Git Memory Guide

June 20, 2026 · View on GitHub

Git Memory turns your Git history into searchable engineering memory, so an agent can recall what actually changed in the codebase — not just what someone wrote down in a note.

Instead of relying only on agent-written notes, Memorix reads commit metadata and stores each commit as a memory with source provenance (the commit hash it came from).

What Git Memory Stores

Each ingested commit becomes a memory with:

  • source='git'
  • commitHash
  • title and narrative derived from commit metadata
  • changed files
  • inferred observation type
  • extracted concepts and entities

This creates an engineering truth layer that complements reasoning memory and manual observations.

Main Workflows

Install automatic post-commit capture

memorix git-hook --force

This installs a post-commit hook that runs:

memorix ingest commit --auto

After that, new commits are automatically evaluated and stored as Git memories.

Remove the hook

memorix git-hook-uninstall

Ingest a single commit manually

memorix ingest commit

You can also target a specific ref:

memorix ingest commit --ref HEAD~3

Batch ingest recent history

memorix ingest log --count 20

Use this when enabling Git Memory on an existing project and you want recent history backfilled.

Noise Filtering

Not every commit deserves to become long-lived memory.

Memorix applies a Git noise filter before ingesting commits. Depending on commit content and your config, it may skip:

  • merge commits
  • trivial typo or formatting commits
  • lockfile-only changes
  • generated-only changes
  • custom excluded patterns
  • commit subjects matching configured noise keywords

If a commit is skipped in interactive mode, Memorix tells you why.

Override the filter

If you really want to ingest a filtered commit:

memorix ingest commit --force

Configuration

Configure Git Memory in global ~/.memorix/config.toml or project <git-root>/memorix.toml:

[git]
auto_hook = true
ingest_on_commit = true
max_diff_size = 500
skip_merge_commits = true
exclude_patterns = ["*.lock", "dist/**"]
noise_keywords = ["^BOT:", "auto-deploy"]

Key settings:

  • auto_hook: install the post-commit hook automatically on startup
  • ingest_on_commit: ingest HEAD during post-commit execution
  • max_diff_size: cap how much diff content is included
  • skip_merge_commits: skip merge commits by default
  • exclude_patterns: skip commits touching only matching files
  • noise_keywords: skip commits whose subjects match configured patterns

See CONFIGURATION.md for the full configuration model.

Retrieval Model

Git memories are especially useful for questions like:

  • What changed recently?
  • Which commit introduced this behavior?
  • Which files were touched by this feature?
  • When did we ship this fix?

Memorix retrieval is source-aware:

  • “what changed” style questions boost Git memories
  • “why did we do this” style questions boost reasoning memories
  • “how did we fix this” style questions can use both

Git memory is not meant to replace reasoning memory. The strongest setup is:

  • Git Memory for engineering truth
  • Reasoning Memory for trade-offs, decisions, and intent

Cross-Linking

Memorix can connect Git memories and reasoning memories through:

  • shared entities
  • explicit relatedCommits
  • cross-references in detail views

This gives you a layered understanding:

  • Git says what changed
  • reasoning says why it changed

For a new project:

  1. run memorix init
  2. enable Git Memory config in memorix.toml or ~/.memorix/config.toml
  3. install the git hook
  4. optionally ingest recent history
  5. start using reasoning memory alongside Git Memory

Suggested first run:

memorix init
memorix git-hook --force
memorix ingest log --count 20

Troubleshooting

The hook installed, but no memories appear

Check:

  • you are inside a Git repository
  • the hook file exists
  • the commit was not filtered as noise
  • the project identity is correct

Run:

memorix status

A commit was skipped unexpectedly

Try:

memorix ingest commit --force

If that works, your noise filter settings are likely too aggressive.

Worktree repositories

Memorix resolves the Git hooks directory in a worktree-safe way, so .git can be either:

  • a directory
  • or a gitdir: indirection file