chronocode

Record and replay file system changes in real-time. A TUI for watching AI agents (or yourself) build projects.

Install

cargo install chronocode

Or download a prebuilt binary from Releases.

Usage

# Watch the current directory
chronocode

# Watch a specific directory
chronocode /path/to/project

# Show hidden files, update every 500ms
chronocode -a -i 0.5

Press q to quit. Every session is automatically recorded.

When you exit, you get a shareable command and the viewer opens in your browser:

Session summary:
  Duration: 5m 12s
  Events:  23 created, 8 modified, 2 deleted

Recording saved: recordings/recording_20260207_191500.json (33 events)

Share this recording:
  chronocode --load eJy0zTEOgCAQBdDe...

Features

• Real-time file tree with emoji icons, sizes, and line counts
• Change detection - created, modified, and deleted files highlighted with deltas
• Statistics dashboard - session duration, event rate, file/dir counts, activity sparkline, extension breakdown
• Automatic recording - every session is saved as JSON for replay
• Web replay viewer - timeline scrubbing, content preview, diff view, LOC counts
• Shareable recordings - compress a recording and send it as a single command
• Gitignore support - respects .gitignore by default
• Search/filter - press / to search files by name
• Scrolling - j/k, g/G, PageUp/Down, Ctrl+d/u with position indicator
• Collapsible folders in the web viewer

Keyboard shortcuts

Recording

Sessions are recorded automatically to recordings/ in the watched directory.

# Disable recording
chronocode --no-record

# Record to a specific file
chronocode -r mysession.json

# Include file contents (enables preview/diff in the viewer)
chronocode -c

# Don't auto-open the viewer when session ends
chronocode --no-open

Replay

Web viewer

Open the viewer and drop a recording JSON onto it:

chronocode --viewer

Or use the link that auto-opens when a session ends.

Controls: Space play/pause, Arrow keys step, R reset, P toggle preview, S share, click folders to collapse.

Terminal replay

chronocode --replay recordings/session.json
chronocode --replay session.json --replay-speed 3.0

Share a recording

# Generate a shareable command
chronocode --share recordings/session.json
# Output: chronocode --load eJy0zTEOgCAQBdDe...

# Load a shared recording (opens the web viewer)
chronocode --load eJy0zTEOgCAQBdDe...

The --load command contains the entire recording (compressed), so the recipient only needs the chronocode binary.

Generate from git history

Create a recording from git commits without running a live session:

# From a single commit (diff from its parent)
chronocode --git abc123

# From a range of commits
chronocode --git abc123..def456

# From a commit to HEAD
chronocode --git abc123..

The recording is saved to recordings/ and the viewer opens automatically.

Options

Usage: chronocode [OPTIONS] [PATH]

Arguments:
  [PATH]  Directory to watch [default: .]

Options:
  -a, --all                       Show hidden files and directories
  -i, --interval <SECONDS>        Refresh interval [default: 0.25]
  -f, --max-files <N>             Max files shown per directory
  -d, --max-depth <N>             Max tree depth
      --no-gitignore              Disable gitignore filtering
      --no-stats                  Hide statistics dashboard
      --no-record                 Disable automatic recording
      --no-open                   Don't auto-open the viewer on exit
  -r, --record <FILE>             Record to a specific file
  -c, --content                   Include file contents in recording
      --replay <FILE>             Replay a recorded session
      --replay-speed <SPEED>      Replay speed multiplier [default: 1]
      --viewer                    Open the web replay viewer
      --share <FILE>              Generate a shareable command from a recording
      --load <DATA>               Load a shared recording and open the viewer
      --git <SPEC>                Generate a recording from git commits
  -V, --version                   Print version
  -h, --help                      Print help

Building from source

git clone https://github.com/dylangarcia/chronocode.git
cd chronocode
cargo build --release

The binary is at target/release/chronocode.

License

MIT