FAQ & Troubleshooting

General Questions

What is Lore?

Lore captures AI coding sessions and links them to git commits. When you use AI coding tools like Claude Code or Aider, your conversation history contains valuable context about why code was written. Git captures the final code, but not the reasoning. Lore preserves both.

Which AI tools are supported?

Lore supports 10 AI coding tools:

Claude Code, Codex CLI, Gemini CLI, Amp (CLI tools)
Aider (terminal-based)
Continue.dev, Cline, Roo Code, Kilo Code (VS Code extensions)
OpenCode

See Supported Tools for details.

Where is my data stored?

All data stays on your machine:

~/.lore/
├── lore.db       # SQLite database
├── config.yaml   # Configuration
└── logs/         # Daemon logs

There is no cloud sync or external service in the current version.

Does Lore upload my sessions anywhere?

No. Lore is entirely local. Your session data never leaves your machine.

Can I use Lore with private/proprietary code?

Yes. Since all data is local, Lore is safe for any codebase.

Installation

Homebrew says “formula not found”

Make sure you’re using the tap:

brew install varalys/tap/lore

Not just brew install lore.

Cargo install fails with OpenSSL errors

On Linux, install OpenSSL development headers:

# Ubuntu/Debian
sudo apt install libssl-dev pkg-config

# Fedora
sudo dnf install openssl-devel

# Arch
sudo pacman -S openssl

Command not found after install

Ensure ~/.cargo/bin is in your PATH:

export PATH="$HOME/.cargo/bin:$PATH"

Add this to your shell profile (.bashrc, .zshrc, etc.).

Import & Sessions

No sessions found after import

Check that your AI tool is enabled:
Terminal window
```
lore config get watchers
```
Check the tool’s session location exists:
Terminal window
```
ls ~/.claude/projects/  # For Claude Code
```
Verify sessions exist in that location

Sessions show wrong branch

Branch is captured when the session is imported. If you import after changing branches, it may show the current branch rather than the branch during the session.

For accurate branch tracking, use the daemon:

brew services start lore  # macOS
lore daemon start         # Manual

Duplicate sessions after re-import

Lore deduplicates by source file path. True duplicates shouldn’t occur. If you’re seeing duplicates, the source files may have been moved or renamed.

Daemon

Daemon won’t start

Check if it’s already running:

lore daemon status

Check for errors:

lore daemon start --foreground

Daemon starts but sessions aren’t captured

Verify enabled watchers:
Terminal window
```
lore config get watchers
```
Check the daemon is watching the right paths:
Terminal window
```
lore daemon status
```
Check daemon logs:
Terminal window
```
lore daemon logs
```

High memory usage from daemon

The daemon should use minimal memory (event-based watching). If you see high usage:

Check log size: du -h ~/.lore/logs/
Restart: lore daemon stop && lore daemon start
File an issue if it persists

Stopping daemon on macOS when installed via Homebrew

If lore daemon stop doesn’t work:

brew services stop lore

Linking

How do I link a session to a commit?

# Link to the most recent commit
lore link <session-id>

# Link to a specific commit
lore link <session-id> --commit <sha>

Can I link multiple sessions to one commit?

Yes:

lore link abc123 def456 --commit HEAD

Can I link one session to multiple commits?

Yes, run link multiple times:

lore link abc123 --commit a1b2c3d
lore link abc123 --commit e4f5g6h

How do I remove a link?

lore unlink <session-id> --commit <sha>

Search

Search returns no results

Verify sessions are imported:
Terminal window
```
lore sessions
```
Try a simpler query (single word)

Check if the content exists:

lore show <session-id>  # Browse a session

Search is slow

The FTS5 index should make search fast. If it’s slow:

Check database size: lore db stats
Try vacuuming: lore db vacuum
Ensure you’re not searching with very common words

MCP Server

Claude Code doesn’t see Lore tools

Verify the MCP server is configured:
Terminal window
```
cat ~/.claude/settings.json
```
Restart Claude Code after adding the configuration

Test the server manually:

echo '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","method":"initialize","id":1}' | lore mcp serve

MCP tools return empty results

Verify sessions are imported: lore sessions
Check the repository path matches your working directory
Ensure you have sessions for the current project

Database

Database file is large

Sessions with many messages can add up. Options:

Vacuum to reclaim space: lore db vacuum
Prune old sessions: lore db prune --older-than 6m
Delete specific sessions: lore delete <session-id>

Database is corrupted

SQLite databases rarely corrupt. If you suspect corruption:

Back up the current database:
Terminal window
```
cp ~/.lore/lore.db ~/.lore/lore.db.backup
```

Try to recover:

sqlite3 ~/.lore/lore.db ".recover" | sqlite3 ~/.lore/lore-recovered.db

If recovery fails, you can start fresh by removing ~/.lore/lore.db and re-importing.

Getting Help

If your issue isn’t covered here:

Check the GitHub Issues
Search for similar problems
Open a new issue with:
- Lore version (lore --version)
- Operating system
- Steps to reproduce
- Error messages or logs