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If AI writes code, should the session be part of the commit?
Hacker News · Mar 2, 2026 · Collected from RSS
Summary
Article URL: https://github.com/mandel-macaque/memento Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47212355 Points: 36 # Comments: 49
Full Article
git-memento git-memento is a Git extension that records the AI coding session used to produce a commit. It runs a commit and then stores a cleaned markdown conversation as a git note on the new commit. Goal Create commits with normal Git flow (-m or editor). Attach the AI session trace to the commit (git notes). Keep provider support extensible (Codex first, others later). Produce human-readable markdown notes. Command Initialize per-repository memento settings: git memento init git memento init codex git memento init claude init stores configuration in local git metadata (.git/config) under memento.*. git memento commit <session-id> -m "Normal commit message" git memento commit <session-id> -m "Subject line" -m "Body paragraph" git memento amend -m "Amended subject" git memento amend <new-session-id> -m "Amended subject" -m "Amended body" git memento audit --range main..HEAD --strict git memento doctor Or: git memento commit <session-id> You can pass -m multiple times, and each value is forwarded to git commit in order. When -m is omitted, git commit opens your default editor. amend runs git commit --amend. Without a session id, it copies the note(s) from the previous HEAD onto the amended commit. With a session id, it copies previous note(s) and appends the new fetched session as an additional session entry. A single commit note can contain sessions from different AI providers. Share notes with the repository remote (default: origin): git memento share-notes git memento share-notes upstream This pushes refs/notes/* and configures local remote.<name>.fetch so notes can be fetched by teammates. Push your branch and sync notes to the same remote in one command (default: origin): git memento push git memento push upstream This runs git push <remote> and then performs the same notes sync as share-notes. Sync and merge notes from a remote safely (default remote: origin, default strategy: cat_sort_uniq): git memento notes-sync git memento notes-sync upstream git memento notes-sync upstream --strategy union This command: Ensures notes fetch mapping is configured. Creates a backup ref under refs/notes/memento-backups/<timestamp>. Fetches remote notes into refs/notes/remote/<remote>/*. Merges remote notes into local notes and pushes synced notes back to the remote. Configure automatic note carry-over for rewritten commits (rebase / commit --amend): git memento notes-rewrite-setup This sets local git config: notes.rewriteRef=refs/notes/commits notes.rewriteMode=concatenate notes.rewrite.rebase=true notes.rewrite.amend=true Carry notes from a rewritten range (for squash/rewrite flows) onto a new target commit: git memento notes-carry --onto <new-commit> --from-range <base>..<head> This reads notes from commits in <base>..<head> and appends a provenance block to <new-commit>. Audit note coverage and note metadata in a commit range: git memento audit --range main..HEAD git memento audit --range origin/main..HEAD --strict --format json Reports commits with missing notes (missing-note <sha>). Validates note metadata markers (- Provider: and - Session ID:). In --strict mode, invalid note structure fails the command. Run repository diagnostics for provider config, notes refs, and remote sync posture: git memento doctor git memento doctor upstream --format json Show command help: git memento help Show installed tool version (major.minor + commit metadata when available): git memento --version Provider Configuration Provider defaults can come from env vars, and init persists the selected provider + values in local git config: MEMENTO_AI_PROVIDER (default: codex) MEMENTO_CODEX_BIN (default: codex) MEMENTO_CODEX_GET_ARGS (default: sessions get {id} --json) MEMENTO_CODEX_LIST_ARGS (default: sessions list --json) MEMENTO_CLAUDE_BIN (default: claude) MEMENTO_CLAUDE_GET_ARGS (default: sessions get {id} --json) MEMENTO_CLAUDE_LIST_ARGS (default: sessions list --json) Set MEMENTO_AI_PROVIDER=claude to use Claude Code. Runtime behavior: If the repository is not configured yet, commit, amend <session-id>, push, share-notes, notes-sync, notes-rewrite-setup, and notes-carry fail with a message to run git memento init first. Stored git metadata keys include: memento.provider memento.codex.bin, memento.codex.getArgs, memento.codex.listArgs memento.claude.bin, memento.claude.getArgs, memento.claude.listArgs If a session id is not found, git-memento asks Codex for available sessions and prints them. Build (AOT) Requires .NET SDK 10 and native toolchain dependencies for NativeAOT. macOS dotnet publish src/GitMemento.Cli/GitMemento.Cli.fsproj -c Release -r osx-arm64 -p:PublishAot=true Linux dotnet publish src/GitMemento.Cli/GitMemento.Cli.fsproj -c Release -r linux-x64 -p:PublishAot=true Windows (PowerShell) dotnet publish src/GitMemento.Cli/GitMemento.Cli.fsproj -c Release -r win-x64 -p:PublishAot=true Local Install as Git Tool Git discovers commands named git-<name> in PATH. Publish for your platform. Copy the produced executable to a directory in your PATH. Ensure the binary name is git-memento (or git-memento.exe on Windows). Then run: git memento commit <session-id> -m "message" Curl Install Install from latest GitHub release: curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mandel-macaque/memento/main/install.sh | sh Release Automation Release assets are built with NativeAOT (PublishAot=true) and packaged as a single executable per platform. If the workflow runs from a tag push (for example v1.2.3), that tag is used as the GitHub release tag/name. If the workflow runs from main without a tag, the release tag becomes <Version>-<shortSha> (for example 1.0.0-a1b2c3d4). install.sh always downloads from releases/latest, so the installer follows the latest published GitHub release. Install Script CI Coverage CI runs install smoke tests on Linux, macOS, and Windows that verify: install.sh downloads the latest release asset for the current OS/architecture. The binary is installed for the current user into the configured install directory. git memento --version and git memento help both execute after installation. Test dotnet test GitMemento.slnx npm run test:js Commit Note Comments + CI Gate (GitHub Action) This repository includes a reusable marketplace action with two modes: mode: comment (default): reads git notes created by git-memento and posts a commit comment. mode: gate: runs git memento audit as a CI gate and fails if note coverage checks fail. git-memento must already be installed in the job. Action definition: action.yml at repository root. install/action.yml for reusable git-memento installation. Renderer source: src/note-comment-renderer.ts Runtime artifact committed for marketplace consumers: dist/note-comment-renderer.js Example workflow: name: memento-note-comments on: push: pull_request: types: [opened, synchronize, reopened] permissions: contents: write pull-requests: read jobs: comment-memento-notes: runs-on: ubuntu-latest steps: - uses: actions/checkout@v4 with: fetch-depth: 0 - uses: mandel-macaque/memento@v1 with: mode: comment github-token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }} Inputs: github-token (default: ${{ github.token }}) mode (default: comment) - comment or gate notes-fetch-refspec (default: refs/notes/*:refs/notes/*) max-comment-length (default: 65000) audit-range (optional, gate mode) base-ref (optional, gate mode pull request inference) strict (default: true, gate mode) Installer action inputs: memento-repo (default: mandel-macaque/memento, release asset source) install-dir (default: ${{ runner.temp }}/git-memento-bin) verify (default: true) CI gate example: name: memento-note-gate on: pull_request: types: [opened, synchronize, reopened] permissions: contents: read jobs: enforce-memento-notes: runs-on: ubuntu-latest steps: - uses: actions/checkout@v4 with: fetch-depth: 0 - uses: mandel-macaque/memento/install@v1 with: memento-repo: mandel-macaque/memento - uses: mandel-macaque/memento@v1 with: mode: gate strict: "true" Installer action example: - uses: mandel-macaque/memento/install@v1 with: memento-repo: mandel-macaque/memento Local workflow in this repository: .github/workflows/memento-note-comments.yml .github/workflows/memento-note-gate.yml Publish This Action To GitHub Marketplace Build and commit the action renderer artifact: npm ci npm run build:action git add src/note-comment-renderer.ts dist/note-comment-renderer.js Ensure action.yml and install/action.yml are in the default branch and README documents usage. Create and push a semantic version tag: git tag -a v1.0.0 -m "Release GitHub Action v1.0.0" git push origin v1.0.0 git tag -f v1 v1.0.0 git push -f origin v1 In GitHub, open your repository page: Releases -> Draft a new release -> choose v1.0.0 -> publish. Open the Marketplace (GitHub Store) publishing flow from the repository and submit listing metadata. Keep the major tag (v1) updated to the latest compatible release. Notes Notes are written with git notes add -f -m "<markdown>" <commit-hash>. Multi-session notes use explicit delimiters: <!-- git-memento-sessions:v1 --> <!-- git-memento-note-version:1 --> <!-- git-memento-session:start --> <!-- git-memento-session:end --> Legacy single-session notes remain supported and are upgraded to the versioned multi-session envelope when amend needs to append a new session. Conversation markdown labels user messages with your git alias (git config user.name) and assistant messages with provider name. Serilog debug logs are enabled in DEBUG builds.
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