Vault management

Create vaults, list them, and switch between them.

# init

parc init [--global] [--force]

Creates a new vault. Without flags, creates .parc/ in the current directory. With --global, creates ~/.parc/.

parc init                # local vault in $PWD/.parc/
parc init --global       # global vault in ~/.parc/

init writes the standard layout (config.yml, schemas/, templates/, fragments/, etc.), seeds the schemas directory with the five built-in types, and registers the vault in the known-vaults list.

--force overwrites an existing .parc/ after a confirmation prompt — it does not delete fragments, it only re-creates config.yml and re-seeds schemas/templates if they're missing.

# vault

parc vault [list] [--json]

Without arguments, prints the active vault path and how parc found it:

Vault: /home/alice/work/api/.parc
Source: walked up from /home/alice/work/api/src
Type: local

vault list shows every vault parc has seen:

parc vault list

* /home/alice/work/api/.parc          local      (active)
  /home/alice/work/web/.parc          local
  /home/alice/.parc                   global

The * marker is the currently active vault. The list is just a registry — removing a vault from the registry does not delete the directory, and parc always re-discovers vaults the next time it walks up from CWD.

# Selecting a vault

You can override the discovery order three ways:

# Per-command flag
parc --vault ~/work/api/.parc list todo

# Environment variable (whole shell session)
export PARC_VAULT=~/work/api/.parc

# Just `cd` into a directory under the vault — discovery does the rest
cd ~/work/api/src && parc list todo

The --vault flag wins, then PARC_VAULT, then walk-up discovery, then the global ~/.parc/.

# Project + global

A common pattern: keep ~/.parc/ for personal notes and todos, and use project-local vaults for project-scoped fragments. Local vaults shadow the global one whenever you're inside the project — no flags needed.

cd ~/work/api && parc list todo     # uses ~/work/api/.parc
cd ~ && parc list todo               # uses ~/.parc