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Entire supports two strategies for capturing AI coding sessions. The strategy determines when checkpoints are created and how they integrate with your Git workflow.

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Strategy Comparison

AspectManual Commit (Recommended)Auto Commit
Checkpoint creationWhen you make a Git commitAfter each AI agent response
Commits on your branchNone (your commits only)Auto-created after each response
Safe on main branchYesNo
Rewind capabilityFull during sessionFull on feature branches
Best forMost workflowsAutomatic checkpoint creation

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Manual Commit (Default)

Recommended for most users
With the manual-commit strategy, Entire captures session data but only creates permanent checkpoints when you make Git commits.

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How It Works

  1. Start an AI coding session (Claude Code, Gemini.)
  2. Entire captures all interactions in memory and on shadow branches
  3. When you run git commit, the session data is attached to your commit
  4. The checkpoint ID is added as a commit trailer
feat: Add user authentication

This commit adds OAuth2 login flow with Google and GitHub providers.

Entire-Checkpoint: a3b2c4d5e6f7

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Benefits

  • Clean Git history - No extra commits from Entire
  • Safe everywhere - Can be used on main or any branch
  • Full control - You decide when to create checkpoints
  • Rewind support - Can still rewind during active sessions via shadow branches

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Enabling Manual Commit

# Default when enabling Entire
entire enable

# Explicitly set strategy
entire enable --strategy manual-commit

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Best Practices

  • Make commits at logical stopping points
  • Use meaningful commit messages—they become checkpoint labels
  • Commit before major changes if you want a rewind point

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Auto Commit

With the auto-commit strategy, Entire automatically creates commits after each AI agent response.

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How It Works

  1. Start an AI coding session
  2. After each agent response that modifies files, Entire creates a commit
  3. Commits are prefixed with [entire] to distinguish them
  4. Shadow branches track the full session state
[entire] Checkpoint after agent response

Entire-Checkpoint: a3b2c4d5e6f7

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Benefits

  • Automatic checkpoints - No manual commits needed during development
  • Granular history - Every change is captured
  • Easy rewind - Clear checkpoints after each response

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Considerations

  • Many small commits - Creates more commits than manual strategy
  • Requires cleanup - May want to squash commits before merging
  • Feature branches only - Not recommended for main branch

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Enabling Auto Commit

entire enable --strategy auto-commit

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Workflow Tips

When using auto-commit on feature branches: 
# Work with auto-commit
entire enable --strategy auto-commit

# When ready to merge, squash commits
git rebase -i main
# Mark [entire] commits as "squash"

# Or use GitHub's "Squash and merge"

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Changing Strategies

You can change strategies at any time: 
# Switch to auto-commit
entire enable --strategy auto-commit --force

# Switch back to manual-commit
entire enable --strategy manual-commit --force
Changing strategies doesn’t affect existing sessions. The new strategy applies to future sessions only.

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Choosing the Right Strategy

  • You work directly on main or shared branches
  • You prefer clean, curated Git history
  • You want full control over when checkpoints are created
  • You’re working on open source projects
  • You’re new to Entire
  • You always work on feature branches
  • You want automatic checkpoint creation without thinking about it
  • You’re comfortable squashing commits before merging
  • You want the most granular rewind capability
  • Your team has a squash-merge workflow

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Strategy Settings in Configuration

You can set the default strategy in your configuration files: Project default (.entire/settings.json): 
{
  "strategy": "manual-commit"
}
Global default (~/.config/entire/settings.json): 
{
  "defaultStrategy": "manual-commit"
}
See Configuration for more details on settings.

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Strategy Options

The strategy_options field in your settings file allows you to configure additional features:

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Auto-Summarize

When enabled, Entire uses AI to automatically generate summaries of your sessions when you commit. These summaries are stored with your checkpoint metadata. 
{
  "strategy": "manual-commit",
  "strategy_options": {
    "summarize": {
      "enabled": true
    }
  }
}
Auto-summarize requires Claude CLI to be installed and authenticated. The summary generation happens in the background and won’t block your commit.
Summaries include:
  • A brief description of what was accomplished
  • Key decisions made during the session
  • Files that were modified