a u t o s n a p

Intelligent Local File History & Protection in Time

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Autosnap is a lightweight, background service that automatically watches your code for changes and creates intelligent snapshots, allowing you to travel back in time to any version of any file.

Think of it as a local, granular Time Machine for your code—working silently to protect your work from accidental deletion or bad edits.

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🚀 Key Features

Feature	Description
🌲 Tree-Based History	Every edit branches off. Restoring an old version creates a new branch, so nothing is ever overwritten or lost.
📉 Compact Storage	Uses Forward Delta + Brotli Compression to store dozens of versions in just a few KB (typ. ~80% space reduction).
⚡ Zero Friction	Runs silently in the background. No manual git commit needed for every small change.
🔄 Non-Destructive Restore	"Pivots" your workspace to any past version instantly without creating duplicate snapshots.

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📦 Installation

Install globally via NPM to use the autosnap CLI anywhere:

npm install -g autosnap

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🛠️ Usage Guide

1. Start Watching

Go to your project directory and start the background watcher.

autosnap start

Note: Autosnap automatically ignores node_modules, .git, dist, and other noisy folders.

2. View History

See a summary of all tracked files or deep-dive into a specific file's timeline.

Summary View:

autosnap history

Detailed Tree View:

auto-snap history src/server.js

Example Output:

Snapshot History for "sai.txt":

File: sai.txt
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Snapshot ID     | Parent          | Timestamp                      | Size (Raw)   | Stats      | Type
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| mjjygyjp        | mjjye8t9        | 24/12/2025, 5:23:50 pm         | 150.84 MB    | +680400 | VERSION (HEAD)
| mjjye8t9        | mjjyd5nv        | 24/12/2025, 5:21:43 pm         | 13.71 MB     | +63180 | VERSION 
| mjjyd5nv        | mjjycj68        | 24/12/2025, 5:20:52 pm         | 1003.01 KB   | +4590 | VERSION 
| mjjycj68        | mjjybv0k        | 24/12/2025, 5:20:23 pm         | 55.72 KB     | +180 | VERSION 
| mjjybv0k        | mjjyb66p        | 24/12/2025, 5:19:52 pm         | 18.57 KB     | +61 -1 | VERSION 
| mjjyb66p        | mjjya8bv        | 24/12/2025, 5:19:20 pm         | 6.19 KB      | +15 | VERSION 
| mjjya8bv        | mjibpjwi        | 24/12/2025, 5:18:36 pm         | 3.09 KB      | +12 | VERSION 
| mjibpjwi        | mjib5c22        | 23/12/2025, 1:58:53 pm         | 74 B         | +2 | VERSION 
| mjibg8id        | mjibfwk9        | 23/12/2025, 1:51:38 pm         | 44 B         | +1 -1 | VERSION 
| mjibfwk9        | mjibellx        | 23/12/2025, 1:51:23 pm         | 10 B         | +1 -8 | VERSION 
| mjibellx        | mjib5c22        | 23/12/2025, 1:50:22 pm         | 247 B        | +7 | VERSION 
| mjib5c22        | -               | 23/12/2025, 1:43:10 pm         | 29 B         |            | ROOT 
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Tip: Use the 'Snapshot ID' (first column) to restore. Example: npm run restore mjjygyjp

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Storage Efficiency Overview:
Current File Size:        150.84 MB
Hypothetical Total Size:  165.62 MB  (Sum of all 12 versions)
Actual Storage (.snap):   2.64 KB
Total Saved:              165.61 MB (100.0%)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

• Snapshot ID: (First Column) Key used for restoration.
• Size (Raw): The full size of that version if stored normally.
• Efficiency: Shows how much space Auto-Snap is saving you.

3. Restore in Time

Travel back safely. This updates the file in your workspace and "pivots" the history tree to that version.

autosnap restore <SNAPSHOT_ID>

Example: autosnap restore mjibpjwi

4. Other Commands

• autosnap stop: Stop the background process.
• autosnap clear: RESET all history (Irreversible!).
• autosnap settings: Open the config file.

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⚙️ Configuration

A .autosnap/config.json is created in your project root.

{
  "debounce": 2000,       // Wait 2s after typing stops before snapshotting
  "maxSize": 102400,      // Max file size to track (in bytes)
  "include": ["**/*"],    // Files to watch
  "exclude": ["*.log"]    // Files to ignore
}

🧩 Architecture

Autosnap uses a modern Forward-Delta Architecture:

1. Root Node: Stores the full initial file content.
2. Child Nodes: Store only the patches (diffs) required to recreate the file from the parent.
3. Storage: All data is compressed (Brotli) and stored in succinct .snap files in .autosnap/store/.

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Made with ❤️ by Shanmukha Sai Reddy