Guepard's Data Time Travel feature provides a git-like interface for managing your database's history and configurations. The interface is centered around a graph table that visually represents bookmarks and branches, giving you complete control over your data evolution.

Interface Overview

The Data Time Travel interface provides Git-like version control for your database, visualized through an interactive graph.

Timeline

Displays bookmarks and branches as interactive nodes.

• Nodes represent bookmarks.
• Badges indicate branches.
• Edges illustrate relationships between them.

Right-Click Actions

• On a Bookmark comment: Open a menu to create a branch or checkout the bookmark.
• On a Branch Badge: Open a menu to checkout the head of the branch.

Action Panel

• Perform top-level actions like creating bookmarks.
• Displays branch count.

Detailed View

In the detailed view, you can inspect metadata like:

• Timestamp
• Branch badge
• Bookmark name
• Associated compute environment
• Author

The interface functions similarly to a Git graph.

Features and Functionalities

Bookmark

Bookmarks allow you to capture the exact state of your database at any moment. By bookmarking a state, you can preserve its data and configuration for later reference or rollback. This is useful for saving stable versions before significant changes or testing new features.

How to Create a Bookmark

1. Add a Bookmark Comment: Describe the bookmark's purpose, this ensures easy identification in future workflows. (e.g., “Post-Q3 data cleanup”).
2. Click Bookmark Button → The bookmark appears as a node in the current branch’s timeline.

Branch

Branches are independent copies of a bookmark, creating a branch allows you to diverge from an existing bookmark and work independently without affecting the primary data. This enables parallel development, experimentation, or testing in isolated environments.

How to Create a Branch

From the graph table, select a bookmark,

1. Right-click a bookmark row in the graph.

2. Select Create Branch → A dialog opens.

3. In the dialog: Checkout ? : Enable this checkbox to checkout newly created branch. The compute environment restarts with the branch's state.

4. Click Create Branch → New branch created from a bookmark's state.

Compute

see compute section.

Checkout

The checkout function lets you attach a specific database state to your compute environment. Guepard supports two checkout types:

Checkout a bookmark

Load a saved bookmark's state (historical data + configuration) into your compute environment.

1. Right-click a bookmark node → Select Checkout.

2. In the dialog:

Discard Changes: Enable this checkbox to delete uncommitted data in your current environment.

3. Click Yes, checkout → The compute environment restarts with the bookmark's state.

Checkout a branch

Attach to the latest bookmark in a branch to work on its most recent state. Both methods allow you to immediately access the selected environment’s data, making them invaluable for:

• Debugging issues in historical or active workflows.
• Safely reverting to a previous state.
• Testing changes without disrupting other branches.

How to Checkout a Branch:

1. Right-click a branch badge → Select Checkout....

2. → The environment syncs to the branch’s newest bookmark.

The Data Time Travel feature is a powerful tool to manage your database's history, experiment safely, and maintain stability across environments. With its intuitive graph-based interface, Guepard makes database version control as easy as managing code.

Take advantage of your data time travel functionality with Guepard

• Regularly bookmark critical states in your workflow to ensure you can always revert to a known good configuration.
• Use clear and consistent naming conventions for branches and bookmarks to improve team collaboration.
• Keep your main branch stable by isolating experimental changes in new branches.
• Before switching to a different bookmark, double-check its contents to avoid unintended conflicts or data loss.