Self-hosting

Precedent runs entirely in your environment — decisions never leave your infrastructure.

Install

git clone https://github.com/bbiangul/precedent && cd precedent

Python 3.9+. The hot path (scope + local keyword/embedding retrieval + the deterministic gate) uses only the standard library. The semantic steps (govern's match/conflict judgment, retrieval embeddings) call an OpenAI-compatible endpoint — set:

export OPENROUTER_API_KEY=...          # or any OpenAI-compatible key
export ARM_MODEL=deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash   # any capable model; a small one works

Keep the key in .precedent/.env (gitignored) or your secret manager — never commit it.

Seed the store

An empty store is the adoption killer. Seed from what your team already decided:

python3 src/extract/extract_decisions.py <path-to-a-repo>   # ADRs / RFCs / convention docs
python3 src/extract/mine_enforcements.py                    # PR review comments (needs `gh`)

Both produce decisions with authority, scope, and provenance. Mined entries land as status:mined until a human promotes them (admission control).

The CI gate

.github/workflows/precedent-gate.yml runs govern(diff) on every PR and posts the verdict as a comment; a non-allow verdict fails the required check and blocks the merge. Add OPENROUTER_API_KEY as a repo secret. Make the check required in branch protection to enforce it.

Org/team decisions

Point PRECEDENT_SHARED at a shared decisions file (synced from a central registry) to enforce team/org-wide decisions across every repo. See org-levels.md.