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Rahul Kewalramani
Rahul Kewalramani

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Stop Asking "Why Did We Build This?": Notarizing Architectural Intent with AnchorGit

AI coding assistants write code at lightspeed. But standard Git commits only record what changed in your codebase, rarely why.

When an engineer, security auditor, or code reviewer encounters a breaking schema migration or an AI-generated query override 6 months from now, they need immediate context on the architectural trade-offs that drove that decision.

That is why I created AnchorGit CLI (anchorgit-cli).

⚓ What is AnchorGit?

AnchorGit is an open-source, local-first decision notary for Git workflows. It attaches human intent, architectural trade-off rationale, and hardware-bound HMAC signatures directly to your commits.

Local Git Diff ---> Local SHA-256 Hash ---> Hardware HMAC Sign ---> Local Ledger (~/.anchor/ledger.json)

🛡️ Zero-Knowledge Guarantee

For security-conscious teams and enterprise compliance, code privacy is non-negotiable:

  • Zero Source Code Ingestion: Diffs are parsed strictly on your local machine and immediately discarded. No source code or secrets are ever saved or transmitted.
  • SHA-256 Diff Hashing: AnchorGit stores only non-invertible diff hashes (diff_sha256) paired with your intent summary.
  • Hardware-Bound Provenance: Payload entries are cryptographically signed using your physical CPU/motherboard identity and a local salt to guarantee authenticity.

⚡ Quickstart

Install anchorgit-cli globally via npm:
npm install -g anchorgit-cli

Initialize your workstation identity (works 100% offline out-of-the-box):
anchor pair

Notarize an architectural trade-off before committing:
anchor decide "Refactored auth token rotation to Redis cluster due to memory bottlenecks"

Check your formatted local decision history:
anchor log

Inspect the exact zero-knowledge payload without saving:
anchor decide "Testing security payload" --dry-run

💻 Command Reference

  • pair (anchor pair [api-key]): Binds workstation hardware fingerprint locally or persists API credentials.

  • decide (anchor decide "message"): Hashes diffs, signs payload via hardware HMAC, and appends to local ledger.

  • log (anchor log): Displays formatted decision history.

  • context (anchor context [path]): Queries recent architectural decisions for a file or project.

  • standup (anchor standup): Compiles recent decisions into a clean morning standup report.

  • whoami (anchor whoami): Display
    s currently paired developer identity and public profile link.

🚀 Open Source & Roadmap
anchorgit-cli is open-source under the Apache 2.0 License (Patent Pending No. 202621068620).

📦 NPM Package: https://www.npmjs.com/package/anchorgit-cli

🐙 GitHub Repository: https://github.com/rahool-bk/anchorgit-cli

🌐 Web Studio: https://anchorgit.com

Give it a try in your local terminal and let me know your thoughts or feedback in the comments below!

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