Exporting and Applying Patches

Exporting a Patch

Export decisions from your current branch:

$ deciduous diff export --branch feature/auth -o .deciduous/patches/alice-auth.json
Exported 12 nodes and 11 edges to .deciduous/patches/alice-auth.json

Export Options

Examples

# Export by branch
$ deciduous diff export --branch feature/auth -o .deciduous/patches/auth.json

# Export specific nodes
$ deciduous diff export --nodes 47-52 -o .deciduous/patches/rate-limiting.json

# Export with author
$ deciduous diff export --nodes 47-52 --author alice -o .deciduous/patches/alice-feature.json

# Auto-name based on branch and user
$ deciduous diff export \
    --branch $(git rev-parse --abbrev-ref HEAD) \
    -o .deciduous/patches/$(whoami)-$(git rev-parse --abbrev-ref HEAD).json

Patch File Format

Patches are JSON files:

{
  "version": "1.0",
  "author": "alice",
  "branch": "feature/auth",
  "exported_at": "2024-01-15T10:30:00Z",
  "nodes": [
    {
      "change_id": "a1b2c3d4-e5f6-7890-abcd-ef1234567890",
      "node_type": "goal",
      "title": "Add user authentication",
      "description": null,
      "status": "active",
      "confidence": 90,
      "metadata_json": "{\"branch\":\"feature/auth\",\"prompt\":\"...\"}"
    }
  ],
  "edges": [
    {
      "from_change_id": "a1b2c3d4-...",
      "to_change_id": "e5f6g7h8-...",
      "edge_type": "leads_to",
      "rationale": "Need to decide approach"
    }
  ]
}

Applying Patches

Apply patches from teammates:

$ deciduous diff apply .deciduous/patches/bob-refactor.json
Applied 8 nodes (3 new, 5 existing)
Applied 7 edges (4 new, 3 existing)

Apply Multiple Patches

$ deciduous diff apply .deciduous/patches/*.json
Applied alice-auth.json: 12 nodes, 11 edges
Applied bob-refactor.json: 8 nodes, 7 edges
Applied carol-perf.json: 5 nodes, 4 edges

Dry Run (Preview)

Preview what would happen without actually applying:

$ deciduous diff apply --dry-run .deciduous/patches/bob-refactor.json
Would apply:
  - 8 nodes (3 new, 5 already exist)
  - 7 edges (4 new, 3 already exist)
No changes made (dry run)

Checking Available Patches

$ deciduous diff status
Available patches in .deciduous/patches/:
  alice-auth.json          12 nodes, exported 2024-01-15
  bob-refactor.json        8 nodes, exported 2024-01-14
  carol-perf.json          5 nodes, exported 2024-01-13

Where to Store Patches

The convention is .deciduous/patches/:

.deciduous/
├── deciduous.db      # gitignored
├── config.toml
└── patches/          # committed to git
    ├── alice-auth.json
    ├── bob-refactor.json
    └── carol-perf.json

The patches/ directory is tracked in git; the database is not.