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tsift

Check the version first. Run tsift --version and compare it to tsift-version in the frontmatter above. If the binary is newer, this file is stale: treat its command text as a hint, not a contract, and read the live surface from tsift --help / <subcommand> --help. tsift init refreshes this file and stamps both values from the installed binary, so a mismatch means the skill was never refreshed after an upgrade. tsift audit reports the same drift as an issue.

Command surface

search, symbol-read, source-read, explain, graph, communities, path, index, status, locks — search and navigation. traverse, graph-db, convex-sync, conflict-matrix, dispatch-trace, dependency-dag — graph substrate. edit, edit-intents, ast-grep — batch and semantic editing. diff-digest, test-digest, log-digest, metric-digest, session-digest, session-cost, session-review, context-pack, digest-runner — bounded digests and session context. summarize, semantic, lint, audit, audit-tagpath — cached analysis and drift checks. route, rewrite, sql, memory, init, workflow — tooling. Global flags: --envelope, --compact, --terse, --ultra-terse, --schema, --tabular, --absolute, --pretty.

Session start

Run tsift status at session start from the owning repo root. If the task or file lives under a git submodule (for example src/tsift/...), switch to that submodule root first so the harness loads the narrower local instructions and repo state instead of the superproject root. tsift status repairs the .tsift/ index state it owns and never rewrites tracked files (--no-fix skips even that). If status reports stale or missing instructions, run tsift init to refresh the repository-local tsift skill and its reference; it names every tracked file it rewrites or moves. When the harness cannot perform write commands, ask the user to run the printed run: command instead.

Prefer tsift envelopes over raw reads:

• tsift --envelope search <query> instead of grep/rg
• tsift --envelope source-read <file> / tsift --envelope symbol-read <symbol> instead of raw cat/head/tail/sed/less source reads
• tsift --envelope explain <symbol> and tsift graph <symbol> --callers / --callees for call graphs
• tsift diff-digest [path] (--pathspec <pathspec> to preserve scoped reviews) instead of git diff, commit-form git show, or patch-style git log; blob-form git show <rev>:<path> stays a raw object read
• tsift --envelope session-review <path> / tsift --envelope context-pack <path> instead of replaying long session docs or transcripts
• raw-read rewrites route recognized session docs/transcripts to tsift session-digest --input <path> and captured logs to tsift log-digest --input <path>
• tsift --envelope digest-runner --kind test|log --path . --shell-command '<command>' instead of raw test/build output

No rewrite hook? Drive the list above yourself. Only a PreToolUse-equipped harness redirects cat/grep/git diff for you. Everywhere else nothing intercepts them, so issue these commands directly instead of waiting for a rewrite; the reference below names the one-shot equivalent and the per-harness setup, --harness included.

Command detail lives in references/code-navigation.md — budgets, tsift workflow search, report.scale_guard handling, the harness rewrite path for PreToolUse-less harnesses, and Codex/OpenCode integration. tsift init writes and versions that reference alongside this skill, so it is present in every initialized checkout; read it before broad exploration instead of expanding this file.

For local verification, run make check before committing. After local changes, check the latest GitHub Actions CI run with gh run list --limit 1 and fix any failing tests before calling the work complete.

Only read full source files when tsift results are insufficient.

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