Work Journal

Overview

The Work Journal is DevDaily’s “memory” layer — it stores daily work snapshots locally so you can recall what you were doing on any date, across any project. It powers context recovery, smart recall, and cross-project weekly summaries.

Storage Location

All journal data is stored locally at:

~/.config/devdaily/journal/

Nothing is sent to external servers. Your work history stays on your machine.

Directory Structure

The journal uses a date-based directory structure:

~/.config/devdaily/journal/
  ├── index.json                    # Project registry + metadata
  ├── 2024-01-15/
  │   ├── my-project.json           # Snapshot for that project on that day
  │   └── other-project.json
  ├── 2024-01-16/
  │   └── my-project.json
  └── 2024-01-17/
      ├── my-project.json
      └── other-project.json

Index File

The index.json file maintains a registry of all projects and their snapshot history:

{
  "version": 1,
  "projects": [
    {
      "projectId": "my-project",
      "repoPath": "/Users/me/code/my-project",
      "remoteUrl": "https://github.com/user/my-project",
      "lastSnapshotDate": "2024-01-17",
      "snapshotCount": 45,
      "firstSeen": "2023-12-01"
    }
  ],
  "lastUpdated": "2024-01-17T14:30:00Z"
}

Snapshot Files

Each snapshot is stored as a JSON file with this structure:

{
  "date": "2024-01-17",
  "takenAt": "2024-01-17T14:30:00Z",
  "projectId": "my-project",
  "repoPath": "/Users/me/code/my-project",
  "remoteUrl": "https://github.com/user/my-project",
  "currentBranch": "feature/new-auth",
  "activeBranches": [...],
  "todayCommits": [...],
  "recentCommits": [...],
  "pullRequests": [...],
  "tickets": [...],
  "categories": [...],
  "topChangedFiles": [...],
  "diffStats": { "filesChanged": 12, "insertions": 340, "deletions": 120 },
  "notes": "Working on user authentication",
  "aiSummary": "Implemented JWT-based authentication",
  "tags": ["feature", "auth", "auto:standup"]
}

Snapshot Data Structure

Core Metadata

date

string

required

ISO date string (YYYY-MM-DD)

takenAt

string

required

ISO timestamp of when snapshot was taken

projectId

string

required

Sanitized repo name or directory name

repoPath

string

required

Absolute path to the repo root

Git Information

currentBranch

string

required

Current branch at snapshot time

activeBranches

array

required

All active (non-merged) local branches with status

todayCommits

array

required

Commits made on the snapshot date

recentCommits

array

required

Commits made in the last 7 days for context

Work Context

pullRequests

array

Open/recently merged PRs

tickets

array

Active/recently touched tickets from Jira, Linear, GitHub Issues

User-Added Content

notes

string

Free-form notes attached by the user

aiSummary

string

AI-generated summary of what you were working on

Search and Retrieval

Search by Query

The journal supports full-text search across all snapshot content:

const journal = new WorkJournal();
const results = journal.search({
  query: 'authentication',
  from: '2024-01-01',
  to: '2024-01-31',
  limit: 10
});

Searchable fields:

Commit messages
Branch names
File paths
PR titles
Ticket IDs and titles
Notes
AI summaries
Tags
Project IDs

Search by Tags

const results = journal.search({
  tags: ['feature', 'auth'],
  from: '2024-01-01',
  to: '2024-01-31'
});

Search by Project

const results = journal.search({
  projectId: 'my-project',
  from: '2024-01-01',
  to: '2024-01-31'
});

Relevance Scoring

Search results are ranked by relevance:

Branch name match: +10 points
Active branch match: +5 points
PR title match: +5 points
Ticket match: +5 points
Tag match: +5 points
Notes match: +4 points
Commit message match: +3 points
AI summary match: +3 points
Project ID match: +3 points
File path match: +2 points

From src/core/work-journal.ts:1050:

private matchSnapshot(
  snapshot: WorkSnapshot,
  query?: string,
  tags?: string[]
): { score: number; reasons: string[] } {
  let score = 0;
  const reasons: string[] = [];

  // Tag matching
  if (tags && tags.length > 0) {
    const snapshotTags = new Set(snapshot.tags.map((t) => t.toLowerCase()));
    for (const tag of tags) {
      if (snapshotTags.has(tag.toLowerCase())) {
        score += 5;
        reasons.push(`tag: ${tag}`);
      }
    }
  }

  // Text query matching
  if (query) {
    const q = query.toLowerCase();
    
    // Branch name match (high value)
    if (snapshot.currentBranch.toLowerCase().includes(q)) {
      score += 10;
      reasons.push(`branch: ${snapshot.currentBranch}`);
    }
    // ... additional matching logic
  }

  return { score, reasons };
}

Auto-Tagging

Snapshots are automatically tagged based on content:

Branch Prefixes

feature/ → feature tag
fix/, bugfix/ → bugfix tag
hotfix/ → hotfix tag
chore/ → chore tag
refactor/ → refactor tag
docs/ → docs tag
test/ → test tag

Conventional Commits

Extracted from commit messages:

feat: → feat tag
fix: → fix tag
docs: → docs tag
refactor: → refactor tag
test: → test tag
chore: → chore tag
perf: → perf tag

Ticket IDs

PROJ-123 → PROJ-123 tag
#456 → #456 tag

Work Categories

Categories with ≥20% contribution:

frontend, backend, api, database, etc.

PR Labels

All PR labels are added as tags

Maintenance

Get Storage Stats

const journal = new WorkJournal();
const stats = journal.getStats();

console.log(stats);
// {
//   totalSnapshots: 245,
//   totalDates: 87,
//   totalProjects: 5,
//   oldestEntry: '2023-12-01',
//   newestEntry: '2024-01-17',
//   storageBytes: 4521340
// }

Prune Old Snapshots

Remove snapshots older than a specific number of days:

const journal = new WorkJournal();
const result = journal.prune(365); // Keep last year only

console.log(result);
// {
//   removedDates: ['2022-11-01', '2022-11-02', ...],
//   removedSnapshots: 42
// }

Pruning is permanent. Removed snapshots cannot be recovered.

Rebuild Index

If your index becomes corrupted or out of sync:

const journal = new WorkJournal();
journal.rebuildIndex();

This scans all date directories and reconstructs the project registry.

Cross-Project Summaries

Get aggregated activity across all projects:

const journal = new WorkJournal();
const summary = journal.getCrossProjectSummary('2024-01-01', '2024-01-07');

console.log(summary);
// {
//   projects: [
//     {
//       projectId: 'my-project',
//       totalCommits: 23,
//       activeDays: 5,
//       branches: ['main', 'feature/auth'],
//       topFiles: ['src/auth.ts', 'src/api.ts'],
//       categories: [{ name: 'backend', percentage: 70 }],
//       diffStats: { filesChanged: 45, insertions: 890, deletions: 340 }
//     }
//   ],
//   totalCommits: 23,
//   totalActiveDays: 5,
//   dateRange: { from: '2024-01-01', to: '2024-01-07' }
// }

File History

Find when a specific file was last worked on:

const journal = new WorkJournal();
const history = journal.findFileHistory('src/auth.ts', 'my-project', 90);

console.log(history);
// [
//   { date: '2024-01-15', commits: [...] },
//   { date: '2024-01-10', commits: [...] }
// ]

Snapshot Merging

When you take multiple snapshots on the same day for the same project, they are merged instead of overwritten:

Newer metadata wins (branch, timestamp, etc.)
Commits are deduplicated by hash
Branches are deduplicated by name
PRs are deduplicated by number
Notes are concatenated
Tags are combined

From src/core/work-journal.ts:987:

private mergeSnapshots(existing: WorkSnapshot, incoming: WorkSnapshot): WorkSnapshot {
  // Deduplicate commits by hash
  const commitMap = new Map<string, JournalCommit>();
  for (const c of existing.todayCommits) {
    commitMap.set(c.hash, c);
  }
  for (const c of incoming.todayCommits) {
    commitMap.set(c.hash, c); // Incoming wins on duplicates
  }

  // Merge tags
  const allTags = new Set([...existing.tags, ...incoming.tags]);

  return {
    ...incoming,
    takenAt: new Date().toISOString(),
    todayCommits: Array.from(commitMap.values()),
    notes: existing.notes
      ? incoming.notes
        ? `${existing.notes}\n\n${incoming.notes}`
        : existing.notes
      : incoming.notes,
    tags: Array.from(allTags),
  };
}

Privacy

All journal data is stored locally at ~/.config/devdaily/journal/. Nothing is ever sent to external servers.

See the Privacy page for more details.

Get Started

Core Features

Configuration

Advanced

Troubleshooting

Overview

Storage Location

Directory Structure

Index File

Snapshot Files

Snapshot Data Structure

Core Metadata

Git Information

Work Context

User-Added Content

Search and Retrieval

Search by Query

Search by Tags

Search by Project

Relevance Scoring

Auto-Tagging

Branch Prefixes

Conventional Commits

Ticket IDs

Work Categories

PR Labels

Maintenance

Get Storage Stats

Prune Old Snapshots

Rebuild Index

Cross-Project Summaries

File History

Snapshot Merging

Privacy

Get Started

Core Features

Configuration

Advanced

Troubleshooting

​Overview

​Storage Location

​Directory Structure

​Index File

​Snapshot Files

​Snapshot Data Structure

​Core Metadata

​Git Information

​Work Context

​User-Added Content

​Search and Retrieval

​Search by Query

​Search by Tags

​Search by Project

​Relevance Scoring

​Auto-Tagging

​Branch Prefixes

​Conventional Commits

​Ticket IDs

​Work Categories

​PR Labels

​Maintenance

​Get Storage Stats

​Prune Old Snapshots

​Rebuild Index

​Cross-Project Summaries

​File History

​Snapshot Merging

​Privacy

Overview

Storage Location

Directory Structure

Index File

Snapshot Files

Snapshot Data Structure

Core Metadata

Git Information

Work Context

User-Added Content

Search and Retrieval

Search by Query

Search by Tags

Search by Project

Relevance Scoring

Auto-Tagging

Branch Prefixes

Conventional Commits

Ticket IDs

Work Categories

PR Labels

Maintenance

Get Storage Stats

Prune Old Snapshots

Rebuild Index

Cross-Project Summaries

File History

Snapshot Merging

Privacy