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Strata

Getting started

Five minutes to a working vault. We’ll install Strata, initialise a project, save the first note, and watch it surface in the next session.

Install

Section titled “Install”

In Claude Code:

Terminal window
/plugin marketplace add https://github.com/gideondk/strata
/plugin install strata@strata
/plugin reload

The plugin ships a small Python wrapper that auto-creates a .venv/ and installs runtime deps on first run. No global Python state, no system packages touched.

Initialise the vault

Section titled “Initialise the vault”

From any git repo:

Terminal window
/strata:init

You’ll be prompted for a vault path (default ~/StrataVault). The plugin creates <vault>/<repo-name>/ with the four scopes (domain/, decisions/, lessons/, pr-context/). Each gets a brief README for human browsing.

~/StrataVault/myrepo/
├── decisions/
│   └── README.md
├── domain/
│   └── README.md
├── lessons/
│   └── README.md
├── pr-context/
└── INDEX.md

The repo name comes from git remote.origin.url (or the directory name as fallback). Multiple repos share one vault, namespaced by folder.

Save your first note

Section titled “Save your first note”

Make a branch and start work. After ~30 minutes Strata’s Stop hook will nudge you:

💭 Strata: 30+ min on `feat/auth-rewrite` without a saved note.
   Consider `strata:save` with a short topic + 3-5 bullets covering
   what was done, decided, and left open.

Or invoke directly:

/strata:save token-rotation-design

Claude will draft a note based on what you’ve been working on and ask you to confirm. The result lands in <vault>/myrepo/pr-context/feat-auth-rewrite/YYYY-MM-DD-HHMM--<initials>--token-rotation-design.md with structured frontmatter:

---
branch: feat/auth-rewrite
kind: session
author: Gideon de Kok
topic: token-rotation-design
created: 2026-05-24-1030
---

Watch it come back

Section titled “Watch it come back”

Start a new Claude Code session. The SessionStart primer surfaces what Strata knows:

## Strata primer — `your-repo` @ branch `feat/auth-rewrite`
_vault: ~/StrataVault_


Legend: 🎯 session  ⚖️ decision  📚 domain  📝 procedural  🎓 lesson  🌱 proposition
Context economy: 22 notes • skim 2,800t • full read 19,400t • 86% savings


### Files with recent context


- `src/auth/token-rotation.ts`
  - 🎯 `pr-context/feat-auth-rewrite/2026-05-26-design.md` — Token rotation design
  - ⚖️ `decisions/2026-05-25-rotate-on-refresh.md` — Rotate refresh tokens on use
- `src/auth/session.ts`
  - 📚 `domain/session-aggregate.md` — Session aggregate


### PR context — `feat-auth-rewrite` (2 note(s))
... (recent session notes, excerpted)


### Recent decisions (3)
- `decisions/2026-05-25-rotate-on-refresh.md` — Rotate refresh tokens on use
- ...


### Code graph (Graphify)
_built 2h ago  ·  348 nodes  ·  1,204 edges  ·  top hubs: SessionService, AuthGuard_

When you ask a question that overlaps the vault (“what’s the token rotation approach?”), Claude calls recall(query="token rotation approach") via MCP and finds the note. No /find invocation needed.

What to do next

Section titled “What to do next”
  • Capture decisions as you make them: /strata:decide "Use Postgres for tenant data"
  • Define domain terms when conventions crystallise: /strata:domain order-aggregate
  • Run /strata:bootstrap once if you have existing planning docs to migrate (bootstrap guide)
  • Install Graphify for code-graph awareness (code graph guide)

The vault grows as you work. There’s no upfront ceremony. Write when something deserves to survive the conversation.