# koment [Health: Active] **Category:** ๐Ÿ’ป Developer Tools **Repository:** https://github.com/janpuc/koment **GitHub Stars:** 1 **Views:** 0 **Installs:** 0 **Upvotes:** 0 **Directory Page:** https://allmcps.com/mcp/koment ## Description Read and write checked code rationale stored outside source comments. ## Claude Desktop Quick Installation Heuristic fallback โ€” verify the package name and runner against the repository README before running it. Uses `npx` (confidence: low): ```json "mcpServers": { "koment": { "command": "npx", "args": ["-y","koment"] } } ``` ## Documentation & README
koment comment bubble # koment **Keep the _why_ next to your code โ€” checked, so it can't quietly rot.** [![Release](https://img.shields.io/github/v/release/koment-dev/koment?label=release)](https://github.com/koment-dev/koment/releases/latest) [![CI](https://img.shields.io/github/actions/workflow/status/koment-dev/koment/ci.yml?branch=main&label=ci)](https://github.com/koment-dev/koment/actions/workflows/ci.yml) [![OpenSSF Scorecard](https://img.shields.io/ossf-scorecard/github.com/koment-dev/koment?label=openssf+scorecard)](https://scorecard.dev/viewer/?uri=github.com/koment-dev/koment) [![Open VSX](https://img.shields.io/open-vsx/v/koment/koment-dev?label=open%20vsx)](https://open-vsx.org/extension/koment/koment-dev) [![License](https://img.shields.io/github/license/koment-dev/koment)](https://github.com/koment-dev/koment/blob/main/LICENSE) [![Annotations](https://img.shields.io/badge/annotations-browse-brightgreen)](https://why.koment.dev/)
## The problem Someone wrote `retry 5 times` instead of 3, and there was a good reason. Six months later nobody remembers it, so it gets "simplified" back to 3 and the bug returns. A comment was supposed to prevent that. Comments rot: they sit next to the code without being attached to it, and when the code changes nothing tells you the comment just became a lie. Your AI agent then reads that lie and acts on it. ## What koment does You record the reason **outside** the source, anchored to the exact lines it explains. Then koment watches those lines. Change them, and it says so: ```console $ koment check internal/auth/token.go drifted gotcha internal/auth/token.go 01KZN63VC5SZASDYJBMPDC03WB Without it, clients whose clock runs fast get logged out mid-request. Bit us in #412. 1 annotation across 1 file: 1 drifted koment: 1 annotation no longer resolves; revisit it or update the anchor ``` Exit code 1. The build stops. Nobody silently inherits a reason that no longer describes the code. The records are YAML in `.koment/`, in your git repository. No database, no service, no account. They review in the same pull request as the change that motivated them. **[See it running โ†’](https://why.koment.dev/)** โ€” koment's own annotations, published by [a workflow you can copy](https://github.com/janpuc/koment/blob/HEAD/docs/guides/publish-annotations.md). ## For AI agents This is where it earns its keep. Agents write explanatory comments constantly, and they edit code without reading why it was written that way. koment makes both of those fail *immediately*, while the agent is still working: - **It writes a comment** โ†’ the edit is refused, with instructions to record the reasoning as an annotation instead. - **It edits annotated code without checking** โ†’ the turn cannot finish until the annotation is revisited. One MCP server serves Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, opencode, Hermes, Zed and the rest, so every agent reads the same reasoning through the same interface. [Set yours up โ†’](https://github.com/janpuc/koment/blob/HEAD/docs/guides/agents/) Humans get the same loop in the editor: a squiggle under the comment, and a quick fix offering *convert to annotation* or *keep it, on the record*. ## Install ```bash brew install koment-dev/tap/koment ```
Other ways ```bash mise use -g github:koment-dev/koment # mise go install github.com/koment-dev/koment/cmd/koment@latest docker run --rm -v "$PWD:/repo" -w /repo ghcr.io/koment-dev/koment:3 check ``` In GitHub Actions, `uses: koment-dev/koment@v3`. Or take a checksum-listed binary for Linux, macOS or Windows on amd64/arm64 from the [latest release](https://github.com/koment-dev/koment/releases/latest) โ€” every other channel is built from those same artifacts.
## Try it in a minute From inside any git repository: ```bash koment bootstrap ``` That sets up `.koment/` and wires whichever agents you use. Now record a reason and watch it get checked: ```bash koment add src/auth.go \ --excerpt 'if token.Expiry.Before(now.Add(-clockSkew)) {' \ --kind gotcha \ --title 'Skew subtraction keeps fast clocks logged in' \ --body 'Without it, clients whose clock runs fast get logged out mid-request. Bit us in #412.' koment check # ok ``` **Now edit that line and run `koment check` again.** It fails, and tells you which reasoning no longer matches its code. That is the entire product; the rest is delivering it to the people and agents who need it. ```bash koment ui # read them in a browser koment show src/auth.go ``` ## How it works 1. You annotate a snippet. koment records the prose, exact excerpt, surrounding source context, the commit you were on, and who you are. 2. The record lands in `.koment/annotations/.yaml`, one file per annotation. Concurrent agents create independent files instead of replacing one shared list. 3. Resolution searches the current file for that excerpt and produces exactly one status: | | meaning | build | |---|---|---| | `ok` | found where it was last seen | passes | | `ambiguous` | several contextual candidates remain | **fails** | | `drifted` | file exists, the annotated code is gone | **fails** | | `orphaned` | the file is gone | **fails** | 4. `koment check` exits non-zero on `ambiguous`, `drifted` or `orphaned`. That is the whole mechanism: uncertain rationale is worse than no annotation, so it has to be impossible to ignore. 5. When it fails, `koment reanchor --excerpt ''` repoints it โ€” keeping its id and creation date, recapturing context and the line for you. Nothing re-attaches automatically; a person confirms the reasoning still holds. Anchoring is by **excerpt**, never by line number โ€” line numbers rot on the next edit above them. The commit hash *is* recorded, but only to reconstruct history; it never decides whether an annotation still applies. Those are two different questions with two different mechanisms. Local writes change the checkout you are already reviewing. Served writes never touch a replica or push a default branch: they create an exact annotation on a deterministic branch and return only after its pull request exists. Static publications remain immutable and read-only. ## Three ways to run it Pick one. Each is a place to stop, not a step you have to take, and **moving between them is not a migration** โ€” all three read the same `.koment/` in git, so there is nothing to export, import or back up. | | you run | you get | |---|---|---| | **local** | the CLI, `koment ui --write`, and `koment mcp --write` | humans and agents read and write the same checked records. Nothing to host. | | **published** | [one workflow file](https://github.com/janpuc/koment/blob/HEAD/docs/guides/publish-annotations.md) โ†’ GitHub Pages | everyone reads the annotations in a browser. No server, no auth to design, no cost. | | **served** | the container or the [Helm chart](#kubernetes) | authenticated, commit-stamped GitHub snapshots for several repositories, cross-repository search, reviewed annotation PRs, metrics | ## Several repositories One deployment serves many. Identity is assigned independently of provider path, and every refresh resolves a branch to one immutable commit before replacing a repository's active snapshot: ```yaml # yaml-language-server: $schema=https://raw.githubusercontent.com/koment-dev/koment/main/schema/server.schema.json repositories: - id: payments name: Payments API provider: github remote: you/payments default_branch: main default: true - id: web name: Customer Web provider: github remote: you/web default_branch: main ``` The service starts only when a non-loopback listener has either trusted-proxy identity or scoped bearer credentials. Private repositories and reviewed writes also require a GitHub token. The [Helm chart documentation](https://github.com/janpuc/koment/blob/HEAD/distribution/helm/koment/README.md) shows the secret formats and boundary. Local commands need none of this configuration โ€” koment finds the owning checkout by walking up from the working directory. ## Kubernetes koment publishes an **OCI** Helm chart to `oci://ghcr.io/koment-dev/charts/koment`: ```bash helm install koment oci://ghcr.io/koment-dev/charts/koment \ --set repositories[0].remote=you/your-repo \ --set metrics.enabled=true \ --set metrics.serviceMonitor.enabled=true \ --set metrics.dashboard.enabled=true ``` The application port authenticates source, rationale, UI and MCP; only liveness and readiness are public. Metrics use a separate listener so an ingress cannot accidentally expose them with application authentication. The chart includes a Grafana dashboard, ServiceMonitor, hardened pod defaults, optional NetworkPolicy and disruption controls, and a digest-pinned `helm test` probe. ## Configuration Every flag can be set from the environment. `--flag-name` becomes `KOMENT_FLAG_NAME`, and an explicit flag always wins. | | | |---|---| | `KOMENT_CONFIG` | strict served repository YAML | | `KOMENT_CREDENTIALS_FILE` | secret file of SHA-256 bearer hashes and repository scopes | | `KOMENT_GITHUB_TOKEN_FILE` | provider token file for private reads and reviewed writes | | `KOMENT_LISTEN` | local UI or unified service address | | `KOMENT_HUMAN_WRITES` | allow identities from the trusted OIDC proxy to create reviewed annotations | | `KOMENT_TRUSTED_PROXIES` | CIDRs allowed to assert forwarded human identity | | `KOMENT_SYNC_INTERVAL` | provider snapshot refresh interval | | `KOMENT_METRICS` | separate metrics listener; off unless set | | `KOMENT_WRITE` | enable local UI or stdio MCP mutations | | `KOMENT_OUT` | static publication output directory | Git is the only authoritative record. Local reads resolve the YAML directly against the working tree; disposable read models cannot restore or overwrite Git. `koment --help` lists every flag alongside its variable. ## Work where the code lives The reference [VS Code extension](https://github.com/janpuc/koment/blob/HEAD/integrations/editors/vscode/README.md) starts `koment lsp`, renders annotation bodies as virtual inline text, reports drift and prohibited comments as diagnostics, and adds native add, reanchor, convert and explicit acknowledgement actions. The prose is never inserted into the source buffer. Every release attaches a signed VSIX and publishes the same artifact to the VS Code Marketplace and Open VSX. Other editors can use the standard hover, diagnostics, code-lens, code-action and execute-command surface from `koment lsp` without reimplementing storage or anchoring. Claude Code can install the repository's own project-scoped marketplace plugin: ```text /plugin marketplace add koment-dev/koment /plugin install koment@koment-dev ``` It bundles writable MCP configuration, injects the strict procedure at session start and runs the policy gate before Claude can finish a turn. Install a released `koment` binary and run `koment agents install` in the repository first. OpenCode ships a parallel plugin at [`integrations/agent-plugins/opencode/`](https://github.com/janpuc/koment/blob/HEAD/integrations/agent-plugins/opencode/). Add `@koment/opencode-koment` to the `plugin` array in `opencode.json`; OpenCode installs it at startup. It requires the released `koment` binary on `PATH`, denies ordinary explanatory comment intent and runs the policy gate on session end. ADR 0144 records the package and generated-adapter boundary. Codex ships the same policy surface as a local marketplace at [`integrations/agent-plugins/codex/`](https://github.com/janpuc/koment/blob/HEAD/integrations/agent-plugins/codex/). Install that checkout path with `codex plugin marketplace add`, then run `codex plugin add koment@koment-dev`. The release workflow also produces a signed archive. The plugin provides writable MCP tools, a standing skill and trusted lifecycle hooks. ADR 0151 records the package boundary. ## Give it to your agents ```bash koment agents install koment mcp --write ``` The generated repository adapters give agents a strict procedure and configure the writable stdio server. It has three read tools: - **`koment_get(file, repository?)`** โ€” annotations for the file an agent is about to edit - **`koment_search(query, repository?)`** โ€” find reasoning by topic; omitting `repository` searches all of them - **`koment_repositories()`** โ€” what this deployment serves, with counts Write mode adds four tools: - **`koment_add`** โ€” create agent-attributed rationale - **`koment_reanchor`** โ€” explicitly move an existing anchor - **`koment_convert_comment`** โ€” record a comment as rationale, then remove it - **`koment_acknowledge_comment`** โ€” retain an exceptional comment only after an explicit acknowledgement Those four mutation tools operate on a local checkout. The authenticated served MCP surface exposes `koment_add` and returns the deterministic branch, commit and pull-request URL; source-mutating conversion and reanchor stay local so the service cannot overwrite an agent's separate worktree. Every annotation arrives with its resolution status *and* its repository, so a stale one is never presented as current and a result is never detached from its scope. When a path exists in several repositories `koment_get` **refuses and names the candidates** rather than guessing. | | | | |---|---|---| | [Claude Code](https://github.com/janpuc/koment/blob/HEAD/docs/guides/agents/claude-code.md) | [Cursor](https://github.com/janpuc/koment/blob/HEAD/docs/guides/agents/cursor.md) | [VS Code](https://github.com/janpuc/koment/blob/HEAD/docs/guides/agents/vscode.md) | | [Zed](https://github.com/janpuc/koment/blob/HEAD/docs/guides/agents/zed.md) | [Codex](https://github.com/janpuc/koment/blob/HEAD/docs/guides/agents/codex.md) | [opencode](https://github.com/janpuc/koment/blob/HEAD/docs/guides/agents/opencode.md) | | [Hermes](https://github.com/janpuc/koment/blob/HEAD/docs/guides/agents/hermes.md) | [OpenClaw](https://github.com/janpuc/koment/blob/HEAD/docs/guides/agents/openclaw.md) | [Anything else](https://github.com/janpuc/koment/blob/HEAD/docs/guides/agents/other.md) | ## Publish it Your reviewers are not going to install anything. Give them a URL: one workflow file renders every annotation to static HTML plus `annotations.json` and `search.json`, then puts the atomic snapshot on GitHub Pages with no server, database or authentication to design. ```yaml - uses: actions/checkout@v7 - uses: koment-dev/koment@v3 - run: koment check - run: koment site --out dist ``` Every page names the commit it was rendered from, so a snapshot can never pass for the current tree. `koment check` in the same workflow means a build that would publish drift fails first. **[The whole workflow, ready to copy โ†’](https://github.com/janpuc/koment/blob/HEAD/docs/guides/publish-annotations.md)** A site renders your source as well as your annotations, so publishing one from a private repository publishes that source. Grouped publications render one snapshot per repository and connect them through the ordinary repository switcher; there is no selector landing page. ## Documentation - **[Publishing](https://github.com/janpuc/koment/blob/HEAD/docs/guides/publish-annotations.md)** โ€” the copy-paste workflow, and moving to a served instance later - **[Contributor setup](https://github.com/janpuc/koment/blob/HEAD/docs/start/contributing.md)** โ€” establish a verified development checkout - **[Getting started](https://github.com/janpuc/koment/blob/HEAD/docs/start/quickstart.md)** ยท **[Writing good annotations](https://github.com/janpuc/koment/blob/HEAD/docs/guides/write-good-annotations.md)** ยท **[CLI reference](https://github.com/janpuc/koment/blob/HEAD/docs/reference/cli.md)** ยท **[CI](https://github.com/janpuc/koment/blob/HEAD/docs/guides/enforce-in-ci.md)** ## What koment is not - **Not general project documentation.** koment holds knowledge bound to a *place* in the code; broad project guidance belongs in the documentation system your team already uses. - **Not a memory system.** A consolidating store paraphrases, merges and eventually forgets. koment is a record, not a belief. - **Not line-precise.** Anchors are snippets. ## Prior art [Codetations / Magic Markup](https://github.com/elmisback/codetations) is the closest existing work โ€” document-external annotations with LLM re-anchoring. The anchoring problem dates to [Microsoft Research, 2001](https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/tr-2001-107.pdf) and is still unsolved in the general case. The UI owes its shape to [konflate](https://github.com/home-operations/konflate), which makes an invisible layer visible for Flux the way koment tries to for rationale. ## License [AGPL-3.0-or-later](https://github.com/janpuc/koment/blob/HEAD/LICENSE) is the open-source grant for the repository except `integrations/editors/zed/`. That extension code alone is [GPL-3.0-or-later](https://github.com/janpuc/koment/blob/HEAD/integrations/editors/zed/LICENSE) so Zed may build and distribute it through its registry; the koment binary it starts remains AGPL. Both license files are verbatim texts so automated scanners identify them correctly. [ADR 0145](https://github.com/janpuc/koment/blob/HEAD/docs/explanation/decisions/0145-license-the-zed-extension-under-gplv3.md) records the narrow exception. The complete corresponding source is this repository, , which satisfies the AGPL ยง13 obligation for anyone interacting with a koment server over a network. Commercial licences are available on request for organisations whose policy excludes AGPL, or that want warranty or indemnification โ€” write to [licensing@koment.dev](mailto:licensing@koment.dev). Releases โ‰ค v0.6.0 were distributed under the MIT licence and remain MIT in perpetuity. The last MIT-tagged source may be forked from [`v0.6.0`](https://github.com/koment-dev/koment/tree/v0.6.0) under those terms indefinitely. The decision is recorded in [ADR 0117](https://github.com/janpuc/koment/blob/HEAD/docs/explanation/decisions/0117-relicense-to-agpl-with-commercial-dual-licensing.md). **Does using koment make my code AGPL?** No. koment is a *tool*; annotations it writes are data, not derivative works of the tool. The same legal class applies as compiling a program with GCC: the tool's licence governs the tool, not what you build with it. This is the intent of every OSI-approved AGPL deployment that processes external input; if your organisation's counsel disagrees, the commercial licence resolves it.