Return Back — VSCode Extension

Remembers up to N undo/redo snapshots per file and restores them across VSCode restarts. VSCode's built-in undo history is wiped every time you close the editor; Return Back keeps its own parallel stack that survives.

How It Works

File change detected
        │
        ▼
 previousContent ──► pushed to undoStack (capped at N)
                     redoStack cleared
                          │
             ┌────────────┴─────────────┐
             │                          │
           Ctrl+Z                  Ctrl+Y
          (undo)                    (redo)
             │                          │
  pop undoStack snapshot      pop redoStack snapshot
  push current ► redoStack    push current ► undoStack
  replace document text       replace document text
             │                          │
             └──────────────────────────┘
                          │
                  persist to workspaceState
                  (survives restart)

Every mutation to the stacks is immediately written to VSCode's workspaceState (backed by SQLite), so the history is reloaded automatically on the next launch.

Commands & Keybindings

These keybindings replace VSCode's native Ctrl+Z / Ctrl+Y when the editor is focused. To run both systems in parallel instead, assign different shortcuts in package.json or your personal keybindings file.

Configuration

// settings.json
{
  // Maximum undo/redo snapshots stored per file (default: 500)
  // Each snapshot is a full copy of the file text at that moment.
  // Large files × high maxHistory = more workspace storage used.
  "returnBack.maxHistory": 200
}

Getting Started

# 1. Clone the repo
cd return-back

# 2. Install dependencies
npm install

# 3. Compile
npm run compile

# 4. Open in VSCode and press F5 to launch the Extension Development Host
#    — or package it:
npx vsce package --allow-missing-repository && code --install-extension return-back-0.0.1.vsix

Architecture

src/
├── types.ts            ← Snapshot & FileHistory interfaces
├── UndoRedoManager.ts  ← Stack logic + workspaceState persistence
└── extension.ts        ← VSCode lifecycle, listeners, commands, status bar

Key design decisions

Full-text snapshots — each entry stores the entire document content before a change. Simple and correct. Trade-off: large files with maxHistory=10000 will use significant storage. Switch to diff-based snapshots (e.g. via fast-diff) when that becomes a problem.

isApplying guard — when we replace document text to apply a snapshot, VSCode fires onDidChangeTextDocument again. The boolean flag ensures that replacement isn't recorded as a new change, preventing infinite loops.

undoStopBefore: false, undoStopAfter: false — our editor.edit() calls use these options so the snapshot application doesn't appear in VSCode's own native undo stack, keeping the two systems independent.

workspaceState persistence — scoped to the current workspace, so history for files in project A doesn't bleed into project B. If you want cross- workspace persistence, swap workspaceState for globalState in UndoRedoManager._persist() and _loadFromStorage().

Limitations

• History is lost if you move/rename a file (the URI key changes).
• Binary/very large files may cause storage pressure at high maxHistory.
• The extension activates on onStartupFinished; documents open before activation are seeded but changes made before activation are not recorded.