Context management for projects made easy.

Overview

My Problem

When working in a complex codebase, I need a fast way to capture and retrieve context tied to specific parts of the project.

Inline notes like TODO or FIXME are intrusive and leak internal intent into the codebase.

External note-taking tools are disconnected from the workflow and introduce unnecessary friction.

AI tools can summarize past work, but they remain bound to session-based context and are not a persistent, structured layer over the project.

How den Solves This

den is a tool for capturing and retrieving context scoped per project without breaking your flow.

• Terminal-first access: Run den recent to surface recent context when opening a shell session.
• Project-scoped storage: Context is isolated per project, determined by the nearest .git directory found by traversing upward from the current working directory.
• Fast capture: Bind den add to editor shortcuts (e.g. Neovim). Capture selected code as context without leaving the buffer.
• Portable storage: Context is stored locally and can be versioned or synced using standard tooling like git.
• CLI core: den add, den rm, den ls, etc. for scriptable, precise operations.
• TUI interface: den launches an interactive session to browse, create, and edit context.

Installation

Important

The PyPI package name is den-python, but the installed command is den. Requires Python 3.12+.

pip (PyPI)

The recommended way to install den is using pip (or pipx for an isolated environment):

pip install den-python

Arch Linux (AUR)

If you are using Arch Linux, you can install from the AUR:

yay -S den

Debian

If you are using a Debian-based system, you can install den from the following apt repository:

curl -fsSL https://demonkingswarn.is-a.dev/debmon-repo/pubkey.gpg | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/debmon-repo.gpg

echo "deb [arch=amd64] https://demonkingswarn.is-a.dev/debmon-repo stable main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debmon-repo.list

sudo apt update

sudo apt install -y den

From Source

You can always clone and install directly from the source:

git clone https://github.com/RaghavGohil/den.git
cd den
pip install .

Usage

Interactive Dashboard (TUI)

den

Opens an interactive curses-based TUI to quickly navigate and operate on your notes.

Recent Activity

den recent

Fetches the most recent notes globally across all your projects. Hook this to your .bashrc or .zshrc to get a workflow summary when you open a terminal.

List notes

den ls

Displays all saved notes for the current project.

Add a note

den add <note text>

You can pass multiple words without quotes:

den add build a realtime terrain engine

Attach a code reference: If your thought is linked to a specific implementation, you can track it with the --ref flag:

den add fix this rendering issue --ref src/engine.py:42-50

Edit a note

den edit [id]

Opens the note in your default $EDITOR. If no id is provided, edits the most recently added note (default: 1).

Remove a note

den rm [id]

Deletes a note. If no id is provided, removes the most recently added note (default: 1).

Commands Summary

Command	Description
den	Launch interactive TUI
den recent	Fetch globally recent notes across projects
den ls	List all notes for the current project
den add [text]	Add a note
den add --ref [path]	Add a note with an anchored code reference
den edit [id]	Edit a note (defaults to the most recent note)
den rm [id]	Remove a note (defaults to the most recent)

Dependencies

This project uses no external dependencies (outside of the Python standard library), ensuring a lightweight and conflict-free tool logic.

Additional notes

If you find this project to be useful, please don't forget to leave a star. This keeps me motivated to continue working on the project.

License

MIT License