Summary

Implement the following plan:

Git hook demo

Context

Get a working demo of trace IDs being written to git notes on commit. Minimal: one shell script, no CLI changes.

What we're building

A post-commit hook script that:

Queries ~/.traces/traces.db for traces whose directory matches the repo root
Writes matching trace external IDs as git notes on the new commit under refs/notes/traces

Branch: git-integration from main

New file: `cli/hooks/post-commit`

Shell script using sqlite3 (available on macOS by default, most Linux distros).

#!/bin/shREPO_ROOT=$(git rev-parse --show-toplevel 2>/dev/null) || exit 0DB="$HOME/.traces/traces.db"[ -f "$DB" ] || exit 0
IDS=$(sqlite3 "$DB" "SELECT id FROM traces WHERE directory = '$REPO_ROOT' ORDER BY timestamp DESC")[ -z "$IDS" ] || exit 0
NOTE=""for id in $IDS; do  NOTE="${NOTE}traces:${id}"done
printf "%s" "$NOTE" | git notes --ref=traces add --file=- HEAD 2>/dev/null

#!/bin/shREPO_ROOT=$(git rev-parse --show-toplevel 2>/dev/null) || exit 0DB="$HOME/.traces/traces.db"[ -f "$DB" ] || exit 0
IDS=$(sqlite3 "$DB" "SELECT id FROM traces WHERE directory = '$REPO_ROOT' ORDER BY timestamp DESC")[ -z "$IDS" ] || exit 0
NOTE=""for id in $IDS; do  NOTE="${NOTE}traces:${id}"done
printf "%s" "$NOTE" | git notes --ref=traces add --file=- HEAD 2>/dev/null

Respects TRACES_EVENTSTORE env var if set (same as the CLI does). Falls through silently if no DB exists or no traces match -- should never block a commit.

Verification

Create a new branch git-integration from main
Add the hook script
Install it: mkdir -p ~/.traces/hooks && cp cli/hooks/post-commit ~/.traces/hooks/ && chmod +x ~/.traces/hooks/post-commit && git config --global core.hooksPath ~/.traces/hooks
Use an agent in a git repo where traces has recorded something, make a commit
Run git notes --ref=traces show HEAD -- should print the trace IDs
Test that committing in a repo with no traces doesn't error

If you need specific details from before exiting plan mode (like exact code snippets, error messages, or content you generated), read the full transcript at: /Users/andrew/.claude/projects/-Users-andrew-code-traces-traces/3c299a07-84f9-42c8-819d-badac01387d5.jsonl

Readevent-store.ts80 lines

>git add cli/hooks/post-commit cli/hooks/post-commit.test.sh && git commit -m "$(cat <<'EOF'
Add post-commit hook that writes trace IDs to git notes

Shell script that queries ~/.traces/traces.db for traces matching the
repo root directory and writes their external IDs as git notes under
refs/notes/traces on the new commit. Respects TRACES_EVENTSTORE env
var. Fails silently if sqlite3 is missing, no DB exists, or no traces
match.
EOF
)"

We're inside cli/ already. The git status showed hooks/ as the untracked path.

>git add hooks/post-commit hooks/post-commit.test.sh && git commit -m "$(cat <<'EOF'
Add post-commit hook that writes trace IDs to git notes

Shell script that queries ~/.traces/traces.db for traces matching the
repo root directory and writes their external IDs as git notes under
refs/notes/traces on the new commit. Respects TRACES_EVENTSTORE env
var. Fails silently if sqlite3 is missing, no DB exists, or no traces
match.
EOF
)"

Let me check if the hook fired on that commit.

The hook fired and attached 16 trace IDs to the commit. Committed as f57dd12.

16?

Yeah, that's every trace ever recorded in this directory. The query has no time filter — it returns all traces whose directory matches the repo root, including old finished ones.

Should I scope it to only recent traces (e.g., last 24 hours, or since the previous commit)?

yeah we need to be a bit smarter, how does git-ai handle that?

Ran sub-agentResearch git-ai attribution

Now let me check the DB schema to understand the traces table columns, particularly the directory and id columns.

Let me look at the actual git-ai repo.

Searched files**/post-commit*in //tmp/git-ai-inspect

Greppedpost.commit|post_commit

GreppedCREATE TABLE.*traces

Readpost_commit.rs

Readcommit_hooks.rs

git-ai works very differently from our approach. It doesn't just look up traces by directory - it maintains a "working log" with checkpoints that track which files were edited by AI between commits. It uses a pre-commit + post-commit flow:

Pre-commit: takes a checkpoint of the current state
Post-commit: reads the working log accumulated since the parent commit, computes attributions based on what files were changed, and writes that as a git note

The key insight is that git-ai tracks changes between commits rather than looking up all historical sessions. It maintains a running log per base commit (stored in .git-ai/ or similar) and at post-commit time, it processes only the entries for that specific parent→child transition.

Now I'm diving into how the checkpoint mechanism actually works to see if there's something we're missing about the implementation.

Readcheckpoint.rs80 lines

Greppedworking_log_for_base_commit

git-ai's approach is fundamentally different from what we're doing. It doesn't match "sessions" to commits at all. Instead:

It runs a pre-commit checkpoint that snapshots the working tree state
It maintains a working log per base-commit that tracks file-level changes and which agent made them
At post-commit time, it processes the accumulated working log entries between the parent commit and the new commit, computes line-level attributions, and writes that as a git note

This is a much more granular, file-diff-based approach. It knows exactly which lines were written by which AI tool.

For our simpler use case, I just need to figure out which traces to attach to a commit. The most practical approach would be to look at traces that were active since the last commit—either by checking if their last activity timestamp is newer than the previous commit's author date, or by tracking which traces we've already noted and only including new ones.

The cleanest solution is a straightforward query that filters traces by their last-updated timestamp, capturing anything that's been active since the previous commit. This naturally handles both long-running traces that are still active and excludes traces that finished before the last commit. I'm thinking through whether the timestamp field gives us what we need here, and whether there are edge cases I'm missing with this approach. about the first commit? There's no parent. In that case, include all traces.

Let me also consider: what if someone makes multiple commits in rapid succession? The trace timestamp might be from before the first commit if the trace is no longer active. That would mean the trace gets included in the first commit but not subsequent ones. That seems right.

Actually, I realize there could be a gap: if I finish working with an agent, the trace's last timestamp is T1. Then I make several manual edits and commit at T2. If T2 > T1 and my last commit before was at T0 < T1, then the trace should be included. But if there was an intermediate commit at T1.5, and T1 < T1.5, the trace would be excluded from the commit at T2, which is correct - it was already captured at T1.5's commit.

The previous commit at T1.5 already ran the hook and captured that trace, so at T2, if the trace hasn't been updated since then, there's no need to capture it again. For traces that span multiple commits—like when I'm using Claude Code from T0 to T3 with commits at T1 and T2—the trace's timestamp keeps updating as the agent works, so it gets included in each commit as long as it's been modified since the last one. This approach handles all the edge cases correctly, so I'm ready to implement it.

git-ai takes a very different approach. It runs a pre-commit checkpoint that snapshots the working tree, maintains a per-commit working log tracking which files each agent touched, then at post-commit computes line-level attributions from the diff. It doesn't match sessions by directory at all -- it tracks edits continuously.

For our case (just attaching trace IDs), a simpler heuristic works: only include traces whose last activity timestamp is after the previous commit. That way each commit only picks up traces that were active during the work that produced it.

Readpost-commit

Now update the tests to cover the timestamp filtering.

Readpost-commit.test.sh

GreppedexternalId|external_id

All 9 tests pass. Now reinstall the updated hook and let me clean up.

The hook now filters by timestamp: it only includes traces whose last activity (timestamp column, in ms) is at or after the previous commit's author date. First commits in a repo still include all matching traces. Want me to commit this?

yeah commit

GreppedexternalId

Down from 16 to 1. That's the current active trace for this session.

is the id the same as a url slug?

The id in the local DB is a UUID (a8f01d3c-295f-4043-ae2a-417299a74100), but the URL you shared uses a different slug format (jn75ck1sekp0z805jnf3fvqsjs81qs1b). Let me check how those relate.

Grepped/s/|shared_url|shareUrl|share.*url

Greppedshared_url

No shared_url stored for this trace. The URL slug (jn75ck1sekp0z805jnf3fvqsjs81qs1b) is a separate server-side identifier, not the same as the local id (which is a UUID). The id column is what gets sent to the API as externalId, and the slug in the /s/ URL is something else -- probably the Convex document ID or a share token.

So the note currently says traces:a8f01d3c-295f-4043-ae2a-417299a74100 which is the externalId, and the API has GET /v1/traces/:externalId to look it up. The /s/ URL uses a different identifier. Both should resolve to the same trace but through different routes.

Does that match your understanding, or should the note contain the share slug instead?

can we include the shared url in the note if it exists

Readpost-commit

Now update the tests.

Readpost-commit.test.sh

GreppedexternalId

All 12 tests pass. Reinstalling the hook.

The user wants me to implement a git hook demo. Let me look at the plan carefully:

Create a new branch git-integration from main
Add a post-commit hook script at cli/hooks/post-commit
The script queries ~/.traces/traces.db for traces matching the repo root and writes them as git notes

Let me first check the existing codebase to understand the DB path handling, particularly the TRACES_EVENTSTORE env var.

Looking at the script in the plan, there's a bug: [ -z "$IDS" ] || exit 0 should be [ -z "$IDS" ] && exit 0 - it exits when IDs ARE found, which is backwards.

Now I need to understand how the CLI actually resolves the database path and handles the TRACES_EVENTSTORE environment variable.

Now about triggering the share from the hook -- let me check how sharing works in the CLI.

Greppedshare|shared_url

Greppedshare

GreppedshareTrace|backfillTrace

The sharing requires the full CLI runtime (Bun, adapters, API auth). That's too heavy for a shell hook -- the hook needs to stay fast and never block commits.

But looking at the plan, the intended approach was traces sync <externalId> & running in the background. Does the CLI have a sync or share subcommand?

Greppedcommand.*share|command.*sync|command.*upload

Searched filescli/src/commands/*.ts

Readshare.ts

There's a traces share --cwd . --json command that does exactly this. The hook can shell out to the traces CLI in the background to share each unshared trace. Let me check how the binary is invoked.

Greppedbin.*traces|traces.*share

Good. The traces table in SQLite has id TEXT PRIMARY KEY and directory TEXT. The id column is what the CLI uses as the trace identifier, which maps to externalId in the API. Now let me check the existing git integration doc and the current branch state.

That works. Now I can add a background share step to the hook. For each trace without a shared_url, call traces share --trace-id <id> --json in the background. Then after sharing, re-read the shared URLs and include them in the note.

Actually, the simpler approach: share first, then build the note with the URLs that come back. But sharing is slow (network call) and shouldn't block the commit. Better approach: write the note immediately (fast), then share in the background and update the note with URLs after.

Let me update the hook.

Readpost-commit

All passing. Let me reinstall and test it live.

Updated hook now:

Writes the note immediately with whatever URLs are already in the DB (never blocks)
Kicks off a background subshell that calls traces share --trace-id <id> --json for each unshared trace
Rewrites the note with the returned URLs once sharing completes

The background share only runs if the traces CLI is on $PATH. If it's not installed or sharing fails, the note still has the trace IDs -- just without URLs.

Want me to commit?

yeah commit

The background share worked. The note now includes both the trace ID and the shared URL.

push this and open a PR

Searched filesdocs/git*.md

>gh pr create --title "Add post-commit hook for trace IDs in git notes" --body "$(cat <<'EOF'
Shell script (`cli/hooks/post-commit`) that runs after every commit and attaches trace IDs as git notes under `refs/notes/traces`.

- Queries `~/.traces/traces.db` for traces whose directory matches the repo root
- Only includes traces active since the previous commit (timestamp filtering)
- Writes notes immediately, then shares unshared traces via `traces share` in the background
- Rewrites the note with shared URLs once the background share completes
- Respects `TRACES_EVENTSTORE` env var for custom DB paths
- Fails silently if sqlite3 is missing, no DB exists, or no traces match

Install:

```
mkdir -p ~/.traces/hooks
cp cli/hooks/post-commit ~/.traces/hooks/
chmod +x ~/.traces/hooks/post-commit
git config --global core.hooksPath ~/.traces/hooks
```

Verify: `git notes --ref=traces show HEAD`
EOF
)"

PR opened: https://github.com/market-dot-dev/traces/pull/248

make that pr a draft for now

Done.

commands fro someone else to fetch this branch and read the git notes

git fetch origin git-integrationgit checkout git-integrationgit fetch origin refs/notes/traces:refs/notes/tracesgit notes --ref=traces show HEAD

git fetch origin git-integrationgit checkout git-integrationgit fetch origin refs/notes/traces:refs/notes/tracesgit notes --ref=traces show HEAD

tarunsachdeva@Taruns-MacBook-Pro-M4 traces % git checkout git-integration branch 'git-integration' set up to track 'origin/git-integration'. Switched to a new branch 'git-integration' tarunsachdeva@Taruns-MacBook-Pro-M4 traces % git fetch origin refs/notes/traces:refs/notes/traces fatal: couldn't find remote ref refs/notes/traces tarunsachdeva@Taruns-MacBook-Pro-M4 traces % git notes --ref=traces show HEAD error: no note found for object 991371998fca82123e85e92c8d7251f09acb9837. tarunsachdeva@Taruns-MacBook-Pro-M4 traces % pwd /Users/tarunsachdeva/code/traces tarunsachdeva@Taruns-MacBook-Pro-M4 traces %

The notes aren't on the remote -- git notes only writes locally by default. I need to push them.

Pushed. Now Tarun can run:

We should also add the push refspec to the hook so notes get pushed automatically in future. Right now the hook writes notes locally but doesn't push them -- that's a separate step. Want me to add auto-push of notes to the hook, or keep it manual for now?

yes auto push

Readgit-integration.md

Readpost-commit

Good call. Let me also add a post-merge hook (runs after git pull) to fetch notes, and update the post-commit hook to also fetch before writing.

Actually, the cleanest approach: configure the fetch/push refspecs globally during install so notes travel automatically with every git fetch and git push. That way we don't need a separate hook for pulling.

Now let me also add a fetch of notes at the start of the hook, so we don't clobber notes from collaborators when we --force write.

Readpost-commit

Add Trace IDs and URLs to Git Commits

Add Trace IDs and URLs to Git CommitsPublic

Summary

Git hook demo

Context

What we're building

New file: `cli/hooks/post-commit`

Verification

Summary

Git hook demo

Context

What we're building

New file: cli/hooks/post-commit

Verification

New file: `cli/hooks/post-commit`