chronocode

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

Demo

Demo

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
• Worktree support - automatically discovers and watches git worktrees (great for agentic workflows)
• 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.

Worktrees

Chronocode automatically discovers and watches git worktrees. This is especially useful for agentic coding workflows where tools like Claude Code spawn worktrees to work in parallel.

When you run chronocode inside a git repository, it runs git worktree list and watches all worktrees alongside the main directory. Worktree paths are always included in the recording, even if they would normally be excluded by .gitignore rules (a common setup when the worktrees parent directory is gitignored).

# Worktrees are watched by default — just run chronocode
chronocode

# Disable worktree watching
chronocode --no-worktrees

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
      --no-worktrees              Disable watching git worktrees
  -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