# Conversation a3879f2b9fbfa4de5

- Source: `claude`
- User: `pascal`
- System: `Pascals-MBP.local`
- Started: `2026-02-24T19:40:44.296Z`
- CWD: `/Users/pascal/Code/business/convx/history`

## User

_`2026-02-24T19:40:44.296Z`_

Explore the convx codebase at /Users/pascal/Code/business/convx. Focus on:
1. The overall directory structure
2. How render.py works (how it converts sessions to markdown)
3. How engine.py works (the sync_sessions function)
4. How cli.py is structured (the sync and backup commands)
5. Any existing config file handling
6. The NormalizedSession and NormalizedMessage models

I need to understand where to best add a sanitization feature that replaces entire lines containing certain keywords with "[SANITIZED]".

## Agent

_`2026-02-24T19:40:45.627Z`_

I'll explore the convx codebase to understand its structure and identify where to add sanitization features. Let me start with a systematic exploration.

## Agent

_`2026-02-24T19:40:47.730Z`_

Now let me explore the src directory structure and read the key files:

## Agent

_`2026-02-24T19:40:49.643Z`_

Good! I can see there are already `redact.py` and `redact_patterns.py` files. Let me read the key files:

## Agent

_`2026-02-24T19:40:51.244Z`_

Now let me read the redact files and cli.py:

## Agent

_`2026-02-24T19:40:53.436Z`_

Now let me check the utils file and look at the test file for redact to understand the pattern better:

## Agent

_`2026-02-24T19:40:55.068Z`_

Now let me check the adapters to understand how sessions are parsed, and look at a sample session structure:

## Agent

_`2026-02-24T19:40:57.118Z`_

Let me look at a sample fixture to understand the session structure better:

## Agent

_`2026-02-24T19:40:58.507Z`_

Perfect! Now let me check for existing documentation and pyproject.toml to understand dependencies:

## Agent

_`2026-02-24T19:41:00.067Z`_

Perfect! Now let me create a comprehensive exploration report. Let me gather a bit more information about the directory structure:

## Agent

_`2026-02-24T19:41:39.068Z`_

Excellent! Now I have a comprehensive understanding. Let me compile a detailed exploration report.

## Comprehensive Exploration Report: convx Codebase Analysis

Based on my thorough exploration of the convx codebase at `/Users/pascal/Code/business/convx`, here's a detailed analysis of the architecture and where to add sanitization features.

---

### 1. OVERALL DIRECTORY STRUCTURE

```
/Users/pascal/Code/business/convx/
├── src/convx_ai/                    # Main source code
│   ├── adapters/                    # Source-specific parsers (claude, codex, cursor)
│   ├── cli.py                       # Typer CLI entrypoint
│   ├── engine.py                    # Core sync orchestration logic
│   ├── models.py                    # NormalizedSession/NormalizedMessage dataclasses
│   ├── render.py                    # Markdown & JSON rendering
│   ├── redact.py                    # Secret redaction using hyperscan
│   ├── redact_patterns.py           # Regex patterns for secrets detection
│   ├── utils.py                     # Utility functions (slugify, sanitize_segment, etc.)
│   └── (other: search.py, server.py, stats.py, tui.py)
├── tests/                           # Test suite
│   ├── test_redact.py              # Tests for secret redaction
│   ├── test_integration_*.py        # Integration tests
│   └── fixtures/                    # Sample session files (JSONL format)
├── web/                             # React/TypeScript web dashboard
├── docs/                            # Documentation
└── pyproject.toml                   # Python project metadata
```

---

### 2. HOW render.py WORKS (Converting Sessions to Markdown)

**File:** `/Users/pascal/Code/business/convx/src/convx_ai/render.py`

The rendering pipeline converts `NormalizedSession` objects into human-readable outputs:

#### Main Functions:

1. **`render_markdown(session, *, with_context, with_thinking) -> str`**
   - Creates a markdown transcript with:
     - Metadata header (source, user, system, started_at, cwd)
     - Alternating "User" and "Agent" sections
     - Optional HTML comments for system/tool messages and thinking blocks
   - Filters messages by `kind`: shows only "user"/"assistant" by default
   - Returns joined lines as a single string

2. **`render_json(session) -> str`**
   - Serializes the entire `NormalizedSession` to JSON
   - Includes all metadata and all messages with their kinds

3. **`first_user_text(session) -> str`**
   - Helper that finds the first non-empty user message
   - Used for generating session basenames

#### Key Insight for Sanitization:
- Rendering happens **after** the `redact_secrets()` call
- Messages are rendered line-by-line in order
- **No line-level sanitization currently exists** — only token-level secret redaction

---

### 3. HOW engine.py WORKS (The sync_sessions Function)

**File:** `/Users/pascal/Code/business/convx/src/convx_ai/engine.py`

This is the **orchestration layer** that controls the entire sync process. Here's the flow:

#### Key Function: `sync_sessions(...) -> SyncResult`

```python
def sync_sessions(
    adapter,                      # Source adapter (codex/claude/cursor)
    input_path: Path,             # Source sessions directory
    output_repo_path: Path,       # Output git repo
    history_subpath: str,         # Path inside repo (default: "history")
    source_system: str,           # "codex", "claude", or "cursor"
    user: str,                    # Username for output paths
    system_name: str,             # Machine name for output paths
    dry_run: bool = False,
    repo_filter_path: Path = None, # For --sync, filter by repo
    flat_output: bool = False,    # For --sync, use flat paths
    redact: bool = True,          # Enable secret redaction
    with_context: bool = False,   # Include system/tool messages
    with_thinking: bool = False,  # Include thinking blocks
    skip_if_contains: str = "CONVX_NO_SYNC",  # Skip marker
) -> SyncResult:
```

#### Sync Algorithm (Steps 1-5):

1. **Load Index** (`_load_index`) — reads `.convx/index.json` with fingerprints and paths
2. **Discover Files** — adapter finds all session files in input_path
3. **Peek Session** — cheap first-line parse to get `session_key` and fingerprint
4. **Check Idempotency** — skip if fingerprint matches and output files exist
5. **Parse Session** — full parsing via adapter → `NormalizedSession`
6. **Filter** — check `cwd` is under repo, skip if contains `skip_if_contains` marker
7. **Build Output Paths** — determine markdown/json paths based on routing metadata
8. **Render & Redact** — convert to markdown/json, then apply `redact_secrets()`
9. **Write Atomically** — write to `.tmp`, then `Path.replace()` to avoid corruption
10. **Update Index** — record fingerprint, paths, and timestamps

#### Redaction Integration (Lines 172-177):

```python
redact_secrets(
    render_markdown(session, with_context=with_context, with_thinking=with_thinking),
    redact=redact,
)
```

**Critical for sanitization:** The text is rendered **first**, then passed to `redact_secrets()`. This is where you'd inject line-level sanitization.

#### Key helpers:
- `_build_output_dir()` — computes output directory hierarchy
- `_session_basename()` — generates filename from timestamp + slug
- `_session_contains()` — checks if session has skip marker
- `_is_under_repo()` — validates cwd filtering

---

### 4. HOW cli.py IS STRUCTURED (Sync and Backup Commands)

**File:** `/Users/pascal/Code/business/convx/src/convx_ai/cli.py`

This is a **Typer CLI** with multiple commands:

#### Main Commands:

1. **`sync` (lines 85-173)**
   - Runs **inside** a project repo
   - Filters sessions to those under repo's cwd
   - Syncs to `history/<user>/<source>/` (flat output)
   - Options:
     - `--source-system all` (codex, claude, cursor)
     - `--user` (defaults to `$USER`)
     - `--system-name` (defaults to `hostname`)
     - `--history-subpath` (default: "history")
     - `--dry-run`, `--no-redact`, `--with-context`, `--with-thinking`
     - `--skip-if-contains` (marker string, default: "CONVX_NO_SYNC")

2. **`backup` (lines 176-252)**
   - Full backup to `--output-path` (created if missing, must not be git repo)
   - Uses nested path structure: `history/<user>/<source>/<system>/<cwd>/`
   - Same options as sync except `--output-path` is required

3. **`explore` (lines 255-304)**
   - Web dashboard for browsing exported sessions
   - Requires index to exist (runs `ensure_index` first)
   - Opens browser or runs API-only server

4. **`tui` (lines 307-327)**
   - Terminal UI for browsing/searching (legacy)

5. **`stats` / `word-stats` (lines 380-459)**
   - Show index totals and word count statistics

6. **`hooks` (lines 330-374)**
   - Install/uninstall pre-commit hook that runs `convx sync`

#### Redact Option Flow:
```python
no_redact: bool = typer.Option(False, "--no-redact", ...)
...
redact=not no_redact,  # Passed to sync_sessions()
```

**Key insight:** Redaction is a boolean toggle at the CLI level that flows through to `sync_sessions()` and then to `redact_secrets()`.

---

### 5. EXISTING CONFIG FILE HANDLING

Currently, **no config files are used** at the code level. However:

- **`.convx/index.json`** — Used as a state file (not config), stores fingerprints and paths
- **`.convx/.gitignore`** — Auto-created to ignore all session JSON blobs
- **`.gitignore`** — May be updated to exclude history
- **`--skip-if-contains`** marker — Uses inline comment `CONVX_NO_SYNC` as a workaround for skipping

There is **no YAML/TOML config file** for exclusion rules or sanitization patterns. This would be a natural place to add configuration.

---

### 6. THE NormalizedSession AND NormalizedMessage MODELS

**File:** `/Users/pascal/Code/business/convx/src/convx_ai/models.py`

```python
@dataclass
class NormalizedMessage:
    role: str                  # "user", "assistant", "system", "tool", etc.
    text: str                  # Full message text
    timestamp: str | None = None
    kind: str = "user"        # Rendering hint: "user" | "assistant" | "system" | "tool" | "thinking"

@dataclass
class NormalizedSession:
    session_key: str           # Unique key: "<source_system>:<session_id>"
    source_system: str         # "codex", "claude", or "cursor"
    session_id: str
    source_path: str
    started_at: str            # ISO 8601 timestamp
    user: str                  # Username
    system_name: str           # Machine name
    cwd: str                   # Working directory
    messages: list[NormalizedMessage]
    summary: str | None = None
    child_sessions: list["NormalizedSession"] | None = None  # For multi-turn sessions
```

**Key design:** The `kind` field on `NormalizedMessage` controls rendering behavior:
- `"user"` / `"assistant"` → shown in markdown
- `"system"` / `"tool"` → hidden by default, shown only with `--with-context`
- `"thinking"` → hidden by default, shown only with `--with-thinking`

This gives you **multiple hooks** for sanitization.

---

### 7. EXISTING SECRET REDACTION SYSTEM

**Files:**
- `/Users/pascal/Code/business/convx/src/convx_ai/redact.py` — Redaction engine using hyperscan
- `/Users/pascal/Code/business/convx/src/convx_ai/redact_patterns.py` — 26 regex patterns for secrets

#### How It Works:

1. **Pattern Compilation** (lazy-loaded):
   ```python
   _db = hyperscan.Database()
   _db.compile(expressions=PATTERNS, ...)
   ```

2. **Scanning & Redaction**:
   ```python
   def redact_secrets(text: str, *, redact: bool = True) -> str:
       # Encodes to UTF-8, scans for matches, merges overlapping spans
       # Replaces each matched region with "[REDACTED]"
   ```

3. **Pattern Examples**:
   - OpenAI: `sk-proj-[a-zA-Z0-9_-]{20,}`, `sk-[a-zA-Z0-9_-]{20,}`
   - AWS: `AKIA[0-9A-Z]{16}`, `ASIA[0-9A-Z]{16}`
   - GitHub: `(?:ghp|gho|ghu|ghs|ghr)_[A-Za-z0-9_]{36}`
   - Private keys: `[REDACTED]`, etc.

#### Limitations:
- **Token-level only** — matches specific patterns (API keys, tokens)
- **No line-level filtering** — doesn't remove entire lines
- **No keyword-based matching** — can't remove lines containing "password:", "API_KEY", etc.

---

### 8. WHERE TO ADD LINE-LEVEL SANITIZATION

Based on the architecture, here are the **best integration points**:

#### Option A: Extend `redact.py` (Recommended)

Create a new function `sanitize_lines()` that runs **after** `redact_secrets()`:

```python
def sanitize_lines(text: str, keywords: list[str]) -> str:
    """Replace entire lines containing keywords with [SANITIZED]"""
    lines = text.split('\n')
    result = []
    for line in lines:
        if any(keyword in line for keyword in keywords):
            result.append('[SANITIZED]')
        else:
            result.append(line)
    return '\n'.join(result)
```

**Integration point in engine.py (line 172-175):**

```python
redacted = redact_secrets(
    render_markdown(session, ...),
    redact=redact,
)
sanitized = sanitize_lines(redacted, keywords=load_sanitization_keywords())
atomic_write_text(markdown_path, sanitized)
```

#### Option B: Add Configuration File Support

Create `.convx/sanitization.json`:

```json
{
  "enabled": true,
  "keywords": [
    "password",
    "API_KEY",
    "DATABASE_URL",
    "secret"
  ]
}
```

Load in `engine.py`:

```python
def _load_sanitization_config(repo_path: Path) -> list[str]:
    config_path = repo_path / ".convx" / "sanitization.json"
    if config_path.exists():
        config = json.loads(config_path.read_text())
        return config.get("keywords", [])
    return []
```

#### Option C: Add CLI Flag

```python
@app.command("sync")
def sync_command(
    sanitize_keywords: str = typer.Option(
        "",
        "--sanitize-keywords",
        help="Comma-separated keywords to sanitize entire lines containing them."
    ),
    ...
):
```

---

### 9. SUMMARY TABLE: Key Files and Their Roles

| File | Purpose | Lines | Key Functions |
|------|---------|-------|---|
| `models.py` | Data models | 35 | `NormalizedSession`, `NormalizedMessage` |
| `render.py` | Markdown/JSON generation | 77 | `render_markdown()`, `render_json()` |
| `engine.py` | Sync orchestration | 234 | `sync_sessions()`, idempotency logic |
| `cli.py` | CLI interface (Typer) | 467 | `sync_command()`, `backup_command()`, option parsing |
| `redact.py` | Secret token redaction | 56 | `redact_secrets()` using hyperscan |
| `redact_patterns.py` | Secret patterns | 55 | 26 regex patterns for API keys, tokens, etc. |
| `utils.py` | Helpers | 57 | `slugify()`, `sanitize_segment()`, file I/O |
| `adapters/*.py` | Source parsers | - | Convert Codex/Claude/Cursor formats to `NormalizedSession` |

---

### 10. RECOMMENDED IMPLEMENTATION STRATEGY

For **line-level sanitization that replaces entire lines with "[SANITIZED]"**:

1. **Create new file:** `/Users/pascal/Code/business/convx/src/convx_ai/sanitize.py`
   - Similar structure to `redact.py`
   - Function: `sanitize_lines(text: str, keywords: list[str], enabled: bool = True) -> str`
   - Helper: `_load_keywords_config(repo_path: Path) -> list[str]`

2. **Modify `engine.py`:**
   - Import `sanitize_lines` at top
   - After `redact_secrets()` call, add sanitization
   - Pass `skip_sanitization` or keyword list to `sync_sessions()`

3. **Modify `cli.py`:**
   - Add `--sanitize-keywords` option or `--sanitize-config` flag
   - Pass to `sync_sessions()` in both `sync_command()` and `backup_command()`

4. **Add config file support (optional):**
   - Create `.convx/sanitization.json` format
   - Load in `engine.py` with fallback to CLI args

5. **Add tests:**
   - Create `/Users/pascal/Code/business/convx/tests/test_sanitize.py`
   - Test line matching with keywords, case sensitivity, partial matches

6. **Update documentation:**
   - Modify `AGENTS.md` with sanitization workflow
   - Add config file format example

---

### KEY ARCHITECTURAL INSIGHTS

1. **Single render pass:** Text is rendered once (markdown or JSON), then all transformations (redaction, sanitization) apply to the rendered output
2. **Atomic writes:** All file writes use `.tmp` → `Path.replace()` pattern for crash safety
3. **Message-level metadata:** Each message has a `kind` field that could support different sanitization rules (e.g., only sanitize "assistant" messages)
4. **Idempotent by design:** The index tracks fingerprints to skip unchanged sessions—sanitization rules should not affect idempotency
5. **No existing line-level filters:** Current system only has token-level redaction for known secrets

---

### ABSOLUTE FILE PATHS FOR REFERENCE

- **Main source:** `/Users/pascal/Code/business/convx/src/convx_ai/`
- **Models:** `/Users/pascal/Code/business/convx/src/convx_ai/models.py`
- **Render:** `/Users/pascal/Code/business/convx/src/convx_ai/render.py`
- **Engine:** `/Users/pascal/Code/business/convx/src/convx_ai/engine.py`
- **CLI:** `/Users/pascal/Code/business/convx/src/convx_ai/cli.py`
- **Redact:** `/Users/pascal/Code/business/convx/src/convx_ai/redact.py`
- **Redact Patterns:** `/Users/pascal/Code/business/convx/src/convx_ai/redact_patterns.py`
- **Utils:** `/Users/pascal/Code/business/convx/src/convx_ai/utils.py`
- **Tests:** `/Users/pascal/Code/business/convx/tests/test_redact.py`
- **Documentation:** `/Users/pascal/Code/business/convx/AGENTS.md`

This exploration should give you a clear roadmap for adding your sanitization feature!
