Ergane — Patent Intelligence for Code Commits

Developer Tools Track | OpenAI Build Week 2026 | July 18, 2026

Ergane (Ἐργάνη) — the Greek goddess of diligence and industry — a CLI tool + GitHub Action that detects patentable technical inventions in your code commits before they become public prior art.

🎯 Problem

Engineers invent patentable technology every single commit — novel caching strategies, consensus algorithms, data structures, synchronization mechanisms. By the time legal reviews, the invention is already public. Patentability destroyed. Prior art searches cost $5-15,000 each. Early detection is everything.

💡 Solution

Ergane runs on every git push:

Stage 1: Extract invention  →  Stage 2: Search patents  →  Stage 3: Synthesize  →  Stage 4: Notify

It extracts the technical problem and solution from your diff, searches USPTO + EPO + PQAI in parallel, generates a novelty score, synthesizes a preliminary claim, and posts results to your GitHub PR + team Slack via OpenClaw webhook.

🚀 Quick Start

# Install
pip install ergane

# Scan last commit
export OPENAI_API_KEY="sk-..."
ergane scan --since HEAD~1

# Dry run (no API calls)
ergane scan --since HEAD~1 --dry-run

# Check analysis dashboard
ergane analyze

🏗️ Architecture

Module	Purpose	File
config	Env vars + .ergane.toml	ergane/config.py
analyzer	PyGit2 diff parsing, invention extraction	ergane/analyzer.py
scoring	BM25 + IPC Jaccard + temporal decay + ensemble	ergane/scoring.py
patent_search	USPTO ODP + EPO OPS + PQAI parallel search	ergane/patent_search.py
synthesizer	GPT-5.6-sol claim drafting, risk assessment	ergane/synthesizer.py
notifier	GitHub PR comment + OpenClaw webhook	ergane/notifier.py
state	.github/ergane-state.md persistent tracking	ergane/state.py
cli	Typer + Rich terminal UI	ergane/cli.py

🤖 Codex + GPT-5.6 Usage

Built with Codex CLI v0.144.5 and GPT-5.6-sol/terra/luna (July 2026).

Stage	Model	Reasoning	Task
1	gpt-5.6-luna	low	Diff parsing, technical extraction
2	gpt-5.6-terra	medium	Coral SQL/Direct API patent search
3	gpt-5.6-sol	high	Claim drafting, legal synthesis
4	gpt-5.6-luna	low	PR comment + notification formatting

Codex was used as the developer agent for feature implementation and lint fixes:

# Example: ask Codex to implement a scoring algorithm
codex exec -m gpt-5.6-terra "Implement novelty sigmoid scoring in scoring.py"

Note: Codex CLI Free/Go tier usage limit was reached on July 18, 2026 during final build. The last Codex session ID was 019f71f3-ce2f-79e3-a2bc-de8d7997cdb9 (exec mode, lint fixes). For Build Week submissions requiring /feedback, this may serve as evidence of Codex usage. If an active session is needed, upgrade to ChatGPT Plus or use the existing session archive.

🔧 Configuration

# Environment variables
export OPENAI_API_KEY="sk-..."          # Required for synthesis
export ERGANE_MODEL="gpt-5.6-sol"       # Default: gpt-5.6-sol
export ERGANE_NOVELTY_THRESHOLD=0.4     # Min score to flag

# Or create .ergane.toml in repo root
[ergane]
novelty_threshold = 0.5
excluded_paths = ["*.md", "tests/**"]

🧪 Tests

pytest tests/ -v --cov=ergane

🎬 Demo

[TODO: Link to <3 min YouTube video showing Ergane scan → novelty score → PR comment]

📄 License

MIT — See LICENSE

🙏 Acknowledgments

• Built for OpenAI Build Week 2026 — Developer Tools Track
• Uses Codex CLI with GPT-5.6-sol/terra/luna models
• Patent data from USPTO, EPO OPS, PQAI
• Loop Engineering principles from Addy Osmani

📝 Submission Notes

• /feedback Session ID: [TBD — run inside Codex and type /feedback]
• Track: Developer Tools
• GitHub Repo: [TBD]
• Devpost Project: [TBD]