rvault

CLI tool for the Research Vault — a self-governing autonomous research system for coding agents. Converts idle agent capacity into decision-ready knowledge.

A self-governing research system that runs autonomous research cycles while you're away, using Claude Code agents to research, critique, synthesize, and govern knowledge.

Requirements

• Claude Code (and therefore Node.js >= 18)

Install

npm install -g @mangold/rvault

Or use without installing:

npx rvault init

Quick Start

# 1. Initialize a vault in your project
cd your-project
rvault init

# 2. Open Claude Code (restart if already open so it discovers the new skills)

# 3. Run the vault
# Inside Claude Code: /vault
# Or from terminal: rvault run

Commands

| Command | What it does | |---------|-------------| | rvault init | Scaffold a Research Vault in the current project | | rvault upgrade | Upgrade infrastructure files to the latest template | | rvault version | Show installed and available versions | | rvault status | Quick vault status (free, no tokens) | | rvault doctor | Diagnostic checks for vault health | | rvault run | Run a vault cycle via claude -p |

Claude Code Skills

Once the vault is installed, these skills are available inside Claude Code:

| Skill | What it does | |-------|-------------| | /vault | Run a research cycle | | /vault-status | Quick check-in (counters, queue, attention items) | | /vault-ideas | Browse and act on idea proposals | | /vault-queue | View, add, reprioritize research topics | | /vault-decide | Record a decision informed by vault research | | /vault-review | Full catch-up after being away | | /vault-audit | Challenge claims with the adversarial auditor | | /vault-fieldnote | Log a development outcome back to the vault |

Upgrading

# Check if an upgrade is available
rvault version

# Upgrade — unmodified files are replaced silently.
# Files you've modified are flagged for LLM-assisted three-way merge.
rvault upgrade

# Auto-merge modified files via Claude Code
rvault upgrade --auto

# Review each merge before applying
rvault upgrade --review

Architecture

See templates/research-vault/VAULT_CONSTITUTION.md and templates/research-vault/VAULT_PROTOCOL.md for the full system design.

License

MIT