devmem

README

DevMem

A searchable memory layer for your git workspaces.

If you work out of many date-based workspace folders (20-june/, 20-june2/, ...) each holding the same repos cloned and worked on independently, it gets hard to recall where you did a piece of work, especially once a workspace is deleted. DevMem indexes those checkouts into SQLite so you can search commits, branches and repositories, and recover the uncommitted or unpushed work that would otherwise vanish.

Requirements

• Go 1.24 or newer
• A git binary on PATH

Install

Install the latest release binary (Linux/macOS) and add it to your PATH:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/rushikeshg25/devmem/master/install.sh | sh

This drops devmem into $HOME/.local/bin (override with DEVMEM_BIN_DIR) and tells you if that directory isn't on your PATH. Prebuilt archives for every platform are on the releases page.

Or build directly with Go:

go install github.com/rushikeshg25/devmem@latest

Or from a checkout:

make build      # produces ./devmem in the project directory
make install    # installs the binary into $GOBIN

Quick start

devmem scan ~/workspaces      # index everything once
devmem search timezone        # find where you worked on it later

Commands

All commands accept the global --db <path> flag (default ~/.devmem.db).

scan

devmem scan <root>

Discovers every git checkout under <root> and indexes its repositories, branches, commits and working-tree state. Re-running is safe and incremental: only new commits are added. Linked worktrees are indexed as separate checkouts with their own branch.

Indexed 3 repos across 2 workspaces (5 new commits)

search

devmem search <term> [--limit N] [--wip]

Substring search across commit messages, branch and ref names, and repository names.

Flag	Default	Description
--limit	50	Maximum number of results.
--wip	false	Show only checkouts with uncommitted, unpushed or stashed work matching the term, instead of commits.

2026-06-20  erpai-report  [feat/report-timezone]
    161054b  fix: timezone handling in exports
    /home/you/workspaces/20-june

repo

devmem repo <name>

Shows every indexed checkout of a repository (across all workspaces), each with its current branch, working-tree status and most recent commits.

erpai-report  [feat/report-timezone] dirty ahead+1
    /home/you/workspaces/20-june2/erpai-report
    2026-06-20  e1ebc33  wip: local only change
    2026-06-20  161054b  add kafka retries

timeline

devmem timeline [--limit N]

Recent commit activity across all indexed repositories, newest first.

Flag	Default	Description
--limit	30	Maximum number of commits to show.

prune

devmem prune

Removes index entries for checkouts whose working directory no longer exists on disk, for example after deleting a workspace folder, and drops any workspaces left empty.

removed /home/you/workspaces/20-june2/erpai-report
Pruned 1 repos and 1 empty workspaces

Global flag

Flag	Default	Description
--db	~/.devmem.db	Path to the devmem SQLite database.

Desktop GUI (Ubuntu)

DevMem ships an optional desktop app, devmem-gui, built with Fyne. It reads the same ~/.devmem.db database as the CLI and puts search, at-risk work, the timeline and scanning behind a tabbed window:

• Search — type a term and press Enter to find matching commits.
• At risk — checkouts with uncommitted, unpushed or stashed work, filterable by repo or branch.
• Timeline — the most recent commits across every indexed workspace.
• Scan — pick a workspace root and index it in the background.

Selecting any row lets you copy its path or open the folder in Files.

Install

Grab the devmem-gui archive for your platform from the releases page (Linux/amd64), unpack it, and install the binary, icon and launcher entry:

install -Dm755 devmem-gui ~/.local/bin/devmem-gui
install -Dm644 packaging/icon.png ~/.local/share/icons/hicolor/256x256/apps/devmem.png
install -Dm644 packaging/devmem-gui.desktop ~/.local/share/applications/devmem-gui.desktop

DevMem then appears in the GNOME activities launcher, or run devmem-gui directly.

Build from source

The GUI needs CGo and the OpenGL/X11 development headers:

sudo apt-get install -y gcc libgl1-mesa-dev xorg-dev   # Ubuntu/Debian
make build-gui    # produces ./devmem-gui
make run-gui      # build and launch

The devmem CLI itself stays pure Go and needs none of these — only the GUI binary requires CGo, which is why it is a separate build.

How it works

• Discovery walks the root and records each git checkout, treating a .git file as a linked worktree (each indexed with its own branch and working-tree state).
• Metadata comes from shelling out to native git (log --all, status, rev-list, stash list).
• Storage is SQLite. The same commit hash can appear in many workspaces, so commits are keyed by (repo_id, hash) and every workspace's copy is kept distinct.
• Search is plain LIKE matching, which is fast and dependency-free at this scale.

Development

make build      # compile the CLI binary
make build-gui  # compile the desktop GUI (needs CGo + GL/X11 headers)
make test       # run the test suite
make cover      # run tests with a coverage summary
make check      # fmt, vet and test
make help       # list all targets

Releasing

Releases are built and published automatically by GitHub Actions whenever a version tag is pushed. GoReleaser cross-compiles the binaries (linux/darwin/windows × amd64/arm64), stamps the version into --version, and attaches the archives plus checksums.txt to a GitHub Release. The desktop devmem-gui is built for Linux/amd64 (CGo) and published as its own archive bundled with the .desktop entry and icon.

To cut a release:

git tag vX.Y.Z
git push origin vX.Y.Z

License

MIT. See LICENSE.