Phistory automatically archives versioned system prompt snapshots from popular AI coding agent CLIs like Claude Code, Codex, and Hermes. It targets researchers, auditors, and developers needing to track prompt evolution, understand changes in agent behavior, tool usage, and constraints over time, offering a historical record and a web viewer for detailed analysis.

How It Works

The system captures prompts by installing specific CLI packages, running them once via claude-tap to intercept HTTP requests without invoking real model providers, and storing prompt artifacts (prompt.md, trace.jsonl, meta.json) under captures/<agent>/<version>/. For Claude Code, it additionally extracts static prompt strings from packages. GitHub Actions perform hourly checks for new releases, committing new snapshots automatically.

Quick Start & Requirements

• Installation/Execution: Utilizes uv for environment and command execution.
  • Install dependencies: uv sync --all-groups
  • Capture latest releases: uv run phistory capture --latest --agents claude-code,codex,openclaw,hermes,kimi,opencode,pi
  • Backfill historical versions: uv run phistory backfill claude-code --from 2.1.113 --to latest
• Prerequisites: Python environment managed by uv.
• Hosted Viewer: Accessible at phistory.cc.
• Setup: No explicit time or resource footprint is detailed, but involves package installation and data capture.

Highlighted Details

• Monitors prompt changes across Claude Code, Codex, Kimi, opencode, OpenClaw, Hermes, and Pi CLIs.
• Web viewer (phistory.cc) enables comparison of prompt snapshots, detailing tools, policies, and runtime instructions.
• Captures HTTP requests via claude-tap without actual model provider calls.
• Extracts static prompt strings from Claude Code packages for deeper analysis.
• Hourly GitHub Actions automate the capture of new CLI releases.
• Facilitates citing stable prompt snapshots in research, audits, or debugging reports.

Maintenance & Community

The README provides no specific details regarding contributors, sponsorships, community channels (e.g., Discord/Slack), or a public roadmap. The project indicates active maintenance with the last capture update on 2026-06-25.

Licensing & Compatibility

The provided README content does not specify the software license or offer compatibility notes for commercial use or integration with closed-source projects.

Limitations & Caveats

No explicit limitations, alpha status, known bugs, or deprecation warnings are mentioned in the provided text. The project focuses on its core functionality of capturing and archiving prompt versions.