Files

Use TimeTravel

Inspect, compare, and recover the history of files in a project.

What TimeTravel is for

TimeTravel lets you inspect how a file changed over time. It is useful for recovering work, understanding how a result was produced, reviewing student engagement, and comparing edits without manually creating commits.

Open TimeTravel

  1. Open a file in the project.
  2. Open the View menu.
  3. Choose TimeTravel.
  4. Browse versions, diffs, and recovery options.

TimeTravel is especially useful for notebooks, LaTeX files, Markdown, code, and course assignments.

How to think about it

TimeTravel can show multiple history sources for the same file. In addition to CoCalc's high-resolution edit history, it can browse Git revisions when the file is in a Git repository, and it can also expose snapshots and backups when those are available. Use the Git browser when you want to inspect full commits across a repository; use TimeTravel when you want a fast, file-focused slider through the versions of the file you are editing.

Why this matters in CoCalc

CoCalc projects are collaborative and durable. TimeTravel makes that durability visible: you can understand how work evolved, recover from mistakes, and support teaching workflows where the process matters as much as the final file.