devstash

Backup before you format. Restore after you install. Never lose your dev setup again.

Why?

Formatting your laptop shouldn't mean losing years of shell history, custom configs, or workflow state. devstash preserves the invisible parts of your dev environment — the stuff that takes months to rebuild.

It's used exactly twice per format cycle: once to backup, once to restore.

Quick Start

Windows (one-click)

git clone https://github.com/divyamohan1993/devstash.git
cd devstash
start.bat

Double-click start.bat — it installs dependencies, builds, finds an open port, and opens the GUI in your browser. That's it.

To stop: close the window or run stop.bat.

Manual

git clone https://github.com/divyamohan1993/devstash.git
cd devstash
pnpm install
pnpm build
node dist/cli.js gui

Opens at http://localhost:51877 (auto-increments if occupied).

Modules

Shell History — devstash history

Detects and backs up command history from every shell on your system.

Supported: Bash, Zsh, Fish, PowerShell, Nushell, Git Bash

devstash history detect                    # See what shells you have
devstash history backup                    # Backup all shell histories
devstash history backup -s bash powershell # Backup specific shells
devstash history list                      # List available backups
devstash history restore <backup-dir>      # Restore (merge mode)
devstash history restore <backup-dir> -m overwrite  # Restore (overwrite)

Claude Memory — devstash claude

Backs up Claude Code's configuration, learned project context, and reference docs.

What it preserves:

• ~/.claude/CLAUDE.md (global instructions)
• ~/.claude/settings.json (plugins, env vars, permissions)
• ~/.claude/projects/*/memory/MEMORY.md (per-project learned context)
• ~/.claude/reference/* (reference docs)
• Plugin manifests (installed list, blocklist, marketplaces)

What it skips: Credentials, session data, telemetry, cache — anything ephemeral or security-sensitive.

devstash claude detect                     # See what can be backed up
devstash claude backup                     # Backup Claude Code memory
devstash claude list                       # List available backups
devstash claude restore <backup-dir>       # Restore (merge — smart MEMORY.md merge)
devstash claude restore <backup-dir> -m overwrite  # Restore (full replace)

Smart merge: In merge mode, MEMORY.md files are merged by ## Section heading — new sections from the backup are appended, existing sections are left untouched.

GUI

The web GUI (devstash gui) provides:

• Dashboard — detected shells, total backups, commands saved, vault size
• Backups — create, compress, restore, delete backups with per-shell detail
• Explorer — browse vault contents including inside zip archives

All data persists in a local SQLite database (vault/devstash.db).

How It Works

1. Backup: Copies shell history files into a timestamped directory in vault/
2. Compress: Optionally zips the backup (crash-safe: writes to .tmp, verifies, then renames)
3. Restore: Reads backup and writes history back to the correct shell paths (merge or overwrite)
4. DB: Tracks backup metadata (shells, file counts, sizes, compression stats) — no logging, no tracking, just the data you need

Tech Stack

• Node.js + TypeScript (ESM)
• Commander.js (CLI)
• better-sqlite3 (local DB, WAL mode)
• tsup (bundler)
• Pure HTML/CSS/JS GUI (no frameworks, no CDN)

Development

start.bat           # Full dev environment with live reload
# OR manually:
pnpm dev            # Watch mode — rebuilds on src/ changes
pnpm dev:gui        # Server with auto-restart on dist/ changes

start.bat runs both — edit TypeScript, it rebuilds and restarts. Edit HTML, refresh the browser.

Roadmap

• SSH key backup/restore
• Git config preserver (.gitconfig, aliases, hooks)
• VS Code extensions snapshot
• Dotfiles manager (.bashrc, .zshrc, shell configs)
• Cron/scheduled tasks backup
• Package list snapshot (brew, apt, choco, winget, pnpm global)
• Browser bookmarks backup
• Cloud sync (encrypted backup to S3/R2/GCS)

License

MIT