Brela — AI Code Attribution

Brela tracks which AI tools wrote which lines in your codebase — silently, without changing your workflow.

What it does

• Detects AI-generated code from GitHub Copilot, Claude Code, Cursor, Windsurf, Cline, Aider, Continue, Codex CLI, and more
• Attributes insertions to the correct tool via VS Code extension hooks, shell wrappers, and git hooks
• Reports a breakdown of AI vs human contributions per file, author, or date range

Packages

Package	Description
@brela/core	Shared types and session writer
brela	CLI — brela init, brela report, brela hook
brela-vscode	VS Code extension — silent background attribution

Quick start

npm install -g @brela-dev/cli
cd your-repo
brela init

brela init installs shell wrappers, git hooks, and the VS Code extension in one shot.

Commands

Command	Description
brela init	One-command project setup
brela report	AI attribution breakdown — HTML report with charts, file heatmap, and model breakdown
brela explain <file>	Full attribution history for a specific file
brela export --git-notes	Attach attribution as git notes so it travels with the repo
brela daemon start|stop|status	Control the background file-watcher
brela hook install|uninstall	Manage git hooks manually

Supported AI tools

Tool	Detection methods
GitHub Copilot (inline)	VS Code extension, shell wrapper
GitHub Copilot Agent	VS Code extension, multi-file burst
GitHub Copilot CLI	Shell wrapper
Claude Code (inline + agent)	Shell wrapper, external file write
Cursor (inline + Composer)	VS Code extension, multi-file burst
Cline	VS Code extension
Continue	VS Code extension
Aider	Shell wrapper, external file write
Codex CLI	Shell wrapper, external file write
ChatGPT paste	Large-insertion heuristic

How it works

1. Shell wrappers — brela init wraps claude, codex, gh copilot, and other AI CLIs in your shell. Every invocation logs { tool, timestamp } to .brela/shell-intents.jsonl
2. VS Code extension — watches onDidChangeTextDocument and onDidSaveTextDocument; attributes large insertions, agent saves, and file creations to the correct tool
3. Daemon — background chokidar watcher diffs files before/after AI writes to record exact line ranges
4. Git hooks — pre-commit captures staged AI attributions; post-commit fills in the real commit hash
5. Session files — every attribution is appended to .brela/sessions/YYYY-MM-DD.json (NDJSON, local only)
6. Git notes — brela export --git-notes attaches the attribution payload to each commit so CI, audits, and new team members can see it

Line-level tracking

The daemon records the exact lines AI wrote, not just a count:

brela explain src/api/payments.ts

2026-03-23 10:31  ● Claude Code Agent    L1-12, L45-79  HIGH

To also capture the code itself (for audits), enable it in .brela/config.json:

{ "captureCode": true }

Then restart the daemon. Turn it off the same way to remove the clutter.

Git notes export

Share attribution with the team without committing .brela/ to the repo:

brela export --git-notes          # attach notes to all attributed commits
brela export --git-notes --push   # also push refs/notes/brela to origin

Teammates pull and view:

git fetch origin refs/notes/brela:refs/notes/brela
git log --show-notes=brela

Packages

Package	npm	Description
@brela-dev/core		Shared types, SidecarWriter, BrelaConfig
@brela-dev/cli		CLI — all brela commands
@brela-dev/daemon		Background file-watcher daemon
brela-vscode	Marketplace	VS Code extension

Privacy

All data is local. Nothing leaves your machine. .brela/ is gitignored automatically by brela init.

Brela Cloud

The open-source CLI gives you per-developer, per-repo attribution. Brela Cloud adds:

• Org-wide dashboards across all repos and engineers
• AI cost & ROI tracking
• SOC 2 / compliance-ready exports
• Per-engineer attribution and review workflows
• Risk alerts for unreviewed AI PRs
• Jira / Linear / GitHub sync

Changelog

See CHANGELOG.md for the full release history.

Development

git clone https://github.com/kaustubh03/brela
cd brela
npm install
npm run build

Monorepo structure

Package	Purpose
packages/core	AITool enum, AttributionEntry type, SidecarWriter, BrelaConfig
packages/cli	All CLI commands (init, report, explain, export, hook, daemon)
packages/vscode-extension	Silent VS Code extension — detection and recording
packages/daemon	Background chokidar watcher with line-level diff

License

MIT