VerZanctuary - Safe Code Experimentation

Important Notice Regarding Robokeys Limited

Please note that as of March 2026, the commercial entity Robokeys Limited has been disolved.

The Software Lives On

This administrative change does not affect the availability or development of the open-source projects. Ownership and maintenance of the code repositories (including the Robokeys platform) have been transferred to Rob Deas, who will continue to lead development and support the community.

Commercial Enquiries

Commercial support and consulting remains available directly through Rob Deas. s.

The Fear That Kills Innovation

Every developer has been there. You want to experiment, but you're paralyzed by the fear of breaking something:

🤖 AI Refactors

"What if the AI suggestion breaks everything?"

🧪 Experimental Code

"I want to try this, but what if I can't get back?"

📊 Messy Git History

"I don't want experimental branches cluttering my repo"

⏰ Quick Saves

"I just need a snapshot before I try this risky change"

The result? Developers who stop experimenting. Innovation dies.

How VerZanctuary Works

VerZanctuary creates isolated, timestamped snapshots of your code in a hidden .sanctuary folder—a real Git repo managed entirely separately from your working one.

$ verz create -s working_state -m "Before experimental refactor"

✅ Created sanctuary: auto-20250612-1034-17-001

📍 Location: .myproject.sanctuary/

$ verz list

🏛️ Available sanctuaries:

  auto-20250612-1034-17-001 (working_state) - Before experimental refactor

  auto-20250612-0915-23-002 (end_of_day) - Clean state before weekend

$ verz checkout auto-20250612-1034-17-001 --browse

🔍 Opened sanctuary in browse mode (read-only)

📂 Location: /tmp/verz-browse-1034/

Isolated Snapshots

Each sanctuary is completely separate from your main repo

Clean Git History

No experimental branches cluttering your main repository

Safe Experimentation

Try anything knowing you can instantly restore

Git-Backed Safety

Real version control under the hood, not just file copies

Perfect For

🤖 AI-Assisted Development

Create a sanctuary before letting AI refactor your code. If the suggestions break something, instantly restore your working state.

$ verz create -m "Before AI refactor"

# Let AI make changes

$ verz diff # See what changed

$ verz checkout previous # Restore if needed

🧪 Risky Experiments

Want to try a major architectural change? Create a sanctuary and experiment fearlessly.

$ verz create -s architecture_experiment

# Make radical changes

$ verz list # See all your experiments

$ verz cleanup --keep=5 # Clean up old ones

📆 End-of-Day Saves

Create a clean checkpoint at the end of each day. Never lose a day's work to a bad morning decision.

$ verz create -s end_of_day

# Next morning, something goes wrong

$ verz checkout end_of_day

✅ Back to yesterday's clean state

🔍 Safe Code Review

Browse different versions side-by-side without affecting your working directory.

$ verz checkout old_version --browse

# Opens read-only copy in /tmp

# Compare with current version

# No risk of accidental changes

Built for Safety

🔒 Lock System

Every operation is protected by locks to prevent corruption from parallel invocations.

🛡️ Pre-commit Hooks

Browse workspaces are read-only by default. You can't accidentally commit experimental code.

⚡ Clikt-Powered CLI

Clean, intuitive commands with power-user flexibility:

verz create                # Take a snapshot

verz list                  # List all snapshots

verz checkout <branch>     # Restore a snapshot

verz diff <branch>         # See what's changed

verz cleanup --keep=10     # Keep recent, remove old

verz lock status           # Check lock status

🎯 Smart Defaults

Works out of the box, but configurable for power users with flags like --no-git, --lab, --browse, and --ignore-locks.

Stop Fearing Experiments

VerZanctuary gives you the safety net you need to innovate fearlessly

View on GitHub Enterprise Solutions

Open source under Apache 2.0 license • Built with Kotlin and Clikt