Commands

`lhi init [PATH]`

Initialize a .lhi/ directory for a project. Creates .lhi/blobs/ and adds .lhi/ to .gitignore if one exists. Safe to run multiple times (idempotent).

`lhi activate`

Prints a shell hook script to stdout. Designed to be eval’d in your shell rc file:

eval "$(lhi activate)"

The hook:

Overrides cd, pushd, and popd to detect .lhi/ projects
Walks up parent directories (so cd ~/project/src/deep activates ~/project)
Starts lhi watch in the background for each new project entered
Tracks multiple concurrent watchers (one per project root)
Re-launches a watcher if its process dies
Logs watcher errors to ~/.lhi-watch.log and warns on failed launches
Kills all watchers on shell exit (EXIT trap)

Shell-specific implementations are emitted for portability:

bash — uses a newline-delimited string to track watchers (compatible with bash 3.2 on macOS)
zsh — uses native typeset -A associative arrays with zsh syntax

To manually stop all watchers and remove the hook, run _lhi_deactivate in your shell.

Supports bash and zsh. Fish support is planned.

`lhi watch [PATH]`

Watch a directory for file changes. Records every create, modify, and delete to .lhi/.

Options:
  -v, --verbose  Print events as JSON to stdout

Runs in the foreground (blocking). Useful for troubleshooting or one-off use. The lhi activate shell hook uses this command internally.

On first run, captures a baseline snapshot of all existing files. Respects .gitignore. Debounces rapid writes (100ms window). Files over 10MB are skipped.

`lhi log [FILE]`

Show change history. When filtered to a single file, shows ~N revision numbers (~1 = newest).

Options:
  --since <DURATION>  Filter by time (e.g. 5m, 1h, 2d)
  --branch <NAME>     Filter by git branch
  --json              Output as JSON
  -f, --follow        Continuously watch for new entries (like tail -f)

When git branch tracking is available, each entry shows the branch it was recorded on.

With --follow, prints existing history then polls for new index entries every 500ms. Combines with --since, --branch, and file filters. Press q to stop (or Ctrl+C).

`lhi cat <TARGET> [~N]`

Print the content of a stored file version. Accepts a hash (or short prefix), a file path (shows latest), or a file path with ~N revision.

lhi cat a1b2c3d4          # by hash prefix
lhi cat src/main.rs        # latest version
lhi cat src/main.rs ~3     # 3rd most recent

When stdout is a terminal, output is syntax-highlighted with line numbers and a grid border (powered by bat). The language is auto-detected from the filename in the index. When piped, raw content is emitted for composability.

`lhi diff <ARG1> [ARG2] [ARG3]`

Show a unified diff between file versions. Supports multiple forms:

lhi diff a1b2c3d4 e5f6a7b8   # two hash prefixes
lhi diff src/main.rs ~3 ~1    # file with two revisions
lhi diff src/main.rs ~5       # revision vs current file on disk
lhi diff src/main.rs          # latest stored vs current disk

When stdout is a terminal, the diff is rendered with syntax highlighting. If delta is installed, it is used automatically for rich side-by-side output. Otherwise, falls back to bat’s Diff syntax highlighting. When piped, standard unified diff format is emitted.

`lhi search <QUERY>`

Search through stored file contents for a text pattern (case-insensitive).

Options:
  --file <PATH>  Search only versions of this file

Searches each unique blob once. When stdout is a terminal, matching lines are shown with syntax-highlighted context (2 lines above and below), line numbers, and highlighted match lines. When piped, plain text output is emitted.

`lhi info`

Show storage statistics: index entries, files tracked, blob count, blob size, and total .lhi/ disk usage.

`lhi restore [FILE] [~N]`

Restore files to a previous state. Supports multiple modes:

lhi restore src/main.rs ~5           # single file to revision
lhi restore src/main.rs --at a1b2    # single file to specific hash
lhi restore --at a1b2c3d4            # all files to that moment
lhi restore --before 5m              # all files to 5 minutes ago

Options:
  --at <HASH>    Restore to the moment a specific hash was recorded
  --before <TIME>  Restore to before a time (5m, 1h, 14:30, ISO 8601)
  --dry-run        Preview without making changes
  --json           Output as JSON

Compares stored hashes against current disk state — only overwrites files that actually changed. Restores Unix file permissions. Deletes files that didn’t exist at the target time.

`lhi snapshot [--label <LABEL>]`

Capture a full project snapshot. Useful before risky changes.

`lhi compact`

Compact the index to keep only the latest entry per file. Reduces .lhi/index.jsonl size.

Keyboard shortcuts

lhi