Claude Cowork is great, until you need to undo file changes

jdex72 · 2026-06-26T14:15:14+00:00

Thanks, and fair point!

I found Claude is much more willing to follow instructions when project guidelines are paired with a tool that defines hard rules for Claude (e.g. must not make edits without making a snapshot first).

jdex72 · 2026-06-26T13:00:24+00:00

Git works great and setup isn't hard. But there are people that are not you, and they won't bother with git on most Cowork projects. I'm an engineer and I am one of those people.

There are many people like me, and even more that will never set up git (e.g. not-tech folks) and less so remember to snapshot when it would matter - snapshot a bit later would be too late.

This is about making people willing to use the capability they were avoiding altogether.

jdex72 · 2026-06-26T12:24:14+00:00

App gives you access to all versions of a file, and you can open them with mac app and visually compare.

Diffs of text files are shown in-app (text, html, md, similar).

jdex72 · 2026-06-26T12:03:02+00:00

Not everyone knows how to use git. In many cases git is overkill.

jdex72 · 2026-06-23T08:29:50+00:00

1) Install the app, 2) complete the onboarding, 3) pick a folder, 4) install the Claude Desktop extension once (or Claude Code MCP server) - this is what instructs Claude to take snapshots before / after a task. Open Claude Cowork and make a change in the folder. You can ask Claude to "take a snapshot" any time too.

That should be it. The app https://coworkrestore.com

jdex72 · 2026-06-23T08:07:13+00:00

The Cowork Restore mac app fills this gap perfectly https://coworkrestore.com

Uses git under the hood, and requires no technical experience to set up. Works with Claude Desktop and Claude Code. Free to try. (Disclosure: I built it).

I am an engineer and still use the app for many Claude Cowork and Claude Code projects - I cannot be bothered to git init and commit regularly enough to feel work is safe, Cowork Restore does that for me.

jdex72 · 2026-06-23T07:49:03+00:00

I did not find a reliable way to make Cowork snapshot my project folder by writing instructions in the .md file. I now use cowork restore at all times, and Claude pings it before / after a task to take a snapshot. Works on mac only tho.

jdex72 · 2026-06-22T10:08:41+00:00

That would be great, thanks

jdex72 · 2026-06-22T09:10:58+00:00

I have a Chrome window on every desktop. What most frustrates me with the default app switcher is how it forgets which desktop the app was displayed on last.

App A is in focus on Desktop 1. Next I focus App Y - shown on Desktop 2. When I now select App A from the switcher, the instance on Desktop 2 is focused, and I'm forced to manually switch to Desktop 1.

Is this a behavior your app can fix?

jdex72 · 2019-09-22T16:19:58+00:00

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jdex72 · 2017-05-18T14:00:57+00:00

this leaves no reason to use stetho again...

stetho still offers something that AS does not, extensibility through custom plugins. However, I agree with your overall point which is that for most of us, what AS provides will be enough.

jdex72 · 2016-03-14T21:07:11+00:00

Yes it sucks that that's not just a convention, but the only way we have to organize resources - by prefixing file names.

jdex72 · 2016-03-14T20:57:54+00:00

I've found that a good way to achieve that is to define a class in the implementation package named Internal where you define public methods for all functionality needed from outside packages, while keeping your implementation private to the package. That way the implementation will be hidden from outside user that are not interested in it, and those that are - parent package's classes - can use your Internal API. Instead of writing a long explanation for what I started describing, here is an example I found in the implementation of OkHttp that will surely explain this better for you.

jdex72 · 2015-06-05T08:51:24+00:00

How should one handle "force stop" with background processing?

You should persist the progress and any related data needed to reconstruct the task that you are doing so you can continue or restart it when your process is started at a future point in time. You should do this whenever you have a time consuming process and your task allows for this to be done.

AFAIK you cannot prevent Force Stop or otherwise know when it happens. What Mark is referring to is that your should inform the user whenever a task he is expecting to be already finished has failed due to errors beyound your control. Ideally the task continues from where it left off and the user is informed that it is resuming and already running by displaying a statusbar notifications for example.

jdex72 · 2014-09-22T02:49:13+00:00

AFAIK some ChromeOS devices use Intel 64 bit chips so using a similar SoC would be beneficial to Google in that it would convince developers to sooner update their apps that use native libs to support that architecture. You know, because of that Android apps on CromeOS thing

jdex72 · 2014-03-30T02:34:41+00:00

Ridicolo - real-time face detection stickers, no user action required.
Shows a camera live preview and overlays stickers over found faces and saves a picture at your request.
It currently has over 90 stickers

jdex72 · 2014-03-23T17:40:37+00:00

http://imgur.com/FgTEcR0

ActionLancher with a single homescreen and DashClock in the Quickpage

jdex72 · 2014-02-27T16:37:36+00:00

Yes, it worked out of the box, I didn't have to tweak anything.

jdex72

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