Continuous Context Development

CCD is the runtime-neutral continuity and governance kernel for AI coding.

It decides what context should carry forward across session resets and runtime changes while keeping project truth canonical and local runtime state local.

The product boundary is simple:

• project truth in project files
• remembered guidance and policy in ~/.ccd
• workspace-local handoff and active session state in local runtime state

Core Separation

repo/
  project truth
  AGENTS.md, README.md, specs, tests, source

~/.ccd/
  remembered guidance and policy
  policy, memory, project-local overlays

workspace-local state
  clone-local handoff and active session state

That separation is the product. CCD is not trying to be the best agent runtime, the best IDE, or the best memory database.

• Project overlay: project-specific policy and remembered guidance under ~/.ccd/profiles/{profile}/repos/{project_id}/...
• Workspace state: clone-local handoff and active session state for the current checkout

If a workspace loses its binding, use ccd repo relink to reconnect it to the right project overlay instead of rebuilding state from scratch.

Supported Install Paths

CCD supports two installation paths today:

Homebrew, curl installers, and OS packages are not supported distribution channels yet.

Try It In 5 Minutes

Install the published CLI:

cargo install ccd-cli

If you want the shipped skills:

ccd skills install

Bootstrap one workspace:

ccd attach --path .
ccd start --activate --path .

ccd start --activate is the supported one-command raw CLI fast path. This is narrower than the old #386 coalescing idea: startup can collapse into one call, but close-out still stays explicit.

Work normally. Use the two checkpoint surfaces intentionally:

ccd checkpoint --path .                       # lightweight mid-session pulse
ccd radar-state --path .                      # full wrap-up and continuity evaluation
ccd checkpoint --since-session current --path .  # delta-only output (unchanged surfaces collapsed)
ccd consistency --path .                      # targeted artifact-consistency audit

ccd checkpoint is a distinct lightweight command that skips the expensive evaluation, candidate, and approval phases while still computing session boundary, context health, and surface digests. ccd radar-state remains the full evaluation path for wrap-up.

The --since-session flag compares surface digests against the session-start baseline and collapses unchanged surfaces to {"status": "unchanged"}, reducing token cost for mid-session checks. JSON output also reports session_delta.skip_stats, projection_telemetry.delta, estimated token counts by surface and projection format, and narrative/symbolic/bundle cache cadence so runtimes can see what was actually refreshed.

If you want repo-local runtime integration assets, scaffold them explicitly:

ccd init --path . --host claude
ccd host install claude --path .

Runtime posture is now tiered deliberately:

• Codex: human-driven /ccd-start or ccd start --activate remains the supported baseline; the launcher wrapper is optional convenience/eval harness only
• Claude Code: native project hooks are the preferred path; manual /ccd-start or ccd start --activate is fallback only when those hooks are not installed
• OpenClaw and Hermes: use explicit reference-adapter configs that call ccd host-hook at lifecycle boundaries

Use --diagnostics or ccd telemetry report --output json --path . only when you need payload analysis, projection-cache cadence, provider-cache correlation, or prompt-cost diagnostics.

If you prefer the shipped skills, the core loop is:

/ccd-attach
/ccd-start
/ccd-checkpoint
/ccd-radar

What CCD Owns

• Continuity across sessions through workspace-local handoff and session state
• Governance through layered policy, fail-closed writes, and explicit mutation boundaries
• Narrow remembered guidance only where it sharpens future continuity
• Runtime-neutral skill and CLI surfaces that survive IDE/runtime churn

What CCD Does Not Own

• Agent orchestration UX: your runtime or IDE owns that
• Durable remembering as a product category: runtimes or providers may help, but CCD is not trying to be a general memory backend
• Semantic recall quality: providers like Mem0/OpenMemory and Graphiti own that
• Shared project facts: project truth remains the source of truth

CCD integrates with those systems through an optional read-only recall provider seam. External providers can use the optional command-session transport to amortize cold-start cost across sequential recall operations within a single command. See the Recall Provider Setup Guide for configuration.

Command Tiers

Implementation note: src/main.rs remains the canonical top-level CLI schema and command table, while domain-specific routing now lives in focused modules under src/commands/dispatch/. That keeps the public surface stable without leaving unrelated command wiring in one file.

Core

• ccd attach
• ccd init
• ccd start
• ccd status
• ccd checkpoint
• ccd radar-state
• ccd doctor
• ccd sync

Advanced

• ccd describe
• ccd scaffold
• ccd check
• ccd consistency
• ccd hooks *
• ccd host install
• ccd handoff *
• ccd memory *
• ccd remember
• ccd repo *
• ccd session open
• ccd skills install
• ccd telemetry report

Git-backed ccd session open belongs to /ccd-git-workflow when you need worktree or branch isolation. It is intentionally outside the default day-1 kernel loop.

Platform

• ccd context-check
• ccd escalation-state *
• ccd machine list
• ccd migrate from-pod-layout
• ccd policy-check
• ccd runtime-state *
• ccd session-state gates *

Backlog/work-queue orchestration and codemap no longer ship from this repo. Those surfaces now live in ccd-extensions.

Read Next

• Why CCD
• Quickstart
• Cheatsheet
• Runtime Startup Wrappers
• Session Liveness Contract
• Skills
• Kernel Contracts
• Implementation Matrix
• Runtime Builders
• Continuity and Remembered Guidance
• Memory Recall Providers
• Recall Provider Setup Guide

Safety

CCD's shipped skills and runtime integrations follow one contract:

• inspect read-only state first
• obey preview/apply or confirm-write metadata instead of guessing
• keep machine-readable stdout clean
• treat external queue snapshots as external context, not project truth
• keep Git workflow follow-through separate from startup and continuity loading

See docs/reference/agent-safety-contract.md for the full contract.