read

gnosys read

Read a specific memory by ID or path.

Usage

gnosys read deci-001
gnosys read project:decisions/auth.md
gnosys read deci-001 --json

Memory path formats

• Short ID — e.g. deci-001
• Layer prefix — e.g. project:decisions/auth.md, user:preferences/coding-style.md
• Paths resolve against the central SQLite brain first, then fall back to configured store files on disk.

Lookup order

1. Central DB — Opens ~/.gnosys/gnosys.db and calls getMemory(memoryPath). On hit, formats the row as synthetic YAML frontmatter plus body, prefixed with [Source: gnosys.db].
2. Resolver / file fallback — If the central DB has no match, uses resolver.readMemory(memoryPath) and reads the memory file from disk. Human output includes [Source: <label>] before the raw file contents.

The central DB connection is closed after the DB lookup attempt (whether or not a row was found).

Options

Option	Description
--json	Output a JSON object instead of human-readable text

Human output

Central DB hits include generated frontmatter fields: id, title, category, tags, relevance, author, authority, confidence, status, tier, created, modified, and when present source_file (with optional page), and source_path.

File fallback prints the source label line, then the raw markdown file unchanged.

JSON output

With --json, output is a single JSON object:

• DB hit: { path, source: "gnosys.db", content, memory } where content includes the [Source: gnosys.db] prefix and synthetic frontmatter.
• File hit: { path, source, content } where source is the resolver label and content is the raw file text.

Not found

If neither the central DB nor the resolver finds the memory:

Memory not found: <memoryPath>

The process exits with code 1.

Platform notes

• Central DB lookup requires a readable ~/.gnosys/gnosys.db; if unavailable, lookup falls through to resolver/file paths.
• Layer-prefixed paths follow the same resolver rules as other read/search commands.