CHRONOVAULT for VS Code

Return to the moment your code still worked.

You had it working. Then a change broke it — and you're not sure when, or what did it. CHRONOVAULT records verified checkpoints of your project while you work, tells you exactly what changed since the last healthy state, and restores it — straight from your editor, with an automatic rollback that protects anything you were doing.

Everything stays on your machine in a local .chronovault vault beside your project. No cloud, no accounts, no telemetry.

How it works

Checkpoint — CHRONOVAULT runs your real build/test health profile. If it passes, the current state is snapshotted as a verified checkpoint (with the full evidence trail: which checks ran, how long, toolchain fingerprint).
Diagnose — compare against the last verified checkpoint. CHRONOVAULT lists the exact files that changed, the failing check, and the likely culprit.
Restore — select the state you want (or a subset of files). Current work is protected with a snapshot first, files are restored, and the project is re-verified. If verification fails, CHRONOVAULT rolls everything back to the state it protected — you lose nothing.

Features

Verified checkpoints — snapshots only recorded when your build/test checks pass.
What broke it? — evidence-based diagnosis: failing check, changed files, culprit.
Selective restore — choose individual files/folders to recover.
Automatic rollback protection — a protective snapshot of your current state is taken and restored if post-recovery verification fails.
Embedded dashboard — the full temporal console (timeline with hover tooltips, health map, storage visualization, recovery wizard, live SSE) lives in a Dashboard view inside the CHRONOVAULT Activity Bar — no browser required.
Local-first vault — content-addressable, deduplicated, ~no cloud.
Protection status — status-bar indicator showing whether your project is protected.

Screenshots

Real captures of the dashboard running against a live vault (dark theme).

CHRONOVAULT dashboard — timeline, verified checkpoints, health ring, and storage stats

Dashboard, light theme:

CHRONOVAULT dashboard in light theme

Checkpoint inspector with verified snapshot evidence:

Checkpoint inspector — status, evidence, health profile

Timeline state-map view:

Timeline state map

Health verification run against the project build:

Health verification operations log

Evidence-based diagnosis ("What broke it?"):

Detective diagnosis — evidence cards

Recovery plan review before restore:

Recovery plan modal — files to change/add/remove

Checkpoint diff:

Checkpoint diff comparator

Requirements

CHRONOVAULT CLI on your PATH (or set chronovault.cliPath in settings).
Java 21+ to run the CLI.
VS Code 1.84.0 or newer.

Install the CLI:

# From the repository: build the CLI into ./cli/build/install/chronovault/bin/chronovault
./gradlew :cli:installDist
export PATH="$PWD/cli/build/install/chronovault/bin:$PATH"

Or follow docs/INSTALLATION.md for a system-wide install.

Getting started

cd your-project
chronovault init          # detect your project type + health profile
chronovault checkpoint    # record your first verified baseline

Then open the folder in VS Code and use the commands below.

Commands

Open the command palette (Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+P):

Command	Description
`ChronoVault: Create checkpoint`	Run build/tests, snapshot only on green
`ChronoVault: Restore last good state`	Restore to the last verified checkpoint
`ChronoVault: What broke it?`	Diagnose the last state change
`ChronoVault: Show protection status`	Vault summary
`ChronoVault: Open dashboard`	Focus the embedded Dashboard view
`ChronoVault: Open dashboard in browser`	Open the dashboard in your browser
`ChronoVault: Refresh dashboard`	Reload the embedded dashboard data

The status-bar shield shows CHRONOVAULT presence — click it for protection status.

The Dashboard view runs a strict-CSP copy of the same dashboard chronovault ui serves, with a postMessage bridge proxying API + SSE traffic to a local server on a free loopback port (started on demand, stopped when the view closes). If no project or CLI runtime is found it shows an embedded setup page with Configure CLI / Locate Runtime / Retry / Open in Browser.

Settings

chronovault.cliPath — path to the chronovault CLI executable (default: chronovault, resolved from PATH).

The extension runs every command with CHRONOVAULT_PROJECT set to the opened workspace folder, so the vault always matches what you see in the editor.

CLI reference

Command	Description
`chronovault init`	Initialize a vault + detected health profile
`chronovault checkpoint`	Verify and record a snapshot
`chronovault checkpoints`	List checkpoints
`chronovault health`	Run the health profile
`chronovault diagnose`	What broke it?
`chronovault restore`	Restore + verify + rollback protection
`chronovault compare`	Diff two checkpoints
`chronovault gc`	Retention + garbage collection
`chronovault ui`	Open the web dashboard

Run chronovault --help for the full list.

Privacy & security

All snapshots, health evidence, and recovery logs live in .chronovault inside your project. Nothing is transmitted anywhere.
Secrets are excluded by default: .env*, *.pem, *.key, .ssh, .aws, id_rsa, id_ed25519, and more.
The web dashboard binds only to 127.0.0.1.
Health checks are gated by a trust policy (ASK, ALLOWLIST_ONLY, ALLOW_ALL) configurable via chronovault trust.

See docs/security.md and EULA.md.

Support & feedback

Found a bug or have a feature request? Open an issue at github.com/100raav/chronovault/issues. Source: github.com/100raav/chronovault.

Release notes

See CHANGELOG.md.

CHRONOVAULT