Structural version control for a working tree of source files.

Where tree-sitter can parse a file, astvcs stores an abstract syntax tree and diffs and merges structural edits. Other paths are stored as UTF-8 text with a line-oriented diff, or as binary bytes when the content is not valid UTF-8.

The structural diff and merge engine is what astvcs is built around. It ships as a standalone local-first CLI under .astvcs/, and as optional Git merge/diff drivers that call the same engine inside an existing Git repo (see docs/git-integration.md).

astvcs is a local-first CLI: you work in a normal directory, and the tool tracks changes under .astvcs/ using content-addressed states, a timeline, branches, and remotes. Command names follow the usual vocabulary (init, status, commit, branch, merge, fetch, and so on).

The goal is version control that understands code structure where parsing succeeds, so innocuous edits (a new doc comment, a moved function) do not always show up as a line cascade.

• Not a drop-in Git replacement. The standalone CLI uses its own .astvcs/ store, not a .git object database, and has no git wire protocol or bidirectional sync with git remotes.
• No conflict markers in the standalone CLI. Overlapping edits are reported; you resolve with merge --resolve path:ours|theirs or fix the tree before continuing.
• Not a hosted service. Network sync is something you run yourself (serve, file paths, HTTP, HTTPS, or SSH).

Optional Git merge and diff drivers (astvcs-merge-driver, astvcs-diff-driver) are the same engine without .astvcs/ or a migration. Setup: docs/git-integration.md. import-git is a one-way aid: it snapshots git HEAD into a single astvcs commit when migrating a tree. See the import-git row in commands.md.

A line diff often rewrites every line below an insertion. Where tree-sitter parses a file, astvcs aligns nodes between versions and classifies edits. Prepending a doc comment to lib.rs can produce one intent instead of a cascade:

--- lib.rs
+++ lib.rs
intents:
  [0] prepend comment

Three-way merge applies both sides when alignment finds disjoint structural edits. Overlapping edits on the same node (for example, two renames of one identifier) are structural conflicts; the repository stays unchanged until you pass merge --resolve path:ours|theirs for each conflicted path.

Default diffs use compact intent labels and keep internal node IDs hidden. Pass --details for raw mutations and complete structural diagnostics, or -v for the same details plus operational notices.

To inspect how nodes were paired, run astvcs diff --view (optionally with a path, --staged, --state, or three-way flags). It opens a local HTML page on the change summary, with next and previous change navigation and lazy unchanged branches. The page uses the real alignment export, not a mock overlay:

Contributor Agent Skills live under .cursor/skills/ (astvcs-develop, astvcs-output-ux, astvcs-structural-diff-merge, astvcs-add-tree-sitter-language, astvcs-integration-tests).

Standalone CLI (requires a built binary or a release download). Set author identity once (or use ASTVCS_AUTHOR_NAME / ASTVCS_AUTHOR_EMAIL):

cargo build --release

./target/release/astvcs identity set --name "You" --email you@example.com
./target/release/astvcs init
# edit files in the repo root
./target/release/astvcs status
./target/release/astvcs add .
./target/release/astvcs commit -m "describe the change"
./target/release/astvcs log

On Windows the release binary is target\release\astvcs.exe. The same build also produces astvcs-merge-driver and astvcs-diff-driver.

Git drivers only: build or install the three binaries, then follow docs/git-integration.md (.gitattributes + git config). No astvcs init required.

Use --repo <path> to target another directory (parent directories are searched when .astvcs is not at that path). Pass --details for structural diagnostics, -v / --verbose for those details plus operational notice: lines on stderr, or --json for structured JSON errors on failure.

Run all example fixtures non-interactively: ./examples/run-demos.sh.

Prebuilt binaries for Linux and Windows are on GitHub Releases.

Extract the archive, put the binaries on your PATH, then verify:

astvcs --version

Archives from the first release that ships Git drivers include astvcs, astvcs-merge-driver, and astvcs-diff-driver. The v0.1.0 archives contain only the main astvcs binary.

Requires Rust 1.96+ (edition 2024) and a C toolchain for tree-sitter native dependencies.

cargo build --release
cargo test
cargo clippy --all-targets --all-features -- -D warnings

CI runs the same checks on ubuntu-latest and windows-latest for every push to main and every pull request. Release build outputs: astvcs, astvcs-merge-driver, and astvcs-diff-driver under target/release/ (.exe on Windows).

In scope today

• AST diff and three-way merge for supported languages; text and binary fallback for everything else; change-first diff --view HTML viewer
• Optional Git merge/diff drivers (astvcs-merge-driver, astvcs-diff-driver) for existing Git repos (docs/git-integration.md)
• Staging index (add, diff --staged), branches, lightweight tags, author identity
• reset (soft, mixed, hard), revert, rebase, cherry-pick, stash, blame, bisect on linear first-parent history
• Remotes over local path, HTTP, HTTPS, or SSH; optional bearer auth; TLS on serve; shallow clone / fetch with --depth
• Per-path merge resolution; client hooks (.astvcs/hooks/; --no-verify on selected commands)
• gc, fsck, repack; symlink and executable file modes; path rename detection in status/diff/merge
• Repository advisory locking; concurrent HTTP serve reads while writes serialize

Out of scope today

• Git object compatibility, full git history import, or bidirectional git sync (drivers reuse merge/diff only; they do not replace Git history)
• Conflict markers written into standalone-CLI merges; interactive rebase editor; annotated tags
• Entity-level merge (Weave-style name+scope matching); managed hosting; DAG bisect; merge-heavy bisect paths

Unsupported extensions and parse failures fall back to text blobs; astvcs prints warning: to stderr when that happens.

This project is licensed under the MIT License.