Find any past version

Browse or search current and deleted files, then open their captured version timeline.

Built for a single-user Mac, DeltaSnap turns native APFS snapshots into Version Control for every file and folder. Delete the wrong thing, let an agent run wild, or break a project at 2am, and you can find the earlier version and put it back in seconds.

Secured by Polar · Signed & Notarised · macOS 15+

Why DeltaSnap

Before a risky update, AI-agent run, bulk edit, or project milestone, take a native APFS checkpoint. If something goes wrong, diff what changed and restore the files you need.

Browse or search current and deleted files, then open their captured version timeline.

Compare any two indexed snapshots and review added, removed, modified, replaced, or moved paths.

Restore a copy or replace one item behind a safety snapshot, never roll back the whole Mac.

Install the DeltaSnap skill so compatible agents create expiring checkpoints and verify their own changes.

In their own words

Notes from customers, early users, and the Mac community.

it looks like an interesting product that I think could be very useful. Nice work!

it makes me confident that my money was well spent :)

love it so far

Much appreciated really

looks exactly what I need so far.

This looks genuinely useful, and the APFS entitlement story is impressive.

The software itself is genuinely impressive. The idea, Finder integration, and overall execution are very good from what I’ve tested.

I just installed this and it looks good.

Thanks for crafting and sharing DeltaSnap; have been on the lookout for a better alternative to tmutil localsnapshot.

Check it out in the r/macapps launch thread.

Why it is this fast

Speed here is not an optimisation, it is the storage model. An APFS snapshot is copy-on-write metadata, so taking one copies nothing. It records the state of the filesystem and returns. Your history then lives on the same physical disk as the volume it captures, which is why getting a file back is a local copy rather than a trip to a backup destination.

Milliseconds

However much the volume holds. Cheap enough to do before every risky command, installer, bulk edit, or agent run, because there is never a reason to skip one.

No copy

A snapshot starts out sharing every block with the live volume. It only begins to cost space as the volume moves on from what it captured.

Always there

No backup disk to connect, no server to reach, no destination to wake or authenticate against. Every managed volume carries its own history.

The trade is the same thing that makes it fast. Snapshots share the volume, so they cannot survive that volume being lost, erased, or stolen. DeltaSnap is the fast layer, not the last one. Keep a real backup for that, and use DeltaSnap for the mistakes that happen far more often.

Works with what you already run

Your Mac is probably already carrying snapshots DeltaSnap did not create. Time Machine leaves local ones behind between backups; Carbon Copy Cloner, SuperDuper, and Arq each take their own before they copy. DeltaSnap treats them as ordinary history: mount them, compare them, and restore single files out of them, at no extra cost in space because they already exist.

Diff a Time Machine snapshot from this morning against a DeltaSnap checkpoint from ten minutes ago.

Pull a single file out of another app's snapshot without starting that app's full restore flow.

DeltaSnap never rotates, expires, or thins another tool's snapshots, and protects them from its own pruning by default.

One Track Volume switch per volume. Turn it off and DeltaSnap leaves that disk completely alone.

Built for AI-assisted work

An AI agent can rewrite, rename, or delete hundreds of files before you notice, and its reach can extend beyond committed source code to project assets, local configuration, documents, and untracked work. DeltaSnap gives the surrounding filesystem a checkpoint and an audit trail, so permission to act does not have to mean permission to make an irreversible mistake.

Git remains the right tool for source collaboration. DeltaSnap complements it by covering indexed files across the APFS volume, including work that is not committed to a repository.

The DeltaSnap skill creates an expiring safety snapshot and tags it with the agent, session, round, phase, and task.

After the edit, the skill creates a second checkpoint and runs dsnap diff to surface unexpected paths.

Search by file, preview earlier versions, restore a separate copy, or replace only the damaged item instead of rolling back everything.

Mass-change monitoring can flag unusually rapid activity and take an additional safety snapshot when the configured threshold is crossed.

Open-source Agent Skill

The same portable SKILL.md works with Claude Code,

Codex, Cursor, GitHub Copilot, Gemini CLI, and other skill-aware tools that can run local shell commands.

It never deletes snapshots it did not create and never attempts a whole-volume rollback.

# Claude Code /plugin marketplace add scaleninja/deltasnap /plugin install deltasnap@scaleninja # Universal install with GitHub CLI 2.90+ gh skill install scaleninja/deltasnap deltasnap \ --agent codex --scope user

Snapshots vs backups

Because snapshots, local backups, and remote backups solve different recovery problems. DeltaSnap is the fast local checkpoint layer: use it before risky changes, compare what changed, and recover files in seconds. Keep external and remote backups for hardware loss, theft, and disasters.

Practical setup: use DeltaSnap for fast local undo and inspection, keep an external backup for drive failure, and keep a remote or offsite backup for theft and disasters. These layers complement each other; none of them replaces all the others.

Features

Browse a union of live and deleted files, inspect versions, preview them, and restore a copy.

Find live or deleted files across managed volumes from the app, a global shortcut, or Spotlight.

Let compatible agents create tagged safety snapshots before and after risky change rounds, then diff the result.

Watch important folders and take a safety snapshot when changes arrive unusually fast.

Compare two indexed points with added, removed, modified, replaced, and moved paths.

Restore previous versions or create a safety snapshot without leaving Finder.

Rotate scheduled points, expire safety snapshots, protect keepers, and thin history under low space.

Inspect each snapshot's private size and the volume's snapshot usage alongside live disk activity and available SMART health data.

An inbox that never steals focus by default, and critical alerts or full activity digests emailed through your own mail server for unattended Macs.

Native where it matters

Snapshot data stays in APFS. DeltaSnap adds the searchable index, version timeline, snapshot tags, retention policy, activity and notification history, Finder surfaces, and signed helper that make those native checkpoints practical. File and folder synchronization lives in DeltaSync, the free DeltaSync companion app.

Inside the app

Version history, comparisons, Finder actions, monitoring, and an audit trail for every operation the background helper performs.

Command Line Interface

For developers, system administrators, and power users who miss ZFS storage ergonomics, the bundled dsnap CLI brings snapshot controls to macOS. List volumes, create snapshots, mount them for inspection, delete them deliberately, and diff from Terminal.

Safe automation checkpoints. Use dsnap snapshot --safety for auto-expiring agent or script checkpoints, then attach searchable text or JSON metadata with dsnap tag.

Relative snapshot references. Use HEAD for the newest snapshot and HEAD~1 for the previous one when comparing or mounting from scripts.

Automation-friendly. Use the CLI for repeatable list, APFS volume creation, snapshot, tag, mount, unmount, hold, unhold, destroy, schedule, index, license-status, and diff flows.

$ dsnap list -t container NAME USED AVAIL REFER MOUNT DEV ID disk3 182.4G 311.2G 182.4G - Contains data - $ dsnap create -o mountpoint=/Users/rohit/Documents disk3/Documents Created APFS volume "Documents" (disk3s6) on disk3. Persisted mount at /Users/rohit/Documents via /etc/fstab. $ dsnap list NAME USED AVAIL REFER MOUNT DEV ID data 152.4G 311.2G 152.4G /System/Volumes/Data /dev/disk3s5 6C2FB... documents 30.0G 311.2G 30.0G /Users/rohit/Documents /dev/disk3s6 D42CD... $ PRE=$(dsnap snapshot --safety documents@ai-pre-upgrade) $ dsnap tag "$PRE" '{"agent":"codex","phase":"pre"}' tagged documents@com.scaleninja.DeltaSnap.safety.2026-07-27T06-05-10Z.ai-pre-upgrade $ POST=$(dsnap snapshot --safety documents@ai-post-upgrade) $ dsnap diff "$PRE" "$POST" --format=tree Users/ rohit/ Documents/ + new-config.json M package.json DMGs/ - old-binary.dmg $ dsnap hold "$POST" held documents@com.scaleninja.DeltaSnap.safety.2026-07-27T06-08-42Z.ai-post-upgrade

From the Maker

My family wanted a simple way to sync folders from their Mac to a backup drive. That became DeltaSync, a free rsync GUI for people who should not have to learn command-line flags.

DeltaSnap answers the harder question behind the same support calls: my folks would move files and later ask where they went. AI agents made that question urgent on my own drives too, reaching well beyond committed source code into documents, media, and local config. Git cannot explain that blast radius. An APFS checkpoint and a filesystem diff can.

So I worked with Apple DTS/APFS team to obtain the APFS snapshot entitlement to build DeltaSnap - the deeper safety net while keeping DeltaSync simple.

Compare

Native snapshot tools, file-history browsers, project version-control apps, and backup systems overlap in different ways. Compare checkpoints, search, diffs, recovery, automation, and failure boundaries.

Backup, snapshots & recovery

Closest full-featured alternative

Read comparisonProject file version control

Direct workflow alternative

Read comparisonMac diagnostics & snapshot recovery

Direct snapshot-recovery alternative

Read comparisonOpen-source APFS auto-snapshots

Direct technical alternative

Read comparisonTime Machine history & recovery

Direct history-browser alternative

Read comparisonBuilt-in macOS backup

Essential baseline and complement

Read comparisonPrivacy

DeltaSnap has no analytics and no telemetry. It connects to the internet for two things only: activating or deactivating a license, and checking whether a new version exists. Turn on email notifications and it also talks to the mail server you choose, and nothing else. Snapshots, file names, indexes, and schedules never leave your machine. Activate with an offline license and it makes no licensing requests at all.

Legal

Exactly what DeltaSnap and DeltaSync send, and what never leaves your Mac.

Read policyDocs

Activate online in one step, or ask us for an offline license and never connect at all.

How activation worksLegal

The end user license agreement you accept when you first run DeltaSnap.

Read agreementSearch versions by file, checkpoint risky work, inspect what changed, and restore only what you need. DeltaSnap is the undo layer for your macOS volumes.