Back up local Git branches and tags, including work you haven't pushed.

IngotVault scans a workspace, adds a local backup remote, and pushes local branches and tags into bare mirrors on a path you choose: USB, SD, NAS, or another disk. It never modifies origin.

It does not run in the background, and it does not hook git push.

Quick start

pnpm add -g ingotvault
ingotvault init
ingotvault list
ingotvault schedule install
ingotvault
ingotvault verify

init asks for the workspace and the mirror path. Remote name and scan depth have defaults (backup and 3). It writes ingotvault.config.json in the current directory and the vault marker. schedule install registers a daily job at 18:00 local. You are done when verify prints ok and refs match.

Run ingotvault again whenever you want another capture. An agent can run ingotvault --repo . in one repo. That is optional. The daily job and that command can both be on. If the drive is unplugged, a scheduled run skips and a manual run stops.

Clone, another time of day (--at), WIP, restore, and encrypt are on Install. Force update is on Safety.

Agents rebase, amend, reset, and delete a branch that looked stale. A branch that was already captured stays on the spare remote. An undo layer for autonomous edits.

npm · pnpm · Node 22+ · Apache-2.0

Coverage on a successful run

Included	Not included by default
Local branches and tags	Uncommitted files and stashes
refs/notes/*, refs/replace/*, refs/ingotvault/*	Git LFS object bytes (pointer files only)
Opt-in WIP snapshot of a dirty tree that is not gitignored	Submodule object stores

A run captures the refs that exist at that moment. Later edits wait for the next successful run. Stashes, uncommitted files, and commits that sit on no covered ref are not protected. Deleted branches stay on the mirror. If one repo fails, the others continue.

A vault on the same physical disk as the workspace is a second Git copy on that disk. It is not protection against that disk failing.

What is covered · Restore a lost branch

Why it exists

Forge remotes cover what you pushed upstream. File backups cover bytes on disk, including a torn .git mid-rebase. Between those two you still lose:

• Repos with no forge remote
• Unpushed branches and tags in repos you thought were safe because main is on origin
• NDA'd or unfinished work that should not leave the machine
• Offline or intermittent network
• Forge outage, lost 2FA, or losing org access

A push into a bare mirror is a git operation: validated on receipt, atomic at the ref level, restorable with git clone, checkable with ingotvault verify.

Built by Catalyst Forge LLC.