Stop the context rot. Give your AI a genius-level memory.

A token-efficient documentation system that reduces AI context bloat by 93% while maintaining near perfect project memory.

Quick Start • Installation Guide • Migration Guide • The Methodology • Examples • Why It's Genius

Traditional project documentation becomes a bloated mess over time. Your AI coding assistant spends half its context window just trying to remember what happened last week.

Before Log File Genius:

• 📊 90,000-110,000 tokens of verbose logs.
• 🤖 45-55% of your AI's context window wasted on history.
• ❌ Result: The AI lacks context, makes uninformed decisions, and repeats past mistakes.

It's like trying to have a conversation with someone who has amnesia. Every. Single. Day.

Or maybe you are new here and vibe coding your first projects.

Vibe Coding Before Log File Genius:

• 📊 50,000-70,000 tokens of retrying work-arounds and responding to your questions about how code works.
• 🤖 45-55% of your AI's context window wasted on hand holding and ineffective loops through code.
• ❌ Result: The AI has the wrong context, makes bad decisions, and hallucinates.

Log File Genius is a five-document system that gives your AI a an improved long-term memory while consuming less than 5% of its context window.

After Log File Genius:

• 📊 ~7,000-10,000 tokens for complete project history.
• 🤖 93% reduction in context bloat.
• ✅ Result: The AI has near-instant access to all decisions, changes, and narratives, leading to smarter, faster, and more accurate coding.

Dive into the full methodology →

This isn't just another documentation template. It's a complete system designed for AI-first development.

• 93% Token Reduction: Keep your context window free for what matters: the code you're writing right now. Sheds old context like a snake sheds its skin.

• Near Perfect Project Memory: The five-document system separates facts from narrative, giving your AI a complete, holistic understanding of the project's history and goals.

• ⚡ Zero-Search Navigation: With bidirectional frontmatter linking, your AI never wastes tokens searching for files. It instantly knows where to find related documents.

• 🤖 Multi-Agent Ready: The included STATE.md file and handoff protocol provide a lightweight coordination layer, preventing agent collisions and duplicated work in complex, multi-agent environments.

• Scalable by Design: The built-in archiving strategy keeps your active logs lean and fast, even on multi-year projects.

• Tool Agnostic: Works seamlessly with Claude, Cursor, GitHub Copilot, Augment, and any other AI coding assistant. Your toaster will probably be running it soon.

This repository uses a two-branch strategy: main contains only the product/ directory for distribution, while development contains both product/ and project/ directories for development work.

For detailed installation instructions, troubleshooting, and next steps, see INSTALL.md.

Install Log File Genius in your existing project with a single command:

Bash/Mac/Linux:

git submodule add -b main \
  https://github.com/clark-mackey/log-file-genius.git \
  .log-file-genius && \
  ./.log-file-genius/product/scripts/install.sh

PowerShell/Windows:

git submodule add -b main `
  https://github.com/clark-mackey/log-file-genius.git `
  .log-file-genius; `
  .\.log-file-genius\product\scripts\install.ps1

The installer will:

• ✅ Detect your AI assistant (Augment, Claude Code, etc.)
• ✅ Prompt for your profile (solo-developer, team, open-source, startup)
• ✅ Create standard /logs/ folder structure
• ✅ Install log file templates and AI assistant rules
• ✅ Configure everything for immediate use

What gets installed:

• logs/ - All your log files (CHANGELOG, DEVLOG, STATE, ADRs, incidents)
• .augment/ or .claude/ - AI assistant rules
• .logfile-config.yml - Profile configuration

What stays hidden:

• .log-file-genius/ - Source repository (templates, scripts, docs - for updates)

After installation, your project root should contain ONLY these files/folders:

Visible:

• logs/ folder (contains CHANGELOG.md, DEVLOG.md, STATE.md, adr/)
• .logfile-config.yml file (your profile configuration)

Hidden (may not show in file explorer by default):

• .log-file-genius/ folder (git submodule - the source repository)
• .augment/ or .claude/ folder (AI assistant rules)
• .git/ folder (your project's git repository)

❌ If you see a visible log-file-genius/ folder (without the dot), something went wrong. This means a full clone was created instead of a submodule. Delete it and re-run the installation command.

Total visible items added to your project root: 2 (logs/ folder + .logfile-config.yml file)

Starting a brand new project? Use the GitHub template:

1. Click the Button:

   

2. Create Your New Repository: Give it a name. You now have the complete structure.

3. Read the Guide: Follow the log_file_how_to.md guide to start using the system.

Already installed? Update to the latest version:

# Update source
cd .log-file-genius && git pull && cd ..

# Re-run installer (smart merge, preserves customizations)
./.log-file-genius/product/scripts/install.sh --force

Already have documentation? The installer creates a clean /logs/ structure. You can:

• Start fresh: Let the installer create new templates, then manually migrate your existing content
• Brownfield: Keep your existing docs where they are and use Log File Genius alongside them
• Full migration: Copy your existing CHANGELOG/DEVLOG content into the new /logs/ files

For detailed migration strategies, see Migration Guide.

This project is for you. Your feedback, ideas, and contributions make it better.

• 🐛 Report a bug
• 💡 Request a feature
• 💬 Join the discussions to ask questions or share your success stories.
• ⭐ Star this repo if it saved you from context window hell!

Contributions are welcome! Whether it's improving the documentation, adding a new starter pack, or suggesting a new feature, please feel free to open an issue or pull request. Check out the CONTRIBUTING.md file for more details.

Built with ❤️ by Clark Mackey

Inspired by the endless struggle against context window limits and weak sauce AI recommendations.