File Checkpoints

OpenOrca automatically creates file checkpoints before any file-modifying tool executes. This gives you a safety net to review and revert AI-made changes.

How It Works

When any of these tools run, OpenOrca snapshots the original file before the modification:

Tool	What's checkpointed
edit_file	The file being edited
write_file	The file being written (if it exists)
delete_file	The file being deleted
copy_file	The destination path (if it exists)
move_file	Both source and destination paths
multi_edit	All files being edited

Checkpoints are stored per-session in ~/.openorca/checkpoints/{sessionId}/ with a JSON manifest tracking all snapshots.

Commands

/checkpoint list

Show all checkpointed files for the current session with timestamps.

> /checkpoint list

Displays a table with file path, timestamp, and file size for each checkpoint.

/checkpoint diff <file>

Show the differences between the checkpointed (original) version and the current file.

> /checkpoint diff src/Program.cs

Outputs a unified diff showing what changed. Lines prefixed with - were in the original, lines with + are in the current version.

/checkpoint restore <file>

Restore a file to its checkpointed (original) state.

> /checkpoint restore src/Program.cs

This copies the checkpoint back to the original file path, effectively undoing all changes made during the session.

/checkpoint clear

Delete all checkpoints for the current session.

> /checkpoint clear

Storage

Checkpoints are stored at:

~/.openorca/checkpoints/
└── {sessionId}/
    ├── manifest.json           # Maps file paths to backup files
    └── {timestamp}_{hash}.bak  # Original file content

The manifest is a JSON array of entries:

[
  {
    "path": "src/Program.cs",
    "backupFile": "20260221120000_a1b2c3.bak",
    "timestamp": "2026-02-21T12:00:00Z",
    "sizeBytes": 4096
  }
]

Notes

• Each file is only checkpointed once per session — the first snapshot is preserved even if the file is modified multiple times
• Files that don't exist yet (new file creation) are not checkpointed
• Checkpoints persist across session restores — if you resume a session, previous checkpoints are still available
• Use /checkpoint clear or start a new session to clean up checkpoints