Life Diff

A private, local-first changelog for your life.

Life Diff borrows the language of version control for personal reflection: record additions, modifications, and removals; browse them as a timeline; compare two dates; and tag meaningful moments as releases.

No account or server is required. The application runs offline and keeps its workspace on the current device.

Features

• Record several additions, modifications, and removals in one entry.
• Filter and browse a persistent timeline.
• View, edit, copy, and delete existing entries.
• Compare two dates to calculate the net Life Diff.
• Attach release tags to memorable entries.
• Export and import human-readable JSON backups.
• Customize the workspace background, opacity, blur, fit, and position.
• Use the same responsive interface on desktop and mobile-sized screens.

Privacy model

Life Diff does not include analytics, accounts, cloud sync, or a network API. Workspace data is stored in the application's local WebView storage under life-diff.workspace.v1; background images are stored as size-limited data URLs in the same workspace. JSON backup files leave the application only when the user explicitly exports them.

Local-first does not mean encrypted. Anyone with access to your operating-system profile or exported backup may be able to read the data, so treat backups as sensitive files.

Development

Requirements:

• Node.js 20.9 or newer
• pnpm 11 or newer
• Rust and the Tauri prerequisites for native builds

pnpm install
pnpm dev

Open http://localhost:3000. To run the desktop shell during development:

pnpm desktop:dev

Quality checks

Run the fast validation suite:

pnpm check

Run the browser end-to-end suite separately:

pnpm exec playwright install chromium
pnpm test:e2e

The repository's CI runs linting, TypeScript checks, unit tests, the static production build, and Playwright tests.

Packaging

pnpm desktop:build

Generated packages are written below dist/ and are intentionally excluded from Git. Tagged GitHub Releases may attach Windows installers, portable executables, Android packages, and their SHA-256 checksums. See PACKAGING.md for platform-specific details.

Project structure

src/app/                  Next.js App Router entry points
src/components/           Shared shell, timeline, and UI components
src/domain/               Framework-independent types and Life Diff rules
src/features/workspace/   Local workspace state and feature screens
src-tauri/                Tauri desktop/mobile shell and native metadata
tests/e2e/                Browser workflows and visual smoke coverage
design/                   Product design reference and source artwork

For more detail, see ARCHITECTURE.md, DESIGN_SPEC.md, and CHANGELOG.md.

Contributing

Issues and pull requests are welcome. Please read CONTRIBUTING.md before submitting a change, and never attach a real Life Diff backup to a public issue.

License

Life Diff is available under the MIT License.