Contorium — A Project Intelligence Layer for AI Coding Systems

Contorium is a local-first system that introduces persistent project intelligence for AI-assisted development workflows.
It is designed to solve one core problem:
AI coding tools are powerful, but stateless.


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Problem
Across modern AI tools:

• Cursor
• Claude Code
• Codex
• Gemini CLI
• VS Code agents context is not shared. Each session starts from zero understanding:
• architecture is re-explained
• decisions are lost
• reasoning is not preserved
• project intent is fragmented 
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 Solution: Project Intelligence Layer (PIL) Contorium introduces a structured project state layer stored locally inside .contora/. It replaces ad-hoc context passing with a deterministic system. 
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 Core Components 🧠 PIL — Project Intelligence Layer Stores structured project state:
• STATE (current system state)
• INTENT (project goals)
• DECISION (architectural choices)
• GRAPH (relationships) This is not memory. It is structured project reality. 
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 💡 CIL — Cognitive Interaction Layer CIL provides reasoning over project state:
• why decisions were made
• what alternatives existed
• how architecture evolved
• what should happen next It bridges AI reasoning with persistent project intelligence. 
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 ⏱ Timeline Layer All changes are recorded as events:
• edits
• decisions
• tool interactions Enables:
• replay
• evolution tracking
• debugging architecture over time 
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 ⚙️ Execution Layer Contorium integrates with:
• MCP servers
• IDE extensions
• CLI tools All tools operate on the same .contora workspace state. 
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 Runtime Contract Contorium exposes a unified interface: Capture capture_focus capture_decision capture_note Inspect inspect_state inspect_why inspect_graph inspect_timeline Transfer transfer_context transfer_intelligence transfer_handoff This enables cross-tool continuity across AI systems. 
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 Key Insight Contorium shifts AI development from: tool-based workflows to state-based project systems 
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 What Contorium is NOT
• not an autonomous agent
• not a code generator
• not a workflow orchestrator It is a persistent intelligence layer for software projects. 
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 Why it matters As AI becomes embedded in development workflows, the limiting factor is no longer intelligence. It is continuity. Contorium is designed to make project understanding persistent across:
• time
• tools
• models
• sessions 
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 Status Early-stage runtime system (v3 architecture direction) Core direction: Make software projects behave like persistent cognitive systems 
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https://www.contorium.dev/

https://github.com/ContoriumLabs/contorium