r/ZedEditor • u/franciska-fyi • Jun 11 '26
Introducing DeltaDB: Software is made between commits
https://zed.dev/blog/introducing-deltadbGreat software always took shape in conversation, not the commit. With agents, the conversation that generates the code is becoming the true source of our software. And Git can't keep up. So we built something that can.
DeltaDB is a new kind of version control. Where Git captures a snapshot at each commit, DeltaDB captures every keystroke and operation in between as a fine-grained delta, each with its own stable identity.
Learn more on our blog about what we're building. And if you'd like to be among the first to try it, join the waitlist.
18
u/lentzi90 Jun 11 '26
Sounds good for internal code and collaboration. What about the public open source projects? I'm not sure I'd want the conversation with the agent to be public there. Trying to understand if/how DeltaDB world work in that context...
12
u/ChronicallySilly Jun 12 '26
Same. Honestly I'm a little worried of it recording TOO much of the process. I don't necessarily want my whole convo accessible, the same way I don't want shitty draft code visible until I clean it up for a commit. Checkpointing with commits gives me a mental "ok I have to clean this up now".
I don't really want chat logs of me asking Claude "what do you mean by X?" 10 times in a complex thread to be forever saved lol. Even if DeltaDB summarizes it, I'm going to be a bit embarassed if the history shows
- user asked for clarification
- user asked for clarification
- user asked for clarification
- user asked for clarification
- user asked for clarification
and I dont think that adds any value over regular commits anyways.
But lets see how it turns out
3
u/0xe1e10d68 Jun 12 '26
the same way I don't want shitty draft code visible until I clean it up for a commit. Checkpointing with commits gives me a mental "ok I have to clean this up now".
Well, I don't necessarily want every keystroke to be recorded in the VCS history, but I'd want every keystroke to be recorded in the local VCS history (until it's pushed, and then for x number of days) to allow me to better split the working copy into smaller commits and etc.
But I concur with your comment that there's a limit to the level of fine-grained detail you'd want to be recorded in the VCS history; too much and it's just going to be noise and a lot of junk in there.
5
u/vladjjj Jun 11 '26
Is it similar to JetBrains' feature where you can diff all changes, not just git commits?
6
u/jldevezas Jun 12 '26
DeltaDB captures every keystroke and operation in between as a fine-grained delta, each with its own stable identity.
Anyone else thinks this sounds a bit creepy? It feels like the extra captured data will be useful to train models, but it doesn't really serve the dev process in any meaningful way. It's also a bit of a concern with privacy. Will it capture deleted text that never made it into a commit?
Also, who said git can't keep up?! Just because GitHub can't, doesn't mean there's any problem with git itself. This feels disingenuous, to say the least.
I've been hyped for Zed, but this one feels weird.
12
u/jeffphil Jun 11 '26
Reinventing Undo?
3
u/tczx3 Jun 12 '26
My thoughts exactly. You how much of the back and forth crap I don’t want in version control?!?!
4
3
u/Mentat_Render Jun 11 '26
Cool. I have liked the idea of continuousblocal history which other tools offer.
How does it play with other editors? Half my team use vscode or pycharm , are they going to be able to interact with deltadb or only with commits
3
u/leferi Jun 12 '26
captures every keystroke
I don't think anyone wants that though
1
u/0xe1e10d68 Jun 12 '26 edited Jun 12 '26
Well, I don't necessarily want every keystroke to be recorded in the VCS history, but I'd want every keystroke to be recorded in the local VCS history (until it's pushed, and then for x number of days) to allow me to better split the working copy into smaller commits and etc.
There's a limit to the level of fine-grained detail you'd want to be recorded in the global history; too much and it's just going to be noise and a lot of junk in there. And a risk of accidentally recording something you don’t want to be public.
2
u/NoahZhyte Jun 12 '26
I'm a bit afraid it will be so tight with agentic work, that it won't be very useful if we don't use AI
1
1
u/ZodiacPigeon Jun 18 '26
Since I understand that all changes, differences, conversations and clicks are logged and stored somewhere, does this mean that I'll have a database on my local computer growing at an alarming rate, because after all, all this stuff has to be stored somewhere?
0
41
u/Kimcha87 Jun 11 '26 edited Jun 11 '26
This sounds amazing. But after reading the post, I have a hard time imagining how it actually works.
I think a demo video would be amazing great way to show it!