Wyrd Scribe

wyrd-scribe

wyrd-scribe is a Tier-A MCP server for creating provenance-stamped Markdown pages inside one folder you explicitly grant. Tier A is create-only: it can create a new page and append its lineage record, but it cannot overwrite, rename, or delete a page, and it exposes no lineage-query tool.

Installation and configuration

Install it with npm install -g wyrd-scribe. The executable is wyrd-scribe. Stdio is the default, so an MCP client configuration can launch it directly:

{  "command": "wyrd-scribe",  "args": ["--grant", "/absolute/path/to/folder"]}

The granted folder may instead be supplied as WYRD_GRANT. An explicit --grant argument takes precedence over WYRD_GRANT. WYRD_SCRIBE_TIER selects the tier and defaults to A when absent. Tier B adds overwrite_page; tier C is recognised but unavailable.

HTTP and HTTPS

HTTP starts only with --http <port> or --http <host>:<port>. A port alone binds to 127.0.0.1; --http 127.0.0.1:0 asks the system for a free loopback port and prints the actual endpoint to stderr. A concrete non-loopback address also requires --http-public and valid TLS material; startup refuses before listening without both. The route is POST /mcp.

Generate a fresh Scribe token with wyrd-mcp token, independently of the Reader token. Supply exactly one source: WYRD_WRITE_TOKEN or --write-token-file <absolute-path>. The token must be one canonical, unpadded base64url encoding of 32 bytes. Token files may end with one LF or CRLF; on POSIX they must not permit group or world access. The Scribe never reads WYRD_READ_TOKEN.

WYRD_WRITE_TOKEN=<Scribe-token> wyrd-scribe --grant /absolute/path/to/vault --http 127.0.0.1:8788

For network access, generate a certificate with wyrd-mcp cert --host <hostname-or-IP> and configure a concrete interface address. The certificate must be trusted by the client and cover the hostname or IP the client uses. The Reader README documents certificate generation and platform trust steps.

WYRD_WRITE_TOKEN=<Scribe-token> wyrd-scribe --grant /absolute/path/to/vault --http 192.168.1.20:8788 --http-public --tls-cert /absolute/path/to/wyrd-cert.pem --tls-key /absolute/path/to/wyrd-key.pem

Every request needs Authorization: Bearer <Scribe-token>. Origin, when present, must exactly match a startup-disclosed allowed Origin. HTTP request bodies are capped at 1 MiB including the encoded JSON envelope; stdio has no such cap. A write already admitted finishes even when its client disconnects, and graceful shutdown waits for its page and ledger append without a timeout. Every cited source remains inside the same granted folder. Firewall, VPN, container and virtual machine routing can expose a bound address; the Scribe checks the address once at startup.

write_page

Tier A exposes write_page with this exact input shape:

{  "path": "Notes/new-page.md",  "content": "Page text\n",  "derived_from": [    {      "source": "Sources/source.md",      "spans": [        { "offset": 0, "length": 9 },        { "quote": "source text" },        { "offset": 0, "length": 9, "quote": "source te" }      ]    }  ]}

path and every derived_from[].source are relative to the granted folder. Each span is exactly one of: byte offset plus positive byte length; a non-empty, uniquely occurring quote; or all three fields, in which case the bytes and quote must agree. Unknown input keys are refused.

The granted folder must already contain a .wyrd/ directory. The Scribe does not create that directory. On the first eligible write it mints .wyrd/scribe.json with this shape:

{  "schema": "wyrd.scribe/v1",  "vault_id": "a server-minted UUID v4",  "write_frontmatter": false}

write_frontmatter defaults to false. Set it to true in the vault configuration to opt into a wyrd_lineage key in created pages.

Outcomes and recovery

A successful call creates the page first and then appends one LF-terminated JSON record to .wyrd/lineage.jsonl. If the ledger append fails after page creation, the page is retained. The result is PAGE_WRITTEN_LEDGER_FAILED, includes the created-page information and underlying cause, and may report retained bytes. Inspect the retained page and ledger before repairing or retrying; a retry at the same page path is create-only and will refuse EXISTS.

Each ledger line is a wyrd.lineage/v1 object with event: "page_written", a server-minted event_id, recorded_at, the wyrd-scribe writer and version, the vault UUID, the created page's path and SHA-256 content identity, and a sources array. Every source carries its grant-relative path and content identity; every span records byte offset and length plus stored quote text, byte counts, full-quote SHA-256, and whether the stored text was truncated.

When frontmatter projection is enabled, the created page receives one wyrd_lineage key containing single-line JSON. The projection carries the schema, event, event ID, timestamp, writer, vault, and sources. It deliberately omits the page identity and page content hash; event_id joins it to the complete ledger record.

Security boundary and limits

All granted-folder reads and writes go through wyrd-fence. The containment guarantees, hard-link limits, residual filesystem races, and recovery consequences are defined in the Fence's authoritative Security boundary and limits section. The Scribe additionally refuses directly addressed Arc/ targets. Tier A creates pages exclusively; Tier B can replace a page only with its expected SHA-256. These controls are a scoped filesystem boundary, not an operating-system sandbox.

Privacy and data flow

The server uses stdio by default and opens a network listener only with --http. It reads the vault configuration and cited source bytes inside the granted folder. Tier A writes the new page, the minted config when needed, and the lineage ledger there; Tier B can also replace a page. The connected MCP client receives tool metadata and the structured result or refusal, including lineage and recovery information. Initialization instructions also disclose the granted folder's canonical absolute path. The Scribe does not return uncited source-file contents.

Build and test from source

From the workspace root:

npm installnpm --workspace wyrd-fence run buildnpm --workspace wyrd-mcp run buildnpm --workspace wyrd-scribe test

The package's test lifecycle builds the Reader prerequisite before running the Scribe suite.

Release notes

0.2.1 — 2026-10-19

Updates the exact wyrd-fence dependency to 0.4.0. No Scribe tool behavior changes.

License

Apache-2.0. See LICENSE.