AI Development Diary

An intelligent development diary system for AI-assisted projects that helps teams and AI agents learn, improve, and build better software together.

Overview

AI Development Diary is a standalone tool that creates a structured knowledge system for development projects. It captures insights, mistakes, breakthroughs, and context to make both AI agents and human developers more effective over time.

Features

• 📝 Structured Entries: Journey, insight, mistake, breakthrough, and context entries
• 🤖 AI Agent Protocol: Standard interface for AI assistants to log and learn
• 🔍 Smart Search: Find patterns and insights across entries
• 📊 Analytics: Track learning velocity and mistake patterns
• 🔗 Git Integration: Auto-generate entries from commits
• 📚 Knowledge Base: Build reusable patterns and avoid repeated mistakes
• 🌐 Team Sharing: Share learnings across projects and teams

Quick Start

Installation

# Install globally
npm install -g ai-dev-diary

# Or use in a project
npm install --save-dev ai-dev-diary

Initialize in Your Project

# Navigate to your project
cd my-project

# Initialize diary
ai-diary init

# This creates:
# - .ai-diary/ directory for entries and knowledge
# - .ai-diary/config.json for configuration
# - Git hooks for automatic entry generation

Basic Usage

# Create a new entry interactively
ai-diary entry

# Quick entry types
ai-diary journey "Implemented new authentication system"
ai-diary insight "Discovered that caching improves performance by 40%"
ai-diary mistake "Assumed API would return array, but returns object"
ai-diary breakthrough "Found solution to memory leak issue"

# Update AI context
ai-diary context update

# Search entries
ai-diary search "performance"
ai-diary search --type=mistake --last=30d

# Generate reports
ai-diary report weekly
ai-diary report insights

For AI Agents

Add this to your AI agent's system prompt:

## Development Diary Protocol

This project uses ai-dev-diary. You MUST:

1. Start each session by reading context:
   ```bash
   ai-diary context read

2. Log significant events during work:

   ai-diary insight "Discovered X pattern works well for Y"
   ai-diary mistake "Assumed Z but actually it was W"
   ai-diary journey "Refactored authentication to use JWT"

3. End each session with context update:

   ai-diary context update --summary "What changed in this session"

4. Search for relevant past experiences:

   ai-diary search "similar problem"

## Directory Structure

After initialization, your project will have:

.ai-diary/ ├── config.json # Configuration ├── context/ │ ├── AGENT_CONTEXT.md # Current AI context │ ├── PROJECT_STATE.md # Project state │ └── MEMORY.md # Important things to remember ├── entries/ │ └── [YYYY]/[MM]/[DD]/ # Date-organized entries ├── knowledge/ │ ├── patterns.md # Successful patterns │ ├── antipatterns.md # What to avoid │ ├── mistakes.md # Mistakes log │ └── breakthroughs.md # Major wins └── insights/ └── [category].md # Categorized insights

## Entry Types

### Journey Entry
Documents development progress and decisions made.

```bash
ai-diary journey "Migrated database from MongoDB to PostgreSQL"

Insight Entry

Captures discoveries and realizations.

ai-diary insight "Using connection pooling reduced latency by 60%"

Mistake Entry

Logs errors and their corrections for future prevention.

ai-diary mistake "Used synchronous file operations causing blocking"

Breakthrough Entry

Records major solutions and wins.

ai-diary breakthrough "Solved the race condition with mutex locks"

Context Update

Updates the AI agent context with current project state.

ai-diary context update --summary "Added authentication system"

Advanced Features

Analytics

# View learning velocity
ai-diary analytics velocity

# Analyze mistake patterns
ai-diary analytics mistakes

# Generate insights from entries
ai-diary analytics insights

Team Collaboration

# Share insights with team
ai-diary share insights --team

# Import learnings from another project
ai-diary import ~/other-project/.ai-diary/knowledge/

# Export diary for backup
ai-diary export --format=json > diary-backup.json

Git Integration

# Install git hooks
ai-diary install-hooks

# This enables:
# - Auto-generate entries from commits
# - Link entries to code changes
# - Track which files are frequently modified

Configuration

Edit .ai-diary/config.json:

{
  "author": "Your Name",
  "team": "Your Team",
  "ai": {
    "model": "claude-3",
    "autoContext": true
  },
  "git": {
    "autoEntries": true,
    "linkCommits": true
  },
  "sharing": {
    "team": true,
    "public": false
  }
}

Benefits

• Continuous Learning: Every session builds on previous knowledge
• Mistake Prevention: Avoid repeating documented failures
• Context Preservation: New team members understand quickly
• Better AI Assistance: AI agents have full project context
• Knowledge Sharing: Learn from collective team experience

Contributing

We welcome contributions! Please see CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines.

License

MIT License - see LICENSE for details.

Support

• Documentation: https://ai-dev-diary.dev
• Issues: GitHub Issues
• Discord: Join our community

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