36 stable releases (3 major)

new 3.2.0 Jan 27, 2026
3.1.0 Jan 27, 2026
2.9.0 Jan 26, 2026
2.7.1 Dec 30, 2025
0.1.6 Dec 22, 2025

#2209 in Command line utilities

MIT license

220KB
5K SLoC

Grits

A Git-native, local-first issue tracker designed for AI Agents and humans.

Status: v3.0.0 — "Active State Store"

Quick Start

Prerequisites

  • Rust (latest stable)
  • Git

Install CLI

# Via Cargo (recommended)
cargo install grits-cli

# Or download binary from Releases
# https://github.com/babybirdprd/grits/releases

Initialize a Project

cd your-project
gr onboard

🤖 The State Store Protocol (Planner/Coder)

Grits transforms from a passive tracker into an Active State Store (World Model) for agents. It enforces a strict separation between research and execution to minimize LLM "halucinations" and context drift.

The Lifecycle of an Issue

  1. User Intent (description): The high-level goal set by a human or orchestrator.
  2. Planner Agent: Analyzes the intent, researches the code via gr star, and populates the Implementation Plan (design).
  3. Coder Agent: Wakes up to a Rich Pulse JSON. If design is present, it begins coding. It logs every iteration/rollout to the Execution Log (notes) via gr update --append.

Key Commands for Agents

  • gr pulse: Returns a full Rich Context JSON (Intent + Plan + Rules + History).
  • gr update --append: Persistent append-only logging for the Lab Notebook (notes).
  • gr workon: Automatically warns if a Coder starts work without a design.

Core Workflow

1. Check Pulse

Hydrate your session (or your agent's context) with the current project status.

gr pulse

2. Create Issue

gr create "Fix login bug" --description "intent" --design "plan" --start-work

3. Hierarchy & Linking

Link existing tasks or migrate them into a hierarchy.

gr dep add gr-child123 gr-parentabc --migrate
# ✅ Result: Child is renamed to gr-parentabc.n

4. Context Awareness (Blind Assembly)

Bundle relevant code even if you don't have a topology map yet.

gr context assemble --symbols "README.md,src/main.rs"

CLI Reference (v3.2.0)

Field Purpose Agent Map
description The User's Intent Intent
design Implementation Plan Strategy
acceptance_criteria Success Definitions Proof
notes Execution Log (Append-only) Memory
Command Purpose
gr show <id> Displays Rich Context + Execution Log
gr update --append Marks notes as append-only (Lab Notebook)
gr pulse Rich Context JSON for Session Hydration
gr context assemble Fallback "Blind" assembly for raw file paths


Architecture

Twin Engine:

  • SQLite (.grits/grits.db) — Fast local queries.
  • JSONL (.grits/issues.jsonl) — Git-versioned source of truth.

Graph-Lite:

  • Uses a lightweight AST parser to build a dependency graph.
  • Supports Blind Assembly fallback for non-topological file access.

License

MIT

Dependencies

~94MB
~2M SLoC