AFTRIMGE

Documentation

Using AFTRIMGE

AFTRIMGE watches folders you choose and records what actually happens to the files inside them: every version, every rename, every deletion, with the time it happened. You can then move back through a project's history, compare versions, and restore any version that was kept.

Starting a project

Choose a folder. AFTRIMGE starts watching it straight away and first reconciles what is already there, so the folder's current contents become the first entries in its history.

  • A file has to stop changing for a short moment (about a second) before a version is recorded. Applications that write in bursts produce one version, not dozens.
  • Application scratch, lock and tooling files are ignored.
  • Changes made while AFTRIMGE was closed are found and recorded when it next opens the project.
  • A file keeps its identity when it is renamed or moved. A move the operating system did not report, but which AFTRIMGE recognised by identical content, is labelled as inferred rather than observed.
  • Identical content is stored once.

AFTRIMGE only reads watched folders. It writes into one only when you restore.

Moving through time

  • Drag the timeline to scrub. The project rebuilds to the chosen instant: files that did not exist yet are absent, a renamed file shows the name it had then, and a modified file shows the content it had then.
  • Scroll on the timeline to zoom around the cursor.
  • Space plays and pauses replay; , and . (or [ and ]) step between events; the arrow keys nudge the playhead (Shift for a bigger step); Home and End jump to the ends of the visible window.
  • E cycles the lens: State, Evolution, Relations.
  • / or F searches every name a file has ever had.
  • Esc closes the inspector, clears a lane focus, or closes the log.

Understanding a file

  • Its version stack lists every recorded version, with previews for images.
  • Compare any two versions: a rendered image difference and measurements for images, a line difference for text.
  • Evolution shows every file as a lane across time.
  • Relations shows connections between files. Each is graded:
  • FACT: reported by the operating system, or proven by identical content.
  • INFERRED: a deterministic deduction from real evidence. Reproducible, but still a deduction.
  • TEMPORAL: known only from timing. Says when, never why.

Restoring and exporting

See Recovery and restore. In short: every restore is planned, checked before and after writing, and adds to history instead of rewriting it. Export writes a copy of any retained version to a place you choose.

Storage

  • Retention can release the bytes of versions older than a number of days. The version, its event and its name stay in history, and the newest version of every existing file is always kept. Retention can be previewed.
  • Collection removes bytes nothing holds any more. It can be previewed, and it only runs when you ask.
  • The storage ledger lists every piece of content, what holds it, and its state: HELD, RECLAIMABLE, MISSING or UNTRACKED. From it you can see what withdrawing a holder would expose before doing it.

See Data and storage.

Integrity

Open any object to verify it. AFTRIMGE reads the bytes in full, hashes them and compares the result with the object's identity. A damaged object can be repaired only from a source whose content has been verified to match.

Verify whole archive, in the storage ledger view, does the same for every stored object AFTRIMGE has a record of. It shows progress, can be stopped, and changes nothing. It reports VERIFIED, DAMAGE FOUND (with each corrupt or missing object listed and an Open in ledger link to repair it), NOT VERIFIED (some objects could not be read), CANCELLED (which says nothing about objects it did not reach), that nothing is stored yet, or that the check could not run.

Diagnostics

The Diagnostics button at the right of the status bar saves a JSON report to a place you choose. It contains counts, version, format and platform details, and redacted log lines, but no file contents, file names, paths or project names. Nothing is sent anywhere. See Recovery and restore.

Image archaeology

For an image AFTRIMGE never watched, for example one that arrived by email:

  • Import it to read its structure and metadata and measure its pixels. Imported images are analysed, not kept, unless you choose to archive them.
  • Survey folders you nominate for images it may have been derived from: resized, cropped, recompressed, regraded, rotated, or placed inside another image. Up to 20,000 files and 512 MiB per file are examined.
  • Search memory compares it against everything AFTRIMGE has already recorded.
  • Trace continuity walks outward through measured relationships and anchors what it finds in recorded history.

Every result from these tools is a measurement, graded INFERRED or POSSIBLE. The only way a result becomes FACT is that the bytes are identical. A chain of measurements is never stronger than its weakest step. There is no machine learning model in AFTRIMGE and no network access.

Keeping what matters

A continuity route can be preserved. That records your decision to keep that content, which protects it from collection. A preservation is a fact about your decision; it says nothing about where the content came from. Withdrawing it deletes nothing; content with no other holder becomes collectible at your next sweep.

Asking why

A recorded relationship, occurrence or preservation can be explained: which records support it, which measurements were made, whether its inputs are still available to reproduce it, and whether a newer analysis version would measure it differently.

Deleting a project

Deleting a project removes its history from AFTRIMGE. Your files are not touched. Stored content that no other project uses becomes collectible.

Source: docs/USER_GUIDE.md