Git-Like Workflow

PT introduces a powerful git-like workflow for file version management, making it easy to track and manage changes across your project.

Workflow Overview

The workflow mirrors Git’s commands:

1. Check Status - See what files changed

2. Commit Changes - Backup all modified files

3. View History - List backups with comments

4. Compare Changes - Diff with previous versions

5. Rollback - Restore previous versions

Step-by-Step Workflow

1. Check File Status

See the status of all files in your project:

pt check

Output:

📊 PT Status (like git status)

myproject/
├── src/
│   ├── main.go (15.2 KB) [modified]
│   └── utils.go (3.4 KB)
├── config.json (2.1 KB) [new]
└── old_config.json (1.8 KB) [deleted]

Summary:
  1 modified
  1 new
  1 deleted

Use 'pt commit -m "message"' to backup all changes

Status colors:

• Green = Unchanged (matches last backup)

• Yellow = Modified (content changed)

• Cyan = New (no backup exists yet)

• Red = Deleted (backup exists but file gone)

2. Commit All Changes

Backup all modified and new files with a single command:

pt commit -m "Fixed authentication bug and updated config"

Output:

📦 Committing changes...

Files to backup:
  1. src/main.go [modified]
  2. config.json [new]

Commit 2 file(s) with message "Fixed authentication bug and updated config"? (y/N): y
✓ src/main.go
✓ config.json

📦 Commit Summary:
  ✓ 2 files backed up
  💬 Message: "Fixed authentication bug and updated config"

Commit Behavior:

• Only backs up modified and new files

• Skips unchanged files (no backup needed)

• All backups tagged with commit: message

• Confirmation prompt before backing up

3. View Commit History

See the history of a specific file:

pt -l src/main.go

Output:

📂 Backup files for 'src/main.go'
Total: 5 backup(s) (stored in .pt/)

┌──────────────────────────┬─────────────────────┬──────────┬────────────────────────────────┐
│ File Name                │ Modified            │     Size │ Comment                        │
├──────────────────────────┼─────────────────────┼──────────┼────────────────────────────────┤
│ 1. main_go.20251118...   │ 2025-11-18 14:12:41 │  50.5 KB │ commit: Fixed authentication   │
│ 2. main_go.20251118...   │ 2025-11-18 14:11:24 │  57.0 KB │ Working version before refactor│
│ 3. main_go.20251118...   │ 2025-11-18 13:43:01 │  52.6 KB │ commit: Initial implementation │
└──────────────────────────┴─────────────────────┴──────────┴────────────────────────────────┘

4. Compare Changes

See what changed in the latest commit:

pt -d src/main.go --last

This shows a beautiful side-by-side diff using delta.

5. Rollback if Needed

Restore the previous version:

pt -r src/main.go --last -m "Rolling back due to test failure"

Output:

✅ Successfully restored: src/main.go
📦 From backup: main_go.20251118_141124...
📄 Content size: 57046 characters
💬 Restore comment: "Rolling back due to test failure"

Workflow Use Cases

Daily Development

# Morning: Check what changed yesterday
pt check

# Commit all work with descriptive message
pt commit -m "Day's work: feature X and bugfixes"

# Continue working...

# Before risky changes: backup specific file
pt main.go -m "Before refactoring auth module"

# After changes: review diff
pt -d main.go --last

# If tests fail: rollback
pt -r main.go --last -m "Reverting due to test failures"

Configuration Management

# Update config with context
pt config.json -m "Production DB settings for v2.1"

# Later update for testing
pt config.json -m "Testing new cache timeout"

# View all config versions
pt -l config.json

# Compare configs
pt -d config.json --last

# Restore production config
pt -r config.json --last -m "Reverting to production"

Emergency Rollback

# Check what files were recently modified
pt check

# View history of problematic file
pt -l script.sh

# Quick rollback
pt -r script.sh --last -m "Emergency rollback"

Workflow Advantages

1. Zero Setup - No repository initialization needed

2. File-Level - Works on individual files, not entire directories

3. Lightweight - No .git directory bloat, only .pt with actual backups

4. Flexible - Mix file-level backups with project-wide commits

5. Contextual - Every change has a comment explaining why

6. Safe - Automatic backups before destructive operations

Comparison with Git

Feature	Git	PT
Setup	git init required	None needed
Scope	Entire repository	Per-file + project
Storage	.git directory	.pt directory
Comments	Commit messages	Per-backup comments
Learning Curve	Steep	Very simple
Best For	Code projects	Files, configs, snippets, notes

PT complements Git - use Git for code collaboration and PT for quick local version control of files, configurations, and snippets.