mbbill

undotree

Vim Script2013–2026

mbbill / undotree

undotree

The undo history visualizer for VIM

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20Distinct people

21Mentions

1Explicit recommenders

4.6KGitHub stars

REPOSITORY AT A GLANCE

What to know before exploring

What it is

The undo history visualizer for VIM

GitHub

Where it is used

No documented product use was verified in the last source check.

What people are saying

Yeah. I love vim's persistent undo. Combine that with the undotree[0] plugin and you never have to worry about losing changes. It would be really hard for me to switch to an…

chongli used a recommendation phrase. One indexed comment matches. This is a phrase match, not a verdict.

No classified warning is attached to this page. Read the discussions before treating silence as approval.

Also in these discussions

No other repository is repeatedly linked in the same discussions.

This week on Hacker News

Nov 7–Nov 14 UTC · Direct repository links and separately labeled related project stories. Indexed through 11/14/2026, 5:04:57 PM UTC.

No direct repository links were found in the indexed HN discussions over the past seven days. Older discussions are available below.

Mentions over time

HN mentions by year21 dated mentions

Observed mentions: 2013-02-19 20:31:44 UTC to 2026-06-11 23:18:38 UTC.

* An incomplete calendar period is marked with an outlined bar. Its count is not directly comparable with a full period.

Counts come from the repository’s dated source evidence. Index cutoff: 2026-11-02 08:16:59 UTC.

View mention counts and date ranges

UTC ranges include their start and exclude their end. Select a period to filter the source evidence.
Period	Start (UTC)	End (exclusive, UTC)	Mentions	Submissions	Comments
2013	2013-01-01 00:00:00 UTC	2014-01-01 00:00:00 UTC	1	1	0
2014	2014-01-01 00:00:00 UTC	2015-01-01 00:00:00 UTC	0	0	0
2015	2015-01-01 00:00:00 UTC	2016-01-01 00:00:00 UTC	0	0	0
2016	2016-01-01 00:00:00 UTC	2017-01-01 00:00:00 UTC	0	0	0
2017	2017-01-01 00:00:00 UTC	2018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC	4	0	4
2018	2018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC	2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC	1	0	1
2019	2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC	2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC	0	0	0
2020	2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC	2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC	0	0	0
2021	2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC	2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC	3	0	3
2022	2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC	2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC	5	0	5
2023	2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC	2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC	3	0	3
2024	2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC	2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC	2	0	2
2025	2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC	2026-01-01 00:00:00 UTC	0	0	0
2026 (partial)	2026-01-01 00:00:00 UTC	2027-01-01 00:00:00 UTC	2	0	2

What Hacker News says

21 sources

jolmg·Jun 11, 2026

> I'm not sure what you mean "set up as a tree" wrt undo :h undo-branches There's also a plugin to show a visualization of the tree, but the tree is implemented within vim. https://github.com/mbbill/undotree

In Emacs appearances in pop culture

sodapopcan·Feb 17, 2026

I find it impossible to use without a plugin. I use https://github.com/mbbill/undotree and map it to `U` since I realized I never use `U` and it's easy to remember. https://github.com/sjl/gundo.vim/ is also popular but I like that the former is in pure vimscript (and the interface is a lil' better IMO).

In Undo in Vi and Its Successors

mijoharas·Oct 31, 2024

I'm also in the emacs camp, but no-one seems to have addressed your undo-tree requirement in the comments I've seen! There seems to be an undo-tree vim package that looks like what you want here[0] so you could check that out? [0] https://github.com/mbbill/undotree

In Ask HN: Alternative to Emacs with undo-tree functionality?

mintplant·Jul 10, 2024

Similarly, I have unlimited persistent per-file undo turned on in Neovim. I can open any file I've edited previously and walk through the full history of how it got there. With Undotree [0], I can even navigate branching paths in development. I don't know how people live without this. [0] https://github.com/mbbill/undotree

In Zed on Linux Is Here

greentea23·Dec 12, 2023

https://github.com/mbbill/undotree

In Text Editor Data Structures: Rethinking Undo

sureglymop·Jun 18, 2023

What's helped me much more lately is undotree for vim [1]. It basically logs every single time a file is saved. Its much more useful because commits have to be made by humans and they may not do it often (and usually there is an incentive for "clean or working commits"). There have been many times where I went back to copy something from the undotree. [1]: https://github.com/mbbill/undotree

In Gitless: A simple VCS built on top of Git

RMPR·Jan 7, 2023

> I really hate autosave. I like using saving like a checkpoint where i have the ultimate undo button by ditching the unsaved changes. Although I don't use autosave, I don't think it matters that much with vim because you can always use undotree[0] 0: https://github.com/mbbill/undotree

In Tell HN: Vim users, `:x` is like `:wq` but writes only when changes are made

Lio·Nov 11, 2022

Vim has plugins for that. ;) I use https://github.com/mbbill/undotree but if that's not to your taste there are many others. e.g. https://docs.stevelosh.com/gundo.vim/

In Resolving the great undo-redo quandary

stevebmark·Nov 11, 2022

Plug for the Vim undotree plugin, which exposes Vim’s undo tree in a navigable UI. It’s saved my butt in the rare occasion I need it. https://github.com/mbbill/undotree

In Resolving the great undo-redo quandary

gandalfff·Nov 11, 2022

Alternatively, use Vim undotree: https://github.com/mbbill/undotree

In Resolving the great undo-redo quandary

kmarc·Apr 7, 2022

Vim's non-linear undo[1] history is hard to beat. Set undofile [2] and you are done with local versioning. For visualisation of the undo tree, install undotree [3] [1] https://vimhelp.org/undo.txt.html#undo [2] https://vimhelp.org/options.txt.html#%27undofile%27 [3] https://github.com/mbbill/undotree

In Use Git tactically

felixr·Jan 3, 2022

vim had an undo tree for 10 years (or longer?) [0] and there are plugins (eg [1]) that make it very easy to go back in history and also to explore different branches of your undo/edit history. Dura will not track changes that are not saved to disk IIUC [0]: https://vimhelp.org/undo.txt.html#undo-tree [1]: https://github.com/mbbill/undotree

In Dura is a background process that watches your Git repositories

mebassett·Feb 19, 2021

if you use vim, you can do things like ':earlier 5m' to see code from 5min ago. in fact, vim keeps a whole undo tree available, and some plugins will let you visualize it. https://github.com/mbbill/undotree

In Why is it so hard to see code from 5 minutes ago?

m3at·Feb 19, 2021

I've not seen it mentioned yet so I'd be remiss not to link to undo tree [1] for vim. I tend to put my list of plug-ins on a diet over time, but undotree is one I always kept! Having a visual of the history (like in the article) make it much easier to do a quick back and forth through time. Also for fun, consider having your scroll wheel traverse time instead of space [2]. [1] https://github.com/mbbill/undotree [2] https://xkcd.com/1806/

In Why is it so hard to see code from 5 minutes ago?

justinnhli·Feb 19, 2021

> > (3) There is no visual indicator of where you are are in your undo/redo history. > There might be plugins that somehow present this info in the interface. The undotree vim plugin [1] does this, and gives both the file at the time as well as a diff of what changed. [1]: https://github.com/mbbill/undotree

In Why is it so hard to see code from 5 minutes ago?

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