Initializing in Your Project
Navigate to your project directory and run deciduous init:
$ cd my-project $ deciduous init Created .deciduous/deciduous.db (SQLite database) Created .deciduous/config.toml (configuration) Created .claude/commands/recover.md (Claude slash command) Created .claude/commands/decision.md (Claude slash command) Created docs/ (web viewer, deployable to GitHub Pages) Created CLAUDE.md (project instructions) Added .deciduous/deciduous.db to .gitignore Deciduous initialized! Next steps: 1. Run 'deciduous serve' to start the web viewer 2. Use 'deciduous add goal "Your goal" -c 90' to create nodes 3. Tell Claude to use /recover at session start
What Got Created
| Path | Purpose |
|---|---|
.deciduous/deciduous.db |
SQLite database storing your graph (gitignored) |
.deciduous/config.toml |
Configuration file |
.claude/commands/ |
Slash commands for Claude Code |
docs/ |
Static web viewer (deploy to GitHub Pages) |
CLAUDE.md |
Instructions for Claude about the workflow |
The Database is Local
Notice that .deciduous/deciduous.db was added to .gitignore. This is intentional.
SQLite databases don't merge well in git. Each developer keeps their own local copy. Decisions are shared via the patch system (covered in Sharing with Others).
This means:
- Your decision graph is local to your machine
- It won't cause merge conflicts
- Team members share decisions via exportable patches
Claude Code Integration
The deciduous init command creates integration files for Claude Code:
CLAUDE.md— Project instructions with the decision logging workflow.claude/commands/— Slash commands for recovery and graph management
When you start a Claude Code session in this project, Claude will automatically know how to use deciduous. It reads CLAUDE.md at session start and follows the decision logging workflow.
You don't need to manually run deciduous commands. Claude does it automatically as part of its normal workflow, logging goals, decisions, and outcomes as it works.
Web Viewer Setup
The docs/ directory contains a static web viewer. You have two options for viewing it:
Option 1: Local Server (Development)
$ deciduous serve Starting graph viewer at http://localhost:3000 Auto-refresh enabled (30 second interval) Press Ctrl+C to stop
This serves the graph with live updates as you add nodes.
Option 2: GitHub Pages (Sharing)
The docs/ folder is ready to deploy to GitHub Pages:
- Push your repo to GitHub
- Go to Settings > Pages
- Set source to Deploy from a branch
- Select the gh-pages branch (or main +
/docsfolder)
Before deploying, run deciduous sync to export your graph to JSON.