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Agent Panel: Undo / Redo around checkpoints - aka checkpoint restore is irreversibly destructive #28676
Description
Summary
Checkpoints are nice... but since we can't manually edit the thread like a usual Zed Buffer like in the old AI panel, checkpoints are the only way to walk a thread back to a previous state and save the context size.
But... when restoring to a checkpoint, all work is lost and unless everything is committed to git before checking out - all of the work is lost.
This is to be expected, since the checkpoint was restored - however, there is no way to undo the checkpoint restore and revert back to the thread and file changes before the checkpoint restore and recover the work.
Description
Steps to trigger the problem:
- Build up a long context, make a lot of edits with the ai agent
- don't commit the work
- restore to a previous checkpoint
- see that all of the previous work was lost - realise you want the previous work back
- shit your pants
- go looking for an undo for the "checkpoint restore" to get the work back
- see there isn't any
- cry 😢
Actual Behavior: after restoring to a check point, there is no way to "undo" the checkpoint restore
Expected Behavior: if a user accidentally restores to a checkpoint, the user should be able to undo this and see that both the thread reverts to it's previous state AND the file edits revert back to their previous state before the checkpoint was restored (aka the original, long context at the end of point #1 above)
Zed Version and System Specs
Zed: v0.182.3 (Zed Preview)
OS: macOS 15.3.2
Memory: 32 GiB
Architecture: aarch64
Activity
JosephTLyons commentedon Apr 22, 2025
Hey @lougreenwood - thanks for flagging. We've seen this as well and we'll be working to improve the checkpoint system.
lesderid commentedon Jun 20, 2025
Perhaps an undo tree like in vim would be a good way to handle this?
Related to this, it's rather inconvenient that editing a message to the agent is destructive: in the ChatGPT interface for example, this essentially just creates a branching point instead.
rohan-patra commentedon Jul 6, 2025
Maybe just create a new thread if an earlier message is edited?
saatvik333 commentedon Oct 12, 2025
Just experienced this issue. T_T all my work is gone
No way to recover what's lost too. AGGGHHHH...
tifandotme commentedon Oct 12, 2025
agree with @rohan-patra
would make more sense to create new thread if editing earlier prompt.
I guess this would also require zed to remember thread's changes even if we switch threads from history?
Kreijstal commentedon Oct 13, 2025
I literally screamed FUCK when I noticed that checkpoint restore triggered, unintentionally by changing the past conversation because I am trying to be careful of the LLM context window by not being a token glutton and actually managing what I send the llm
hugodemenez commentedon Oct 22, 2025
@saatvik333 same here today lol. Just looked at reported issues in GitHub. Please we need a fix / improvements here... That's pretty much the most important part of agent coding, being able to revert / compare changes.
alexugthub commentedon Nov 8, 2025
1 remaining item
github-actions commentedon Mar 27, 2026
Zed development moves fast and a significant number of bugs become outdated. If you can reproduce this bug on the latest stable Zed, please let us know by leaving a comment with the Zed version, it helps us focus on the right issues. If the bug doesn't appear for you anymore, feel free to close the issue yourself; otherwise, the bot will close it in a couple of weeks. But even after it's closed by the bot, you can leave a comment with the version where the bug is reproducible and we'll reopen the issue. Thanks!
lesderid commentedon Mar 27, 2026
It's wild to me that a confirmed reproducible, P1 priority bug can get auto-closed by a bot.
Kreijstal commentedon Mar 27, 2026
deleting all your work is not a priority [wontfix]
github-actions commentedon Jul 3, 2026
Zed development moves fast and a significant number of bugs become outdated. If you can reproduce this bug on the latest stable Zed, please let us know by leaving a comment with the Zed version, it helps us focus on the right issues. If the bug doesn't appear for you anymore, feel free to close the issue yourself; otherwise, the bot will close it in a couple of weeks. But even after it's closed by the bot, you can leave a comment with the version where the bug is reproducible and we'll reopen the issue. (This bot will only ask about this issue once) Thanks!
sruggier commentedon Jul 3, 2026
Still not stale.
zelenenka commentedon Nov 2, 2026
we are removing the checkpoints in #65989.