Ideablock Commit — Setup & Development Guide

Automatically tethers every git commit to the Bitcoin blockchain using Ideablock services.

Prerequisites

• An Ideablock account (for authentication)

Install globally

# From this repo root
npm install
npm install -g .

Verify:

ideablock-commit --help

Initialize in a git repo

From the root of any git repository:

ideablock-commit init

This will:

1. Prompt for your Ideablock email and password (first time only)
2. Cache your auth token at ~/.ideablock/auth.json
3. Install a post-commit git hook that fires ideablock-commit run on every commit
4. Create a .ideablock/ config directory in the repo

How it works

On every git commit, the hook automatically:

1. Reads your auth token from ~/.ideablock/auth.json
2. Gets the git short hash of the new commit (e.g. f99a94c)
3. Gets the commit message
4. Archives the repo via git archive → ~/.ideablock/commits/{repo}/{hash}/Commit-{hash}.zip
5. SHA-256s the archive → Repository Hash
6. Generates a random Parity Digit (0–9)
7. Constructs the Bitcoin-Tethered Hash: shortHash + repoHash + parityDigit
8. POSTs the Repository Hash to timeglue → receives a Bitcoin transaction ID
9. Saves a commitData.json record locally at ~/.ideablock/commits/{repo}/{hash}/
10. Best-effort syncs the record to the Ideablock backend for webapp display
11. Prints the commit information table to your terminal

Local data

All commit records are stored at:

~/.ideablock/commits/{repoName}/{gitShortHash}/
  Commit-{shortHash}.zip   ← snapshot of the repo at commit time
  commitData.json          ← all hash and blockchain data

Do not delete this directory. It is your local proof-of-existence archive.

commitData.json structure:

{
  "repoName": "my-project",
  "shortHash": "f99a94c",
  "commitMessage": "fix: update auth flow",
  "repoHash": "c9c3ad5b...",
  "parityDigit": 5,
  "blockchainTetheredHash": "f99a94cc9c3ad5b...5",
  "btcTxID": "a9369cd8...",
  "committedAt": "2026-05-18T12:00:00.000Z"
}

Commands

ideablock-commit init      # Initialize in a git repo (installs hook, prompts login)
ideablock-commit on        # Resume tethering in this repo
ideablock-commit off       # Pause tethering in this repo
ideablock-commit status    # Check whether tethering is on or off
ideablock-commit remove    # Remove hook and .ideablock config from this repo

Verify a stamp on-chain

After a commit, look up the Bitcoin transaction ID on mempool.space:

https://mempool.space/tx/{btcTxID}

The OP_RETURN output will contain the Ideablock prefix followed by the Repository Hash — permanent, public proof that your code existed at that block height.

Troubleshooting

"Not authenticated. Run ideablock-commit init" Your ~/.ideablock/auth.json is missing. Run ideablock-commit init in any git repo to re-authenticate. If you do not have a registered account, obtain one by registering