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riggerrigger

why

rigger why <PROJECT> <VERSION> [--json]

Shows the work that went into one release: what was decided, what was learnt, what was tripped over, and what changed - everything recorded between the release before it and itself.

Terminal window
$ rigger why sample v0.3.0
v0.3.0 — shipped 2026-09-04
the work after v0.2.0 (2026-09-04)


2026-09-04  decision  The budget is a gate, not a suggestion.
2026-09-04  pitfall   A wide window hides what the budget dropped.
2026-09-04  change    feat: rank what a person wrote above a commit

No event carries a version of its own, and none needs to: a release is bounded by the release before it, so the record can answer this for versions that shipped long before the question was asked.

How the window is drawn

Section titled “How the window is drawn”

From the previous release to this one, by the moment each was tagged rather than the day. A day would not be enough - this line ships several versions in an afternoon, and a day-wide window would hand every one of them the whole day’s work.

The lower bound is exclusive and the upper inclusive. That asymmetry is the point: a tag points at a commit, so a release and its last commit share a moment. Inclusive at the top keeps that commit in the release it shipped; exclusive at the bottom keeps it out of the next one.

Two releases tagged in the same second have nothing between them, and why says so rather than showing an empty answer that looks like a missing record.

A version imported from a hub carries only the day it shipped, which still bounds the window - less precisely, but better than not at all. Run rigger sync and the tag supplies the moment.

A version still being built

Section titled “A version still being built”

The current stage has no upper bound, so its window runs to now:

Terminal window
$ rigger why sample v0.4.0
v0.4.0 · Search — being built
the work after v0.3.0 (2026-09-04)


2026-09-04  decision  A bare word is searched as a prefix.

That is the work in progress, which is exactly what a session picking up the stage wants to see.

Spelling the version

Section titled “Spelling the version”

The number is matched by value, not by text, so v1.9, 1.9 and v1.9.0 all find the stage recorded as v1.9.0 - hubs spell a version several ways and nobody remembers which.

A version the record does not have is refused, with a pointer to what it does have.

Section titled “Related”
  • find - searching by word rather than by version.
  • sync - what supplies the tags this window is drawn from.
  • context - the current stage and its open tasks.