Swarmvault

Core loop

1. Initialize a vault with swarmvault init when needed.
2. Update swarmvault.schema.md before a serious compile. Use it for naming rules, categories, grounding, freshness expectations, and exclusions.
3. Use swarmvault source add <input> when the input is a recurring local file, local directory, public GitHub repo root, or docs hub that should stay registered.
4. Ingest one-off inputs with swarmvault ingest <path-or-url>, or ingest a whole repo tree with swarmvault ingest <directory>. Audio files use tasks.audioProvider when configured, and supported YouTube URLs go through direct transcript capture instead of generic URL ingest.
5. Use swarmvault ingest --guide, swarmvault source add --guide, swarmvault source reload --guide, swarmvault source guide <id>, or swarmvault source session <id> when the human should integrate one source at a time before canonical pages change. Set profile.guidedIngestDefault: true in swarmvault.config.json to make guided mode the default; use --no-guide to override. Profiles using guidedSessionMode: "canonical_review" stage approval-queued canonical edits; insights_only profiles keep exploratory synthesis in wiki/insights/. Use --review only for the lighter review-only path.
6. Use swarmvault inbox import for capture-style batches, then swarmvault watch --lint --repo when the workflow should stay automated. Add --code-only when the refresh should stay AST-only and defer non-code semantic re-analysis to a later compile. On tracked repos, code-only changes take that faster compile path automatically. Install swarmvault hook install when git checkouts and commits should trigger the same repo-aware code-only refresh automatically.
7. Compile with swarmvault compile, use compile --max-tokens <n> when the generated wiki must stay inside a bounded context budget, or use compile --approve when changes should go through the local review queue first.
8. Resolve staged work with swarmvault review list|show|accept|reject and swarmvault candidate list|promote|archive.
9. Ask questions with swarmvault query "<question>". It saves durable answers into wiki/outputs/ by default; add --no-save only for ephemeral checks. When an embedding provider is configured, query can merge semantic page matches into local search; search.rerank: true lets the current queryProvider rerank the merged top hits before answering.
10. Use swarmvault explore "<question>" --steps <n> for save-first multi-step research loops, or --format report|slides|chart|image when the artifact should be presentation-oriented.
11. Run swarmvault lint whenever the schema changed, artifacts look stale, or compile/query results drift. Set profile.deepLintDefault: true in swarmvault.config.json when the advisory deep-lint pass should be the default, and use --no-deep when you need a structural-only run. Add --web only when deep lint is enabled and a webSearch.tasks.deepLintProvider adapter is configured; web evidence is scoped to deep lint and does not change compile or query behavior.
12. Use swarmvault mcp when another agent or tool should browse, search, and query the vault through MCP.
13. Use swarmvault graph blast <target> when the user wants reverse-import impact analysis, swarmvault graph serve when the live workspace or bookmarklet clipper will help, swarmvault diff when they need a graph-level change summary against the last committed baseline, or swarmvault graph export --html <output> / graph export --report <output> when sharing will help. graph export also supports --html-standalone, --json, --obsidian, and --canvas for lighter or Obsidian-native sharing.

Working rules

• Prefer changing the schema before re-running compile when organization or grounding is wrong.
• Treat wiki/ and state/ as first-class outputs. Inspect them instead of trusting a single chat answer.
• Prefer wiki/graph/report.md, state/graph.json, and saved wiki pages over ad hoc broad search when they already exist.
• Use source add for recurring files, directories, public GitHub repo roots, and docs hubs. Use ingest and add for deliberate one-off inputs.
• When the vault lives in a git repo, ingest|compile|query --commit can commit wiki/ and state/ changes immediately after the run.
• The default heuristic provider is a valid local/offline starting point. Add a model provider only when the user wants richer synthesis quality or optional capabilities such as embeddings, vision, image generation, or audio transcription. The recommended fully-local setup is Ollama + Gemma: ollama pull gemma4 then set providers.llm to { type: "ollama", model: "gemma4" } and point tasks.compileProvider, tasks.queryProvider, and tasks.lintProvider at it.
• Audio ingest needs tasks.audioProvider to resolve to a provider that exposes audio capability. YouTube transcript ingest does not need a provider. Set graph.communityResolution when the user wants to pin community clustering instead of using the adaptive default.
• If an OpenAI-compatible backend cannot satisfy structured generation, reduce its declared capabilities instead of forcing every task through it.
• Keep raw sources immutable. Put corrections in schema, new sources, or saved outputs rather than manually rewriting generated provenance.

Files and artifacts

• swarmvault.schema.md: vault-specific compile and query rules.
• raw/sources/ and raw/assets/: canonical source storage.
• wiki/: generated pages plus saved outputs.
• wiki/outputs/source-briefs/: saved onboarding briefs for managed sources.
• wiki/outputs/source-sessions/: resumable guided-session anchors plus question/answer history for one-source-at-a-time integration.
• wiki/outputs/source-reviews/: staged source-scoped review pages.
• wiki/outputs/source-guides/: staged source-integration guides for one-source-at-a-time workflows.
• wiki/dashboards/: recent sources, reading log, timeline, source sessions, source guides, research map, contradiction, and open-question dashboards.
• wiki/code/: module pages for ingested JavaScript, JSX, TypeScript (including .mts/.cts), TSX, Bash/shell script (with shebang-based detection for extensionless scripts), Python, Go, Rust, Java, Kotlin, Scala, Dart, Lua, Zig, C#, C, C++ (including .c/.cc/.cpp/.cxx and .h/.hh/.hpp/.hxx), PHP, Ruby, PowerShell (.ps1/.psm1/.psd1), Elixir (.ex/.exs), OCaml (.ml/.mli), Objective-C (.m/.mm), ReScript (.res/.resi), Solidity (.sol), Vue single-file components (.vue), HTML (.html/.htm), and CSS sources.
• state/extracts/: extracted markdown and JSON sidecars for PDF, the full Word family (.docx/.docm/.dotx/.dotm), RTF (.rtf), OpenDocument (ODT/ODP/ODS), EPUB, CSV/TSV, the full Excel family (.xlsx/.xlsm/.xlsb/.xls/.xltx/.xltm), the full PowerPoint family (.pptx/.pptm/.potx/.potm), Jupyter notebooks (.ipynb), BibTeX (.bib), Org-mode (.org), AsciiDoc (.adoc/.asciidoc), transcripts, Slack exports, email, calendar, audio transcripts, YouTube transcript captures, and image sources (.png/.jpg/.jpeg/.gif/.webp/.bmp/.tif/.tiff/.svg/.ico/.heic/.heif/.avif/.jxl), plus structured previews for config/data files (JSON/JSONC/JSON5/TOML/YAML/XML/INI/ENV/PROPERTIES/CFG/CONF) and content-sniffed text ingest for developer manifests (package.json, Cargo.toml, go.mod, LICENSE, .gitignore, Dockerfile, Makefile, and similar plaintext files).
• state/code-index.json: repo-aware code aliases and local import resolution data.
• wiki/projects/: project rollups over canonical pages.
• wiki/candidates/: staged concept and entity pages awaiting promotion.
• state/graph.json: compiled graph.
• state/search.sqlite: local search index.
• state/sources.json and state/sources/<id>/: managed-source registry entries plus working sync state.
• state/approvals/: staged review bundles from compile --approve.
• state/sessions/: canonical session artifacts for compile, query, explore, lint, watch, review, and candidate actions.
• state/jobs.ndjson: watch-mode run log.

Agent integration

• swarmvault install --agent codex|claude|cursor|goose|pi|gemini|opencode|aider|copilot|trae|claw|droid installs agent-specific rules into the current project.
• swarmvault install --agent claude|opencode|gemini|copilot --hook installs graph-first hook or plugin support for the agents that expose project hook APIs.
• swarmvault install --agent aider installs CONVENTIONS.md and wires .aider.conf.yml to read it when that config is valid YAML.
• swarmvault mcp exposes tools and resources for page search, page reads, source listing, query, ingest, compile, and lint.

Defaults to preserve

• Keep raw source material immutable under raw/.
• Save useful answers unless the user explicitly wants ephemeral output.
• Prefer reviewable flows such as compile --approve, review, and candidate when a change should not activate silently.
• Treat provider setup as part of serious vault operation. If only heuristic is configured, say so clearly.
• When a vault uses the profile block in swarmvault.config.json, respect it as the deterministic behavior layer. swarmvault.schema.md still defines the human intent layer.