A network of agentic research specialists coordinated by a principal investigator agent. V1: web-search researcher MCP server + CLI shim.
Find a file
Jeff Smith 0d957336f5 M2.5.2: Cost ledger with price table (#25)
Adds an append-only JSONL ledger of every research() call at
~/.marchwarden/costs.jsonl, supplementing (not replacing) the
per-call cost_metadata field returned to callers. The ledger is
the operator-facing source of truth for spend tracking, queryable
via the upcoming `marchwarden costs` command (M2.5.3).

Fields per entry: timestamp, trace_id, question (truncated 200ch),
model_id, tokens_used, tokens_input, tokens_output, iterations_run,
wall_time_sec, tavily_searches, estimated_cost_usd, budget_exhausted,
confidence.

Cost estimation reads ~/.marchwarden/prices.toml, which is
auto-created with seed values for current Anthropic + Tavily rates
on first run. Operators are expected to update prices.toml
manually when upstream rates change — there is no automatic
fetching. Existing files are never overwritten. Unknown models
log a WARN and record estimated_cost_usd: null instead of
crashing.

Each ledger write also emits a structured `cost_recorded` log line
via the M2.5.1 logger, so cost data ships to OpenSearch alongside
the ledger file with no extra plumbing.

Tracking changes in agent.py:
- Track tokens_input / tokens_output split (not just total)
- Count tavily_searches across iterations
- _synthesize now returns (result, synth_in, synth_out) so the
  caller can attribute synthesis tokens to the running counters
- Ledger.record() called after research_completed log; failures
  are caught and warn-logged so a ledger write can never poison
  a successful research call

Tests cover: price table seeding, no-overwrite of existing files,
cost estimation for known/unknown models, tavily-only cost,
ledger appends, question truncation, env var override.
End-to-end verified with a real Anthropic+Tavily call:
9107 input + 1140 output tokens, 1 tavily search, $0.049 estimated.

104/104 tests passing.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-04-08 15:52:25 -06:00
cli M2.5.1: Structured application logger via structlog (#24) 2026-04-08 15:46:51 -06:00
obs M2.5.2: Cost ledger with price table (#25) 2026-04-08 15:52:25 -06:00
orchestrator Initial project structure and scaffolding 2026-04-08 11:57:15 -06:00
researchers M2.5.2: Cost ledger with price table (#25) 2026-04-08 15:52:25 -06:00
scripts Propagate parent env to MCP server subprocess (#18) 2026-04-08 15:31:14 -06:00
tests M2.5.2: Cost ledger with price table (#25) 2026-04-08 15:52:25 -06:00
.dockerignore chore: add docker-based test environment (#13) 2026-04-08 15:06:12 -06:00
.gitignore Initial project structure and scaffolding 2026-04-08 11:57:15 -06:00
CLAUDE.md chore: add CLAUDE.md for session 1 2026-04-08 14:44:16 -06:00
CONTRIBUTING.md Initial project structure and scaffolding 2026-04-08 11:57:15 -06:00
Dockerfile chore: add docker-based test environment (#13) 2026-04-08 15:06:12 -06:00
pyproject.toml M2.5.1: Structured application logger via structlog (#24) 2026-04-08 15:46:51 -06:00
README.md chore: add docker-based test environment (#13) 2026-04-08 15:06:12 -06:00

Marchwarden

A network of agentic research specialists coordinated by a principal investigator agent.

Marchwarden researchers are stationed at the frontier of knowledge — they watch, search, synthesize, and report back what they find. Each specialist is self-contained, fault-tolerant, and exposed via MCP. The PI agent orchestrates them to answer complex, multi-domain questions.

V1: Single web-search researcher + CLI shim for development.
V2+: Multiple specialists (arxiv, database, internal docs, etc.) + PI orchestrator.

Quick start

# Clone
git clone https://forgejo.labbity.unbiasedgeek.com/archeious/marchwarden.git
cd marchwarden

# Install
pip install -e .

# Ask a question
marchwarden ask "What are ideal crops for a garden in Utah?"

# Replay a research session
marchwarden replay <trace_id>

Docker test environment

A reproducible container is available for running the test suite and the CLI without depending on the host's Python install:

scripts/docker-test.sh build           # build the image
scripts/docker-test.sh test             # run pytest
scripts/docker-test.sh ask "question"   # run `marchwarden ask` end-to-end
                                        # (mounts ~/secrets ro and ~/.marchwarden rw)
scripts/docker-test.sh replay <id>      # replay a trace from ~/.marchwarden/traces
scripts/docker-test.sh shell            # interactive bash in the container

Documentation

Status

  • V1 scope: Issue #1
  • Branch: main (development)
  • Tests: pytest tests/

Stack

License

(TBD)