Aider

Aider saves each conversation as a Markdown file inside the repository you worked in. Hansard finds those files in common project folders under your home directory.

Source IDs

Source	Use it for
aider	.aider.chat.history.md files and the Aider history files saved next to them.

How the import works

Hansard looks for .aider.chat.history.md files in ~/Documents/GitHub, ~/Developer, ~/Projects, ~/Code, and ~/Work, up to five folders deep. Each #### heading in the file starts a new prompt, and the Markdown after it becomes the assistant’s reply. The nearest Git repository sets the project, so a conversation stays with the codebase where you ran Aider.

The optional .aider.llm.history is timestamped text. Matching assistant responses can add response-time evidence. It contains no model, request ID, token usage, or cost. Hansard preserves .aider.input.history as raw evidence without turning it into messages. Neither sidecar creates another conversation. Repeated imports update the existing conversation and preserve the source files. Hansard does not inspect current Git state to synthesize historical edits.

Import and keep current

Import now

hansard import --source aider --since all
hansard index rebuild

To import history outside these folders, set HANSARD_AIDER_ROOTS to a comma-separated list of paths. The launch directory never becomes an implicit discovery root.

Keep current

With Automatic source selection, the watcher already includes aider. With a Custom list, enable it. The watcher picks it up within 30 seconds:

hansard config sources enable aider

The watcher scans the common project folders listed above, not the directory you last ran a command from.

Review the import in the app

1. When the import finishes, open Sessions and selectFilter & sort.
2. Set Source to Aider and setTime to the window you imported. UseFolder to narrow the list when you use this harness in several projects.
3. Select a conversation to check its messages, tool calls, files, commits, model, and token usage.

To keep archiving new sessions from a local harness, openSettings → Imports. Automaticfollows every supported harness installed on this computer.Custom lets you turn individual harnesses on or off. Cloud sources turn on separately under Cloud agents, and ChatGPT, Claude.ai, Gemini, and Gemini Notebook / NotebookLM exports import withImport export…. Each also has its own import command. If a conversation you expect is missing after you reset the filters, run the import command on this page again with --explain-skips where the source supports it.

What Hansard preserves

• Each #### prompt and the Markdown response that follows it.
• The project, taken from the nearest Git repository.
• Response times from .aider.llm.history records that match a response.
• Tool text and commit notices already present in the Markdown history.
• Copies of the chat, LLM, and input history files.

Known limitations

• The Markdown chat file has no exact time for each message.
• Aider’s audited history files do not record model names, token usage, or cost.
• Chat start times are local wall-clock values with an unknown timezone.
• Hansard does not offer a command to resume an Aider conversation.

Custom history file

If a repository keeps its chat history under a different file name, set HANSARD_AIDER_CHAT_HISTORY_FILE to that file’s path.

Refresh an existing archive

Available provider files refresh after parser updates. To import a previously missed chat from Aider’s history:

hansard import --source aider --since all

To rebuild from a verified archived source bundle without Aider’s files:

hansard rebuild --from-raw --provider aider

The current parser keeps ordinary assistant headings and trailing tool output.