State and Files

EstaCoda stores state in two scopes: global (under ~/.estacoda/) and profile-local (under ~/.estacoda/profiles/<profile-id>/). The active profile is tracked globally; everything else is owned by the selected profile.

Global state

Default root: ~/.estacoda/

Path	Purpose	Created by
active-profile.json	Active profile pointer	estacoda init, estacoda profile switch
trust.json	Workspace trust grants	estacoda workspace trust
workspace-approvals.json	Workspace approval grants	Approval commands
sessions.sqlite	Global session database with profile_id scoping	Runtime initialization
update-cache.json	Update check cache (global, 6-hour TTL)	Startup prefetch, update command
packs/registry.jsonl	Global pack cache	Pack operations
memory/shared/	Global shared memory snippets	Memory operations
python-env/	Managed Python virtual environment for local faster-whisper STT	estacoda voice setup --stt-provider local
cache/huggingface/	Default faster-whisper / Hugging Face model cache	Runtime faster-whisper STT
cache/pip/	pip cache constrained under EstaCoda state for managed local STT setup	Managed Python setup
logs/update.log	Update operation log (gateway mode and managed-source updates)	Update command
.backups/<label>/	User-state backups before managed-source mutation	estacoda update

Global state is not deleted when a profile is removed. If you want a clean slate, delete the global root. Backup your sessions database first if you care about history.

The managed local STT venv and model cache are intentionally separate:

~/.estacoda/python-env
~/.estacoda/cache/huggingface

The model cache does not live inside the venv. Removing one does not repair the other; rerun estacoda voice setup --stt-provider local to recreate the managed Python environment.

Managed Python environments

Managed Python capability environments live under the EstaCoda state root.

<stateRoot>/python-envs/<capability-id>/
<stateRoot>/python-envs/<capability-id>/env.json
<stateRoot>/cache/pip/<capability-id>/

The virtualenv path stores the Python environment for one registered capability. The manifest records the installed spec hash, package list, optional groups, paths, timestamps, and verification status. The pip cache is scoped per capability.

These paths are not profile-local. Profile-local skill state, temporary caches, and user-facing artifacts are separate concerns.

Local faster-whisper STT keeps its existing managed environment path for compatibility. It is not silently moved to the generic capability path.

Install-local state

Source install directories may contain an .install-method.json stamp that proves install ownership. EstaCoda uses this stamp to decide whether a checkout is managed-source (installer-owned, may be mutated by update) or manual-source (contributor-owned, never self-mutated).

Path	Purpose	Created by
.install-method.json	Install method stamp: method, source URL, branch, installDir	Installer (scripts/install.sh, scripts/setup-estacoda.sh)

Profile-local state

Profile root: ~/.estacoda/profiles/<id>/

Path	Purpose	Created by
config.json	Selected profile runtime configuration	estacoda init, estacoda setup, manual edit
.env	Selected profile secrets	Setup flows, secret store
auth.json	Selected profile OAuth auth state	Codex OAuth setup
USER.md	Profile user preferences and communication style	Memory promotion, memory.curate
SOUL.md	Profile identity and safety memory	memory.curate
MEMORY.md	Profile learned facts and conventions	Memory promotion, memory.curate
promotions.json	Promotion metadata	Memory promotion
gateway/	Gateway state: sessions, approvals, voice mode, handoff codes	Gateway runtime
cron/jobs.json	Cron job definitions	estacoda cron create
skills/	Profile-installed skills	Skill operations, learning
skills/.usage.json	Skill usage telemetry	Runtime
skills/.evolution/	Skill evolution proposals and manifests	Skill evolution
logs/	Profile logs	Gateway, runtime
channel-media/	Channel attachment downloads	Gateway adapters
audio-cache/	Audio cache	Voice tools
image-cache/	Generated and edited image cache	image.generate, image.edit
temp/	Temporary files	Various operations
temp/delegation/	Bounded delegation timeout/stale-heartbeat diagnostics when enabled	Delegation runtime
temp/audio/	CLI recordings, auto-TTS temps, Telegram conversion, Discord receive audio	Voice operations
external-memory/	File-backed external memory records	External memory (if enabled)

Delegation also writes session rows/events to sessions.sqlite. Child sessions are linked with parentSessionId. Delegation outcome memory, when enabled, is stored through the configured memory provider as bounded task/status metadata only. Stale-file warnings are session/result metadata and do not store file contents or diffs.

Ownership rule

• Global files are shared across all profiles.
• Profile-local files belong to exactly one profile.
• Commands that create state report which profile owns the change.
• Commands that inspect state require the selected profile or an explicit --profile flag.

Recovery and inspection

# See which profile is active
cat ~/.estacoda/active-profile.json

# Inspect profile config
estacoda config show

# List all profiles
estacoda profiles list

# Check a specific profile's state tree
ls -la ~/.estacoda/profiles/work/

# View logs for the selected profile
tail -f ~/.estacoda/profiles/work/logs/gateway.log

What not to do

• Do not edit sessions.sqlite directly unless you know the schema.
• Do not copy .env files between profiles without updating the paths and secrets.
• Do not delete gateway/ while the gateway is running; stop the gateway first.
• Do not delete .install-method.json unless you intend to convert a managed-source install to manual-source.
• Do not hand-edit update-cache.json; it is a machine-generated cache.

Related docs

• Configuration — config file content
• Environment Variables — env var storage
• Profiles — profile management
• Memory — memory file behavior