Ver.ol

Ver.ol is a MERN stack based Version Control System with a lightweight, in browser codespace like environment, inspired by GitHub Codespaces.

Users can create, view, update, and delete repositories, and manage files and folders entirely within the browser.

---

Overview

Ver.ol explores how core version-control concepts can be modeled using a snapshot-based commit model, where each commit stores a snapshot of the entire repository at the time of committing.

Note
The “codespace” focuses on filesystem manipulation, commit snapshots, and terminal-driven workflows.
It does not provide real code execution or true terminal behavior since our terminal is a React-based command interface.

Implementation details are documented in the /docs directory.

---

Tech Stack

Frontend

• React
• React Router
• Zustand
• Tailwind CSS

Backend

• Node.js
• Express.js
• Mongoose (MongoDB ODM)

Database

• MongoDB

Build & Tooling

• TypeScript
• Vite
• pnpm

---

Demo

VerolDemo.mp4

---

Features

• JWT-based authentication
• Repository CRUD operations
• Lazy-loaded virtual filesystem for efficient navigation
• Terminal-driven interaction model

Terminal Modes

• Viewing Mode

  • Read-only access to repositories

• Staging Mode

  • Modify files
  • Stage changes
  • Commit snapshots

Supported Commands

• Standard: cd, ls, mv,pwd,echo,whoami,help
• Custom: mode,rename,del,create,commit

Version Control

• Commit history per repository
• Ability to view repository structure at the time of any commit

---

Setup & Run

Prerequisites

• Node.js

• pnpm

  npm install -g pnpm
  

• MongoDB (local or remote)

Installation

git clone https://github.com/SysRet8-BMS/Ver.ol.git
cd ver.ol
pnpm install

Environment Setup

Create .env files in both frontend/ and backend/ directories. Reference the respective .env.example files as needed

To generate JWT secret key, use a trusted online key generator, or run

node -e "console.log(require('crypto').randomBytes(32).toString('hex'));"

Run locally

pnpm -r run dev

Visit http://localhost:5173/