to a *.db are normal; they stay under .imprint/ (gitignored). Do not commit them, and do not delete them while imprint is running.

Rules live in vault.db. IDs: r-YYYY-MM-DD-NNN. Status: active | dormant | superseded. supersede marks old rules superseded; sweep decays stale rules to dormant; forget deletes. Interactive graph: imprint desk open (host GET /graph).

	Where it runs	Config
Shelves	host	shelves.enabled, config.roots in imprint.yaml
Desk	External plugin	plugins.desk + imprint-desk-plugin

Shelves indexes markdown under roots (e.g. docs/, .cursor/rules/). One MCP mount (imprint-mcp); with shelves on, find + query returns rules, documents, and links. See docs/shelves-builtin.md.

CLI

Global flags: --vault PATH · --global · --json (machine-readable stdout for agents)

Vault

Command	What it does
imprint init	Write imprint.yaml (if missing) and editor agent rules
imprint find [--scope a,b] [--query TEXT]	Recall imprints (scope AND); with query + shelves → also documents, links
imprint add CLAIM --scope a,b --text ORIG	Create an imprint (MCP may include sources linking docs)
imprint reinforce ID --evidence TEXT	Strengthen a rule after explicit reaffirmation (diminishing gain, cap 0.95)
imprint supersede OLD --claim NEW --scope a,b	Replace a rule; old → superseded
imprint forget ID	Delete permanently (lifecycle event remains)
imprint list · show · get ID · report	Browse, inspect, and audit lifecycle / recall / telemetry
imprint sweep · export	Decay stale rules · write .imprint/export/vault.json or vault.jsonl (--format jsonl)

imprint find --scope go,naming --query PascalCase
imprint add "Use snake_case" --scope python,naming --text "user said snake_case"
imprint get r-2026-09-11-001

Local stack

Command	What it does
imprint up	Start the local stack (vault API, shelves, enabled desk, …)
imprint down	Stop the local stack
imprint desk open	Open desk in the browser (requires up first)
imprint status	Snapshot of running services

imprint up && imprint desk open
# when done:
imprint down

After editing imprint.yaml: run down then up.

Debug: host, plugins, irreversible clear

Command	What it does
imprint host start / host stop	Host only (includes shelves)
imprint plugin start / plugin stop	External plugins only
plugin list · enable · disable	Toggle plugins in yaml
imprint host serve [--listen ADDR]	Foreground host (Ctrl+C)
imprint clear --confirm --yes	Delete every rule — irreversible
imprint version	Print version

Run imprint --help or imprint help <cmd> for full flags.

Writes & recall

• Compact recall: MCP find returns claim/count metadata and bounded document snippets by default; get r-… folds evidence and source text. Use include_evidence or full only for audit. Dormant rules can contribute at most one penalized wake_candidate; only an explicit reinforce wakes one.
• Write safety: add, reinforce, and supersede reject likely secrets and personal data. Source paths must remain inside the workspace and may not target credentials, .env*, *.pem, or *.key. add also rejects high-similarity active duplicates. reinforce requires non-empty evidence and uses diminishing confidence gain; find hits only update recall stats.
• Supersede confidence: successor decays the gap above 0.6 by supersede.inheritance_alpha in imprint.yaml (default 0.20; 0 copies old, 1 drops to baseline).
• Scopes: language tags (ts, tsx, golang) canonicalize via GitHub Linguist (go-enry); non-language tags pass through.
• Audit: imprint report --days 30 summarizes lifecycle events, duplicates, conflicts, zero-recall rules, and telemetry latency. Telemetry is a daily JSONL under .imprint/state/telemetry/ and never stores query, claim, evidence, or path text.
• Linking: vault sources point rules at doc paths or headings; compact get r-… returns pointers, full:true resolves excerpts. Design: docs/imprint-shelves-linking.md.

Documentation

Topic	English	中文
MCP mount	docs/mcp.md	docs/mcp.zh.md
Editor init	docs/editors.md	docs/editors.zh.md
Shelves & linking	docs/shelves-builtin.md · docs/imprint-shelves-linking.md	docs/shelves-builtin.zh.md · docs/imprint-shelves-linking.zh.md
Write loop & scenarios	docs/correction.md	docs/correction.zh.md
Testing & acceptance	docs/testing.md	docs/testing.zh.md

MCP mount examples: docs/mcp.md · docs/mcp.zh.md

Install & library

docker pull ghcr.io/steamedbread2333/imprint:latest   # or GitHub Releases binaries
make install          # from clone
make publish V=X.Y.Z  # tag + CI → Release + GHCR

Local builds without a tag print devel.

import "github.com/SteamedBread2333/imprint/pkg/imprint"

v, _ := imprint.Open("./.imprint")
v.Add("Use gofmt", []string{"go"}, "gofmt", 0.6)
v.Find([]string{"go"}, "", 5)

MIT