Lyrebird

Silent versioning for AI-assisted folders. Records every file change and the chat thread that caused it, so you can rewind, explore, and hand off a folder to another AI with full context.

Status: early MVP, pre-1.0. See DESIGN.md for the full spec and JOURNAL.md for the build narrative.

Why

When AI agents work autonomously in a folder over many sessions, the folder accumulates files but loses history. Lyrebird silently snapshots the folder on every change and links each snapshot to the chat thread that caused it — so "what did this file look like last Tuesday, and which Claude session put it there?" becomes a one-command answer.

See PROBLEM.md for the motivating examples.

Install

macOS (Apple Silicon or Intel):

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/prashkh/lyrebird/main/install.sh | sh

That's it. The installer:

1. Detects your CPU and downloads the right lyre binary from the latest GitHub release (no Go, no source clone, no compile).
2. Drops it in the first writable directory on your $PATH — preferring ~/.local/bin, then /opt/homebrew/bin, then /usr/local/bin.
3. Optionally registers the Claude Code PostToolUse hook in ~/.claude/settings.json so chat threads are captured automatically.

Once installed, lyre is available in any folder. Linux & Windows support are coming.

Build from source (developers, or if the prebuilt binary doesn't work for your platform):

git clone https://github.com/prashkh/lyrebird && cd lyrebird && ./install-from-source.sh

Quick start

# Initialize tracking in any folder
cd ~/myproject
lyre init

# Start the watcher in another terminal (snapshots every change)
lyre watch &

# Explore history
lyre log
lyre sessions
lyre session <id>
lyre show <snapshot-id>
lyre search "route_manhattan"

# Restore (always reversible — auto-snapshots current state first)
lyre restore <file> <snapshot-id>
lyre revert <snapshot-id>

# Open the timeline + session UI
lyre ui                      # http://localhost:6789

# Package the folder + a summary for another AI
lyre handoff -o ~/handoff

Layout

.lyrebird/
├── git/        ← hidden git repo (the actual object store)
├── sessions/   ← per-AI-session JSON: prompts, transcripts
└── config.toml

The user's own .git/ (if any) is never touched.

License

MIT — see LICENSE.