CodeBuddy Code

  • ID: codebuddy
  • Store: ${CODEBUDDY_CONFIG_DIR:-~/.codebuddy}/projects/<mangled-cwd>/<session-id>.jsonl — one file per session
  • Sub-agents: <mangled-cwd>/<session-id>/subagents/agent-<id>.jsonl, read with DEJA_INCLUDE_SUBAGENTS=1
  • WorkBuddy: ~/.workbuddy/projects/... (workbuddy.cn) and ~/.workbuddy-ai/projects/... (WorkBuddy AI, workbuddy.ai), or $WORKBUDDY_CONFIG_DIR/projects; the same layout and records, read when they exist
  • Read overrides: DEJA_CODEBUDDY_ROOTS, a path list, replaces both stores
  • Format: JSONL — OpenAI Responses-style items
  • Needs: nothing
  • Wiring: deja install codebuddy adds the MCP server; deja install codebuddy-auto adds the hooks as well. workbuddy and workbuddy-auto do the same in the WorkBuddy home

CodeBuddy Code is Tencent's terminal agent (@tencent-ai/codebuddy-code). Its

store is laid out like Claude Code's — a directory per working directory, one

JSONL per session — but the directory name is the cwd with /, \ and :

turned into - and the leading dash dropped, and the records inside are not

Claude Code's. Each line is one item:

{"type":"message","role":"user","content":[{"type":"input_text","text":"..."}],"timestamp":1780000000000,"cwd":"/repo","providerData":{...}}
{"type":"message","role":"assistant","status":"completed","content":[{"type":"output_text","text":"..."}]}
{"type":"function_call","callId":"call_1","name":"Bash","arguments":"{\"command\":\"go test ./...\"}"}
{"type":"function_call_result","callId":"call_1","name":"Bash","output":{"type":"text","text":"..."}}

plus reasoning, summary (the compaction digest), ai-title,

custom-title, topic, turn-metrics, file-history-snapshot and

session-meta. Timestamps are epoch milliseconds and cwd is on the record.

The tools are Claude Code's by name and arguments (Bash, Read, Edit,

Write, MultiEdit, file_path, old_string), so a call becomes a command,

file, edit or wrote record the way it does for Claude Code, and a

function_call_result becomes tool output.

Role user is shared with the client's own plumbing. A record with

providerData.skipRun never reached the model as anyone's words (hook output,

filter notices, local commands), and isMeta, isCompactInternal,

isCompacted, isSummary, compactType and teammateMessage mark

continuation, compaction and teammate turns. All are dropped, which is what

CodeBuddy's own isRealUserMessageItem does. A text item that opens with

<command-name>, <system-reminder>, <local-command-stdout>,

<teammate-message> or a task notification is dropped from the turn it rides in.

reasoning and summary are not indexed.

The title follows CodeBuddy's own order: the newest custom-title, then the

newest ai-title, then the newest topic, skipping the placeholders it skips.

MCP servers go into the first of <config>/.mcp.json, <config>/mcp.json and

~/.codebuddy.json that exists, else <config>/.mcp.json — the one file

CodeBuddy reads for user scope. Hooks go into <config>/settings.json in the

Claude Code shape, timeout in seconds: SessionStart, UserPromptSubmit,

PostToolUse and PostToolUseFailure on Bash|PowerShell, PreCompact and

SessionEnd. CodeBuddy reads hookSpecificOutput.additionalContext from all

of them the way Claude Code does.

WorkBuddy is a desktop app that runs this agent with CODEBUDDY_CONFIG_DIR

set to its own home, so ~/.codebuddy wiring never reaches it.

deja install workbuddy-auto writes the same hooks into that home:

$WORKBUDDY_CONFIG_DIR, else whichever of ~/.workbuddy and

~/.workbuddy-ai exists. A new MCP file there is mcp.json, the one the

app's own server settings write, since the agent reads only the first of

.mcp.json and mcp.json. WorkBuddy AI keeps a server from that file off

until you click Trust for it in Settings > MCP and restart the app; install

says so, and deja doctor reads the row as untrusted until then.

Last verified: 2026-10-05

Known quirks and drift

  • Checked against a live 2.161.2. Sessions written by the CLI itself

(pointed at a local model through models.json) match the record shapes,

the store path and the hook payloads read out of dist/codebuddy.js; the

fixture is synthetic.

  • The IDE store is separate. The IDE and the VS Code extension keep their

history under CodeBuddyExtension/Data/... in the platform data directory,

never in this tree. Not read yet (#4681).

  • Exit codes from the result text. A shell result ends with

Exit Code: N ((none) when a signal ended it), and status stays

completed either way, so the code is read off that line.

  • /compact writes its instruction prompt as a user record marked only

providerData.agent: "compact"; it is skipped, as the summary after it is.

  • Resume needs the session's directory. codebuddy -r <id> finds a

session only under the folder of the directory it is run from.

  • -r alone drops the SessionStart context. CodeBuddy hands it to the

model on a resume only with -c set, and the -r id still picks the

session, so deja resume prints codebuddy -c -r <id>.

  • WorkBuddy shares the harness id. Its sessions read as codebuddy.
  • WorkBuddy checked against 5.6.2. The agent bundled in WorkBuddy AI,

run headless with the env the app spawns it with, writes the store above

and runs the settings.json hooks and the mcp.json server. The

workbuddy.cn build names its home .workbuddy in the same product.json.

deja resume has no command for WorkBuddy yet.

deja reads this format and thirty-seven others, and turns what it finds into memory your agents can search. See the harness matrix for what is wired where, or install it and search your own history.

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