Private context seeding.

Private context seeding carries reviewed user preferences and workflow conventions from prior work into a new repo. The output lives under .notch/private/, which is gitignored by default.

$ notch seed from ../old-project --review --include preferences --include workflow
$ notch packet list --private --purpose seed

Seed packets carry purpose: seed and sensitivity: private. They are local files; nothing leaves the machine.

The review gate

--review writes a draft packet to a temp file and opens $EDITOR. Save a real edit before closing — non-interactive runs without an editor are rejected with NOTCH_SEED_REVIEW_REQUIRED. The review gate is deliberate: seed packets become reusable context the agent reads, so what goes in needs human eyes first.

Selecting source files

$ notch seed from ../old-project --file CONVENTIONS.md --file docs/workflow.md

--file records a source-link pointer. Seeding does not ingest file bodies — only the path is preserved. Open the files yourself during review.

The scanner is aggressive on seeds

The secret scanner fires on any seed content containing words like secret, password, token, or api_key — even in legitimate documentation prose ("Never commit secrets to .env"). This is intentional: seed packets land in private storage that agents later read, so the scanner errs toward false positives. If a benign seed is blocked by NOTCH_SECRET_DETECTED, rephrase the trigger words in your source brief and re-run.

MCP visibility

Private records are hidden from MCP by default:

$ notch mcp serve                       # private records hidden
$ notch mcp serve --include-private     # private records visible to this server only

Start with --include-private only when the current client genuinely needs to read private seed context. The flag is per-process, not persisted.

What belongs here

• User workflow preferences.
• Reusable conventions from prior projects.
• Lessons explicitly reviewed and worth carrying forward.

What does not belong:

• Credentials, API keys, tokens.
• Raw chat history.
• Unreviewed private material.
• Project-specific decisions that should travel as packets, not seeds.