Rewind

An AI-powered CLI tool that instantly tells you where you left off in your Git repository.

Run it, get briefed. No manual notes, no journals, fully automatic.

The Problem

You work on a feature, switch to a bugfix, leave for the weekend, and come back on Monday with no idea what you were doing. You start running git status, git log, git diff trying to reconstruct your train of thought.

The Solution

rewind analyzes your repository state (branch, recent commits, staged and unstaged changes) and feeds it to an LLM to give you a personalized, conversational briefing on what you were working on and what you left unfinished.

Demo & Screenshots

Video Demo:

Rewind in Action:

Commit Mode:

Installation

Option 1: Automatic Install Scripts (Recommended)

You do not need Rust or developer tools installed. These scripts will download the latest binary, place it in an appropriate folder (~/.local/bin for Unix, %USERPROFILE%\.rewind\bin for Windows), and automatically add it to your system's PATH.

Windows (PowerShell):

Invoke-WebRequest -Uri "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Chronos778/git-rewind/main/install.ps1" -OutFile "$env:TEMP\rewind_install.ps1"
powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File "$env:TEMP\rewind_install.ps1"

(If Windows Defender says it's "not safe to run" after installation, it's just because the binary is unsigned. Click "More info" -> "Run anyway", or use Option 2 below if you prefer to compile it yourself.)

Linux / macOS (Bash):

# Recommended: Download, inspect, and run
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Chronos778/git-rewind/main/install.sh -o install.sh
chmod +x install.sh
./install.sh

# Quick install:
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Chronos778/git-rewind/main/install.sh | bash

Option 2: Using Cargo (crates.io)

If you already have the Rust toolchain installed, you can compile and install it directly from crates.io. This bypasses the unsigned binary warning on Windows entirely since it compiles locally!

cargo install git-rewind

Option 3: Manual Pre-compiled Binaries

1. Go to the Releases page of this repository.
2. Download the archive for your operating system (.zip for Windows, .tar.gz for macOS/Linux).
3. Extract the rewind executable and add it to your PATH manually.

Configuration & Commands

By default, the first time you run rewind, it will launch an interactive setup prompting you to paste an API key. You can use the new config command to manually add, view, or remove multiple API keys:

# View your saved keys (redacted) and current models
rewind config show

# Add or change a specific provider's key
rewind config set groq gsk_123456789...
rewind config set gemini AIzaSyB...
rewind config set openai sk-proj-...

# Set a custom model for a provider
# (Useful if the default model is decommissioned or you want to use a newer one)
rewind config model groq llama-3.3-70b-versatile
rewind config model openai gpt-4o

# Customize the AI's personality or focus
rewind config system-prompt "You are a harsh code reviewer. Be critical."
# Clear the custom prompt
rewind config system-prompt

# Delete a key and model settings
rewind config clear openai

Local Configuration (.rewindrc)

You can override your global settings on a per-project basis. Just create a .rewindrc file (JSON format) in your repository root. This is particularly useful if you want to use a specific model or a custom system prompt for a particular codebase.

{
  "system_prompt": "You are a senior Rust developer. Focus on performance and safety.",
  "openai_model": "gpt-4-turbo"
}

Alternatively, rewind checks your environment variables for keys to several top providers:

To use Groq (insanely fast, generous free tier):

# Linux/macOS:
export GROQ_API_KEY="gsk_..."

# Windows PowerShell:
$env:GROQ_API_KEY="gsk_..."

To use Gemini (huge free tier, context window):

# Linux/macOS:
export GEMINI_API_KEY="AIza..."

# Windows PowerShell:
$env:GEMINI_API_KEY="AIza..."

To use OpenAI:

# Linux/macOS:
export OPENAI_API_KEY="sk-..."

# Windows PowerShell:
$env:OPENAI_API_KEY="sk-..."

(Note: If multiple keys are set, it prioritizes Groq > Gemini > OpenAI to help limit accidental costs).

Custom Models / Local LLMs (Ollama, vLLM)

You can override the API base and model used by setting these variables (works perfectly with local servers like Ollama!):

# Linux/macOS:
export OPENAI_API_BASE="http://localhost:11434/v1"
export OPENAI_MODEL="llama3-8b-8192"
export OPENAI_API_KEY="ignore" # If using a local tool that ignores keys

# Windows PowerShell:
$env:OPENAI_API_BASE="http://localhost:11434/v1"
$env:OPENAI_MODEL="llama3-8b-8192"
$env:OPENAI_API_KEY="ignore"

Usage

Simply navigate to any Git repository and run:

rewind

When you run rewind, it performs the following automatically:

1. Analyzes your Git state (branch, recent commits, staged and unstaged changes).
2. Sends the context to the configured LLM.
3. Prints a conversational brief about your repository.
4. Saves a copy of the brief to .rewind-brief.md in your current directory and adds it to your .gitignore.

Advanced Commands

rewind comes with several additional productivity tools built-in:

Generate a Commit Message
Automatically write a conventional commit message based on your staged/unstaged changes:

rewind commit

Ask Codebase Questions
Ask the AI a specific question about your uncommitted changes or recent work:

rewind ask "Did I finish implementing the user authentication?"

Token Estimation
Check how many tokens/characters your changes will consume before making an API call:

rewind estimate

Output Formatting
You can modify how rewind outputs data using flags:

# Output exactly 2 sentences maximum
rewind --short

# Output raw JSON for scripts to consume
rewind --json

# See the exact raw LLM prompt that is generated (skips API call)
rewind --dry-run

# Enable verbose mode to see exact API token usage telemetry and diagnostic info
rewind -v

Excluding Files (.rewindignore)

By default, rewind automatically excludes security files (.env, *.key) and massive dependency lockfiles (Cargo.lock, package-lock.json, etc.) to save your tokens.

If you have other auto-generated files or specific folders you want to hide from the AI, you can create a .rewindignore file in your repository:

# Example .rewindignore
dist/
*.svg

Global Ignore: You can also create a .rewindignore file in your home directory (~/.rewindignore) and those rules will be applied globally across all your repositories!

Maintenance Commands

# Update rewind to the latest version directly from GitHub Releases
rewind update

# Uninstall rewind and remove all stored configuration/keys
rewind uninstall