How to Trace File Lineage: Find Which Script, Notebook, Data, Command, or AI Agent Produced a File
When you open a file in your project and wonder which script generated it, which AI agent wrote it, or which command produced its contents, you are facing the file lineage problem. File lineage is the practice of tracing a file back to its origin — the exact script, notebook, data source, shell command, or AI agent that created or modified it. Without this trace, teams lose visibility into how their code and data evolved, creating compliance risks, debugging nightmares, and audit failures. Emerging open-source tools like trace-file-lineage, the Agent Trace specification, and academic frameworks like PROV-AGENT now make it possible to answer this question with evidence and honest uncertainty. ...