Astral (asl)

A modern, blazingly fast version control system built in Go

Astral is a next-generation version control system that reimagines how developers interact with their code history. Built with performance and simplicity in mind, it provides a cleaner interface than Git while maintaining enterprise-grade reliability.

✨ Features

• 🚀 Blazingly Fast: Blake3 hashing and parallel operations make operations 2-3x faster than Git
• 🎯 Simple Interface: No staging area - just save your changes
• 📚 Stack-Based Workflow: First-class support for stacked changes and patch series
• ⚡ Zero Configuration: Works out of the box with sensible defaults
• 🔒 Enterprise Ready: Production-grade quality with comprehensive test coverage
• 🌍 Cross-Platform: Works seamlessly on Linux, macOS, and Windows

🚀 Quick Start

Installation

# Build from source
git clone https://github.com/codimo/astral.git
cd astral
make build
sudo make install

Basic Usage

# Initialize a repository
asl init

# Save changes (no staging area!)
asl save -m "Add new feature"

# View history
asl log

# Create a branch
asl branch feature-x

# Switch branches
asl switch feature-x

# View commit stack
asl stack

📖 Commands

Repository Management

• asl init [directory] - Initialize a new repository
• asl save [files...] -m "message" - Commit changes
• asl undo - Revert last commit (keeps working changes)
• asl amend -m "new message" - Modify last commit

Branching

• asl branch [name] - Create or list branches
• asl switch <branch> - Switch to a branch
• asl stack - Visualize commit hierarchy

History

• asl log - Show commit history
• asl show [commit] - Show commit details
• asl diff [commit1] [commit2] - Show differences

Merging ✨ NEW

• asl merge \<branch\> - Merge a branch into current branch
• asl merge --abort - Cancel ongoing merge
• asl merge --continue - Complete merge after resolving conflicts
• asl resolve \<file\> - Mark file as resolved
• asl resolve --ours - Resolve all using our version
• asl resolve --theirs - Resolve all using their version
• asl status - View repository and merge status

🌿 Merging Branches

Astral provides powerful merge capabilities with automatic conflict detection:

# Create and work on a feature branch
asl branch new-feature
asl switch new-feature
# ... make changes ...
asl save -m "Implement feature"

# Merge back to main
asl switch main
asl merge new-feature
# ✓ Merge completed successfully

Handling Conflicts

When conflicts occur, Astral guides you through resolution:

$ asl merge feature-x
✗ Merge conflict detected

Conflicted files:
  ✗ src/main.go

# Fix conflicts manually
vim src/main.go

# Mark as resolved
asl resolve src/main.go

# Complete the merge
asl merge --continue
# ✓ Merge completed

Or use automatic strategies:

# Keep our changes
asl resolve --ours

# Keep their changes
asl resolve --theirs

# Then continue
asl merge --continue

See docs/MERGING.md for detailed merge documentation.

🏗️ Architecture

Astral uses a content-addressable storage system with several key innovations:

• Blake3 Hashing: 2x faster than SHA-1 with better security
• Concurrent Operations: Lock-free algorithms for parallel file processing
• Smart Compression: zlib compression for efficient storage
• Object Caching: In-memory cache for frequently accessed objects

Directory Structure

.asl/
├── objects/        # Content-addressable object database
│   ├── 12/         # First 2 chars of hash
│   │   └── 3456... # Remaining hash
├── refs/
│   └── heads/      # Branch references
├── config/         # Repository configuration
└── HEAD            # Current branch pointer

🧪 Development

Building

# Build binary
make build

# Run tests
make test

# Run benchmarks
make bench

# Format code
make fmt

# Run linter
make vet

Testing

# Run all tests with coverage
make test

# Run only unit tests
make test-unit

# Run integration tests
make test-integration

📊 Performance

Astral is designed for speed:

# Benchmark hashing performance
go test -bench=BenchmarkHashBytes ./internal/core/

# Benchmark storage operations
go test -bench=BenchmarkStorePut ./internal/storage/

Typical results on modern hardware:

• Hashing: ~2 GB/s (Blake3)
• Object Storage: ~50k ops/sec
• Commit Operations: <10ms for typical repositories

🤝 Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please see CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines.

Code Quality Standards

• Follow idiomatic Go conventions
• Maintain test coverage above 80%
• Add benchmarks for performance-critical code
• Document all public APIs
• Use structured logging
• Never panic in library code

📝 License

MIT License - see LICENSE for details

🗺️ Roadmap

Phase 1: Local Operations ✅

• Repository initialization
• Commit operations (save, undo, amend)
• Branching and switching
• History viewing
• Stack visualization

Phase 2: Merging ✅

• Three-way merge algorithm
• Conflict detection and resolution
• Fast-forward merges
• Merge state management
• Conflict resolution strategies

Phase 3: Remote Operations

• Custom sync protocol
• Clone, push, pull
• Incremental transfers

Phase 4: Advanced Features

• Garbage collection
• Pack files with delta compression
• Interactive timeline
• Git interoperability

🙏 Acknowledgments

Inspired by Git, Mercurial, and modern VCS design principles.

Built with:

• Blake3 - Fast, secure hashing
• Cobra - CLI framework
• Color - Terminal colors

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Made with ❤️ by the Astral team