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Git for your AI prompts.

Track, version, diff, and rollback your LLM prompts — just like you version your code.

$ promptctl commit system --file prompts/system.txt -m "initial" ✓ Committed prompt "system" as v1

$ promptctl commit system --file prompts/system.txt -m "added citation rule" ✓ Committed prompt "system" as v2

$ promptctl diff system --- system v1 (2026-06-01 09:12) +++ system v2 (2026-06-03 14:47)

• You are a helpful assistant.

+ You are a helpful assistant. Always cite your sources.

$ promptctl rollback system 1 -m "reverting — citation hurt recall" ✓ Rolled back "system" to v1 → saved as v3

The Problem

Your prompts live in random places — hardcoded in files, buried in Notion docs, copy-pasted in Slack. When something breaks or stops working well, you have no idea:

What the prompt looked like last week when it was working

What changed between versions

Which version performed best

How to get back to a specific point

promptctl solves this. It's git for prompts.

Installation

Requires Go 1.22+.

go install github.com/naya-ai/promptctl/cmd/promptctl@latest

Or build from source:

git clone https://github.com/naya-ai/promptctl.git cd promptctl make build # binary at bin/promptctl

or: go build -o bin/promptctl ./cmd/promptctl/

Demo

Quick Start

1. Initialize in your project (creates .promptctl/store.json)

promptctl init

2. Save your first prompt version

echo "You are a helpful assistant." | promptctl commit system -m "initial"

3. Make a change and save it

echo "You are a helpful assistant. Always cite sources." | promptctl commit system -m "added citation rule" --model claude-3

4. See the history

promptctl log system --preview

5. Compare latest vs. previous

promptctl diff system

6. Roll back

promptctl rollback system 1 -m "reverting"

Commands

init

Initialize promptctl in the current directory. Creates .promptctl/store.json.

promptctl init

commit

Save a new version of a prompt.

From stdin

echo "You are a helpful assistant." | promptctl commit system -m "initial"

From a file (recommended for longer prompts)

promptctl commit system --file prompts/system.txt -m "from file"

With metadata

promptctl commit classifier -m "optimized for speed" --model gpt-4o-mini --tag prod

Interactive — type END on its own line to finish

promptctl commit system -m "manual entry"

Flags:

-m / --message — commit message (default: "add version N")

--model — tag with the model this prompt targets

--tag — add a label to this version

-f / --file — read content from a file instead of stdin

log

Show version history.

promptctl log # all prompts promptctl log system # one prompt promptctl log system --preview # show content snippets promptctl log system --tag prod # filter by tag promptctl log system --json # machine-readable output

diff

Compare versions side by side with color highlighting.

promptctl diff system # latest vs. previous promptctl diff system 2 # v2 vs. latest promptctl diff system 1 3 # v1 vs. v3

show

Show a prompt version.

promptctl show system # latest version promptctl show system 2 # specific version promptctl show system --raw # content only (good for piping) promptctl show system --json # full JSON promptctl show system --copy # copy to clipboard (macOS/Linux) promptctl show system --version-at 2026-06-01 # version that was latest on that date

rollback

Restore a previous version. Creates a new version (non-destructive).

promptctl rollback system 1 promptctl rollback system 1 -m "reverting — citation hurt recall"

list

List all tracked prompts.

promptctl list promptctl list --json # JSON array with version counts promptctl list --names # one name per line (used by shell completions)

search

Search across content, commit messages, and tags.

promptctl search "helpful assistant" promptctl search prod # matches tag "prod"

export

Export all versions of a prompt to Markdown.

promptctl export system promptctl export system > system-history.md

copy

Fork a prompt with its full version history under a new name.

promptctl copy system system-experimental

rename

Rename a prompt. All history moves with it.

promptctl rename system assistant

delete

Delete a prompt and all its versions.

promptctl delete system

watch

Auto-commit a file whenever it changes on disk. Great for editing prompts in your usual editor and automatically versioning every save.

promptctl watch prompts/system.txt --as system promptctl watch prompts/system.txt --as system --model claude-3 --interval 2

Flags:

--as — the prompt name to commit under (required)

--model — tag new versions with this model

--interval — polling interval (default: 1)

Commit timestamps match the file's modification time, not when promptctl ran.

prune

Keep only the N most recent versions and discard the rest.

promptctl prune system --keep 10

stats

Show a store-wide overview.

promptctl stats

Stats: ────────────────────────────────────────────────── Prompts: 4 Total versions: 23 Total content: 8432 chars First commit: 2026-06-01 09:12:00 Last commit: 2026-06-24 15:30:44 Most iterated: system (12 versions)

completion

Print a shell completion script.

Bash — add to ~/.bashrc

source ~/.config/fish/completions/promptctl.fish

Completions dynamically suggest prompt names for commands that take a argument.

How It Works

promptctl stores everything in .promptctl/store.json — similar to how .git/ works. The store is discovered from your current directory or any parent, so commands work from any subdirectory.

your-project/ ├── .promptctl/ │ └── store.json ← all prompt versions live here ├── src/ └── ...

Add .promptctl/ to your project's .gitignore to keep prompt history local. If your team wants to share versions in git, track only the store file:

.promptctl/* !.promptctl/store.json

Reading & Writing Programmatically

Several commands support --json or --raw for scripting:

Read the latest version of a prompt

promptctl show system --raw

Pipe the latest content into another tool

promptctl show system --raw | pbcopy

List prompts as JSON

promptctl list --json

Ingest output from a script

./generate-prompt.sh | promptctl commit system -m "generated"

Tagging & Model Tracking

Tag a version for filtering

promptctl commit system -m "production" --tag prod --model claude-opus-4-8

View only tagged versions

promptctl log system --tag prod

Find all prompts referencing a tag

promptctl search prod

Why Zero Dependencies?

promptctl uses only Go's standard library — no external packages, no version conflicts, no go mod tidy surprises. One binary, no runtime.

Roadmap

Remote sync (S3, GitHub Gist)

Side-by-side terminal diff view

VS Code extension

Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md. PRs welcome — open an issue first for major changes.

git clone https://github.com/naya-ai/promptctl.git cd promptctl make test make build

License

MIT © Shawnaya Williams

About

Git for your AI prompts — version, diff, and rollback LLM prompts from the CLI

github.com/naya-ai/promptctl

Topics

cli

golang

ai

version-control

devtools

developer-tools

gpt

claude

llm

prompt-engineering

Resources

Readme

License

MIT license

Contributing

Contributing

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