🕒 Dev Time Machine

Your safety net for AI-assisted coding

🤖 Coding with AI agents

Modern development has changed.
We spend hours collaborating with AI agents — prompting, refining, and iterating — until the code finally looks right.

But it’s not always smooth:

• AI agents often touch many files at once
• You might reach a working version, but need to keep iterating
• You can’t commit every small step to Git
• And if the AI agent takes you down the wrong path, rolling back all those scattered changes is painful

This is the everyday struggle of coding with AI agents.

🛠 How Dev Time Machine helps

Dev Time Machine allows for checkpoints within your workspace:

• 📸 Save a snapshot when you have something working
• 🔄 Roll back in one click if new changes don’t pan out
• 🧹 Keep your Git history clean by committing only the polished version

It’s a lightweight safety net that lets you explore freely with AI agents, without the fear of dead ends.

✅ Prerequisites

• A Git-initialized repository (it uses Git under the hood to manage snapshots)
• VS Code or a compatible IDE (such as Cursor)

🚀 Quick Start

1️⃣ Install

1. Open VS Code or Cursor → Extensions Cmd+Shift+X
2. Search "Dev Time Machine"
3. Click Install

2️⃣ Save Your First Snapshot

1. Make some changes to your code
2. Open the Command Palette Cmd+Shift+P →
   • “Dev Time Machine: Save Snapshot” → creates a snapshot with a timestamp
   • “Dev Time Machine: Save Snapshot with Alias” → lets you give it a custom name as well (e.g., working-login)

3️⃣ Restore When Needed

1. Press Cmd+Shift+P → Type "Dev Time Machine: Restore Snapshot"
2. Select the snapshot you want to roll back to:

    1 hour ago
    8/22/2025, 3:37:45 PM  

    📎 final-test 
    2 days ago • 8/20/2025, 9:25:20 AM  

    📎 working-v1  
    2 days ago • 8/20/2025, 9:08:25 AM  

    2 days ago
    8/20/2025, 7:51:08 AM

🎹 Set Your Own Shortcuts (Optional)

Want keyboard shortcuts? You can easily add your own:

1. Open Keyboard Shortcuts
2. Search for “Dev Time Machine”
3. Click the ➕ icon next to any command
4. Press your preferred key combination
5. Hit Enter to save

💡 Pro Tip: The Command Palette Cmd+Shift+P is fast and always works — no shortcuts needed! 🎉

🛡️ Safety Features

🔒 Zero Data Loss

• Before restore → Your current changes are automatically stashed
• If restore fails → Your original work is automatically recovered
• Smart detection → Ensures you never lose uncommitted changes

📁 Clean Organization

• Local storage → Snapshots saved in a .checkpoints/ folder
• Auto .gitignore → Snapshots never accidentally committed
• No conflicts → Works seamlessly alongside your normal Git workflow

🚀 Pro Tips

💡 Best Practices

• Save before experiments → Always snapshot before trying something new
• Use descriptive names → before-refactor is better than test
• Combine with Git → Use Dev Time Machine for experiments, Git for permanent history

🛠 Troubleshooting

• If something doesn’t work, open Command Palette and run “Dev Time Machine: Show Logs”
• Copy the logs and report the issue on the GitHub Issues page.

📄 License

MIT License - Use freely in personal and commercial projects.

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