istok

Introduction

Understand how Istok gives coding agents durable project state across sessions.

Istok is a local tool that gives coding agents durable project state across sessions.

You continue working with your coding agent as usual. Istok runs underneath that workflow through MCP, keeping useful state outside the conversation so it can be inspected, reused, and handed off later.

What Istok keeps

Istok organizes agent work around a few core concepts:

  • Projects scope Istok state to a repository.
  • Tasks represent durable units of work.
  • Context keeps project knowledge and instructions available across sessions.
  • Runs record an agent’s attempt to work on a task.
  • Validation records evidence that the result was actually checked.

Istok also maintains a local repository index that agents can use to retrieve relevant code while they work.

Why use Istok

A coding-agent conversation is temporary. The work behind it often is not.

A task may take several sessions, require multiple attempts, or move from one agent to another. Important details can otherwise remain scattered across chat history: what was being changed, what has already been tried, what context mattered, and how the result was verified.

Istok keeps that state with the project instead.

This means an agent can leave behind enough information for later work to continue without relying only on the previous conversation.

How you work with Istok

The normal setup is intentionally small:

  1. Install the istok CLI.
  2. Initialize Istok in a repository.
  3. Connect your coding agent to istok mcp.
  4. Add Istok guidance to your agent instructions.
  5. Continue working with your agent normally.

After setup, you generally do not need to manage tasks and runs manually from the CLI. The agent can use Istok through MCP as part of its workflow.

The CLI remains available when you want to inspect project state, troubleshoot a workflow, or work with Istok directly.

Next step

Continue with Installation to install the CLI.