The world's first terminal undo and recovery system for VS Code. Run dangerous commands with confidence.

What is Ctrl Z Terminal?

Ctrl Z Terminal is a transactional recovery and undo engine for VS Code integrated terminals.

This is not command history. This is:

⏮ Terminal rollback — actually undo rm, mv, overwrite, and more
📸 Snapshot-based recovery — incremental, compressed workspace snapshots
🔴 Intelligent risk analysis — 40+ dangerous command patterns classified in real time
🛡️ Safety infrastructure — warns you before destruction happens

"I can finally trust my terminal."

Features

🔴 Risk Analysis Engine

Every command you run is scored 0–100 and classified:

Level	Score	Examples
🟢 SAFE	0–25	`ls`, `cat`, `echo`, `git status`
🟡 WARNING	26–50	`chmod`, `npm uninstall`, `kill`, `sed -i`
🟠 DANGEROUS	51–80	`rm`, `mv`, `git checkout --`, `docker rm`
🔴 CRITICAL	81–100	`rm -rf`, `git reset --hard`, `git clean -fd`, `dd`

📸 Smart Snapshot Engine

Before dangerous commands execute, Ctrl Z Terminal:

Scans your workspace
Hashes every file (only copies changed files — incremental)
Compresses snapshots with gzip
Stores everything locally in ~/.vscode/ctrl-z-terminal/

⏮ True Undo

Hit Ctrl+Shift+Z to undo the last dangerous command. Restores:

Deleted files
Overwritten content
Renamed files
Directory structures

🖥️ Recovery Timeline

A beautiful VS Code panel showing:

Every command with its risk level
Snapshot availability indicator
One-click undo / restore
Search and filter by risk level
Time-ago timestamps

🔒 100% Local & Private

Zero telemetry
No cloud dependency
All snapshots stored locally
Works fully offline

Installation

From VS Code Marketplace

Search for "Ctrl Z Terminal" in the Extensions panel, or:

ext install ctrl-z-terminal.ctrl-z-terminal

From Open VSX (Cursor, VSCodium, Windsurf)

Search for "Ctrl Z Terminal" in your editor's extensions panel.

From VSIX (manual)

code --install-extension ctrl-z-terminal-0.1.0.vsix

Usage

Ctrl Z Terminal activates automatically when VS Code starts.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Shortcut	Action
`Ctrl+Shift+Z` (Mac: `Cmd+Shift+Z`)	Undo last command
`Ctrl+Shift+T` (Mac: `Cmd+Shift+T`)	Open Recovery Timeline

Command Palette

Command	Description
`Ctrl Z Terminal: Undo Last Command`	Rollback to pre-command state
`Ctrl Z Terminal: Open Timeline`	Open Recovery Timeline panel
`Ctrl Z Terminal: Restore Snapshot`	Pick a snapshot to restore
`Ctrl Z Terminal: Analyze Command`	Analyze any command
`Ctrl Z Terminal: Cleanup Snapshots`	Enforce retention policies
`Ctrl Z Terminal: Toggle Monitoring`	Pause/resume monitoring

Shell Support

Shell	Integration Method	Status
bash	PROMPT_COMMAND + DEBUG trap	✅ Full
zsh	add-zsh-hook preexec/precmd	✅ Full
fish	fish_preexec/fish_postexec	✅ Full
PowerShell	PSReadLine + prompt wrap	✅ Full
cmd.exe	Best-effort output parsing	⚠️ Partial

Configuration

Open VS Code Settings (Ctrl+,) and search for ctrlZTerminal:

Setting	Default	Description
`ctrlZTerminal.enabled`	`true`	Enable/disable monitoring
`ctrlZTerminal.autoSnapshot`	`true`	Auto-snapshot before dangerous commands
`ctrlZTerminal.riskThreshold`	`WARNING`	Minimum risk level to trigger snapshot
`ctrlZTerminal.requireConfirmation`	`true`	Show dialog before dangerous commands
`ctrlZTerminal.excludeFolders`	`[node_modules, .git, ...]`	Folders excluded from snapshots
`ctrlZTerminal.ignoredCommands`	`[]`	Commands to skip analysis for
`ctrlZTerminal.snapshotRetentionDays`	`7`	Days to keep snapshots
`ctrlZTerminal.maxStorageMB`	`500`	Max snapshot storage in MB

How It Works

Terminal command → OSC 633 capture → Risk Engine → Safety Dialog?
                                                         ↓
                                               Snapshot Engine (if needed)
                                                         ↓
                                               Command executes
                                                         ↓
                                        Filesystem Tracker records changes
                                                         ↓
                                           Storage Engine saves record
                                                         ↓
                                          Recovery Timeline UI updated

Privacy & Security

✅ All data stored in VS Code's globalStorageUri (local machine only)
✅ No network requests ever made
✅ No analytics, no crash reporting, no telemetry
✅ Snapshots are automatically cleaned up per your retention settings
✅ The telemetry setting is permanently false

Publishing

See docs/PUBLISHING.md for full publishing instructions for both:

VS Code Marketplace
Open VSX Registry

Contributing

See docs/CONTRIBUTING.md.

Architecture

See docs/ARCHITECTURE.md for the full module dependency diagram and data flow.

Ctrl Z Terminal