Gator: a stylized alligator head in profile

About Gator

Gator is a Git-native semantic layer for AI-assisted engineering.

It gives coding agents a durable, reviewable map of the repository: its modules, responsibilities, relationships, invariants, and non-obvious constraints. Gator calls these maps charters.

Before changing code, an agent reads the relevant charters to understand the part of the system it is about to touch. As it works, Gator requires the agent to update those charters alongside the code. Pre-commit Git hooks check that the knowledge layer and the implementation stay in step.

This means an agent does not need to rediscover the entire repository from raw files every session. It can begin with a structured understanding of the system and progressively inspect the details that matter for the task.

The experience should feel less like prompting a stranger with a large folder of code, and more like working with a senior engineer who already knows the system: what each part owns, what depends on it, and what must not break.

Gator also provides a repository constitution: shared instructions for how agents work in this codebase. The constitution defines the change process—read the relevant charters, propose a plan, make the change, update the map, record the decision, and commit through Git’s normal controls.

The change process in the constitution Six numbered steps. Top row, left to right: 1 Read the charters, 2 Propose a plan, 3 Make the change. An arrow goes down to the bottom row, which runs right to left: 4 Update the map, 5 Record the decision, 6 Commit through Git. Steps 1 and 4 are the steps that use or change the charters; they have a heavier border and a MAP label. Under step 6, a note says pre-commit hooks check that the charters and the code stay in step. 1 · Read the charters start from the map 2 · Propose a plan before code changes 3 · Make the change grounded in the charters 4 · Update the map charters change with code 5 · Record the decision in the commit message 6 · Commit through Git normal Git controls MAP MAP Pre-commit hooks check map + code
Figure 1 — the change process. Steps marked MAP use or update the charters.

The result is a living knowledge layer that travels with the repository. Git records not only what changed, but the maintained understanding that guided the change.