🛡️ Code Backtrack for VS Code

Fearless experimentation. Instant recovery.

Code Backtrack is a Visual Studio Code extension that lets you create lightweight, invisible restore points for your code—without stashing, committing, or changing your working files.
It is built for developers who experiment heavily, especially with LLM-generated code, and want a one-click way back to safety.

✨ Why Code Backtrack?

Modern workflows involve:

• Large refactors
• Copy-pasting AI suggestions
• Trying multiple approaches quickly

Existing tools fall short:

• git stash alters your workspace
• Commits pollute history
• Undo doesn't scale across files

Code Backtrack introduces a new primitive:

Checkpoint ≠ Commit ≠ Stash

🎯 What It Does

• Create checkpoints without modifying the working tree
• Experiment freely
• Instantly restore your workspace to a known-good state
• Preview diffs before restoring
• Never lose work accidentally

🔑 Key Principles

• Non-disruptive – Creating a checkpoint never touches files
• One-click restore – Instant rollback
• Safety-first – No silent data loss
• Git-powered – Reliable and fast
• LLM-friendly – Designed for experimentation

🧠 How It Works (High Level)

Internally, the extension:

1. Captures the current working tree
2. Stores it as a detached snapshot (ghost commit)
3. Leaves HEAD and files untouched
4. Uses that snapshot for restore or diff

You get perfect restoration without Git complexity.

🚀 Features

⛳ Checkpoints

• Create a checkpoint at any time
• No stash, no checkout, no HEAD movement
• Optional labels and descriptions

Each checkpoint stores:

• Commit hash
• Label
• Timestamp
• Optional file + cursor location

🔁 One-Click Restore

• Restore workspace exactly as it was
• Confirmation when uncommitted changes exist
• Automatic fallback checkpoint before restore
• Handles renames, deletions, and untracked files

🎨 Creative UI

Designed to feel like a safety net, not Git tooling.

• 🧭 Code Backtrack panel (Tree View)
• 🎯 Time-based checkpoint timeline
• ⛳ Inline checkpoint markers in the editor
• Clear visual distinction between:
  • Current state
  • Safe checkpoints
  • Experimental changes

🔍 Diff & Preview

• Preview differences between:
  • Current workspace
  • Any checkpoint
• File-level and workspace-level diffs
• Restore only after review

🤖 LLM-Friendly Enhancements

• Auto-checkpoint on:
  • Large paste actions
  • AI code insertions
• Smart label suggestions:
  • “Before LLM refactor”
  • “Before API rewrite”

🛠️ Technical Overview

Built With

• VS Code Extension API
• VS Code Git Extension API
• TypeScript

Data Model

interface Checkpoint {
  id: string;
  commit: string;
  label: string;
  createdAt: number;
  file?: string;
  line?: number;
}