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+# ROAR — Run Observation & Artifact Registration
+
+**Version:** 0.2.1 (Alpha)
+**License:** Apache 2.0
+
+## Overview
+
+ROAR is a provenance tracking system for ML/data pipelines that serves as a local front-end to TReqs' Graph Lineage-as-a-Service (GLaaS). It captures complete execution history — files read and written, git state, commands executed — enabling reproducibility, lineage queries, and full pipeline reconstruction from artifact hashes.
+
+## Key Technologies
+
+- **Python 3.10+** — Core implementation
+- **Rust** — ptrace-based syscall tracer for file I/O interception (Linux only)
+- **SQLite** — Local storage (`.roar/roar.db`)
+- **BLAKE3** — Primary content-addressing hash algorithm
+- **Pydantic v2, SQLAlchemy 2.0, Click** — Data modeling, ORM, CLI
+
+## Project Structure
+
+```
+roar/
+├── roar/                  # Main Python package
+│   ├── cli/commands/      # CLI commands (run, build, auth, config, etc.)
+│   ├── core/models/       # Pydantic data models (artifact, job, config, etc.)
+│   ├── db/                # SQLite schema, ORM models, repositories
+│   ├── services/          # Business logic
+│   │   ├── execution/     # Tracer integration, run coordination, provenance
+│   │   ├── registration/  # GLaaS registration
+│   │   ├── reproduction/  # Artifact reproduction
+│   │   └── vcs/           # Git operations
+│   ├── filters/           # File filtering
+│   ├── presenters/        # Output formatting
+│   └── analyzers/         # Experiment tracker detection (W&B, MLflow, Neptune)
+├── tracer/                # Rust ptrace syscall tracer
+├── tests/                 # Unit, integration, e2e, happy_path tests
+└── scripts/               # Utility scripts
+```
+
+## Main Features
+
+| Command | Description |
+|---------|-------------|
+| `roar init` | Initialize provenance tracking in a project directory |
+| `roar run <cmd>` | Execute a command with full provenance capture (file I/O, git state, packages) |
+| `roar build <cmd>` | Like `run`, but marks steps as setup (executed first during reproduction) |
+| `roar reproduce <hash>` | Reconstruct an artifact's creation: clone repo, install deps, re-run pipeline |
+| `roar register` | Push local artifacts and jobs to a GLaaS server |
+| `roar auth` | Manage SSH-based authentication with GLaaS |
+| `roar config` | View/set 40+ configuration parameters |
+| `roar show` / `roar lineage` | Query stored artifacts, jobs, and lineage relationships |
+| `roar env` | Manage persistent environment variables injected into runs |
+| `roar status` / `roar log` | View execution status and logs |
+| `roar pop` / `roar reset` | Remove artifacts or clear the local database |
+
+## Core Concepts
+
+- **Artifacts** — Content-addressed files identified by hash (same content = same identity)
+- **Jobs** — Execution records linking input artifacts to output artifacts, with full context (command, git info, duration, exit code)
+- **Sessions** — Grouped job executions representing pipeline runs
+- **Collections** — Named artifact groups
+- **Provenance Context** — Captured environment: git commit/branch, hardware, Python packages, experiment tracker links, container info
+
+## Architecture
+
+- Dependency injection via `dependency-injector` (container pattern)
+- Repository pattern for database abstraction
+- Modular service layer with clean separation of concerns
+- Gradual typing with mypy; linting with ruff
+
+## Platform Support
+
+| Feature | Linux x86_64 | Linux aarch64 | macOS | Windows |
+|---------|:---:|:---:|:---:|:---:|
+| `roar run` (tracing) | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ |
+| All other commands | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
+
+The ptrace-based tracer requires Linux. All non-tracing functionality works cross-platform.