Show HN: Unlose – Windows VSS snapshots before your AI agent deletes your files Unlose, a new Windows tool launched on Hacker News, automatically takes full-disk snapshots before AI agents like Claude Code, Cursor, Copilot, and Gemini CLI operate, allowing users to restore files deleted or corrupted by AI via a timeline slider. The tool, which installs as a Windows service with a WPF UI, CLI, and MCP server, is positioned as a non-bypassable safety net after a 2026-07-10 incident where founder Matt Shumer's Mac was wiped by an AI assistant despite interceptor logs showing repeated bypass attempts. Unlose what your AI agent deleted. When the hook fails, the snapshot holds. unlose is the last line of defense for AI agent operations on Windows. Before your AI agent starts working, unlose quietly takes a full-disk snapshot. After it deletes, corrupts, or encrypts your files, you drag a timeline slider and get them back. Not an interceptor. A time machine. AI coding tools Claude Code, Cursor, Copilot, Gemini CLI, … execute real operations on your machine: rewriting code, reorganizing directories, batch-processing files. They are powerful — and they make mistakes: misunderstood instructions, ambiguous commands, or manipulation into destructive actions. This is not hypothetical. On 2026-07-10, prominent founder Matt Shumer's Mac was wiped by an AI assistant rm -rf on his user directory — and the interceptor logs told the scarier story: every blocked command was followed by a new path around it, again and again, within a single session. Even the most professional heavy user was not spared. The smarter the AI, the better it gets at bypassing interceptions. Block rm -rf and it will find another way to do the same thing. No interceptor in the world can block every destructive path. Therefore, the only defense that cannot be bypassed is to fully preserve your data before the AI acts . AI starts ──► unlose snapshots automatically ──► AI works deletes / modifies / encrypts │ unlose: go back to the snapshot, files return unlose does not guess what the AI will do. It only guarantees one thing: whatever the AI does, you have a clean copy of "before the AI touched it." | Interceptors e.g. DCG | unlose | | |---|---|---| | Role | First line: block dangerous commands | Last line: snapshot safety net | | Approach | Guess and block destructive paths | Don't guess. Just save. | | Bypassable? | Yes — proven by the 2026-07-10 incident | No — the snapshot exists before the deletion | Interceptors stop the bullet. unlose is the time machine. Use both. Not a recorder. Unlike AI memory tools Rewind, Recall , unlose never records your screen, audio, keystrokes, or file contents for inspection. It only keeps filesystem snapshots — a copy of your data at a point in time. You are the only one who ever opens them. This is a time machine, not a monitor. Native Windows. No WSL, no hooks. A Windows service with a WPF desktop UI, CLI, and MCP server. Installs with a single MSI. | Trigger | When | |---|---| | Scheduled | Three fixed times daily by default 08:00 / 13:00 / 18:00 ; can switch to interval mode 6/12/24/48h | Before AI sessions | Detects 30+ mainstream AI agents launching; snapshots before they act | Agent-initiated | Agents proactively snapshot before dangerous operations themselves via the injected memory directive, skill file, or MCP — we see these in the log on our own machines every day | | Pre-restore safety | Auto-snapshot before every restore, so a failed restore never costs you the current state | | Manual / CLI / MCP | One-click, or trigger from the command line or the AI tool itself | Dual-pane timeline : historical snapshot vs. current state, switch time points from the bottom timeline Four-color diff : deleted / modified / added files visible at a glance, with modification times Line-level diff : text files down to the line — which lines were removed red , which are new green , with line numbers and +X/-Y statistics Lazy-loaded file tree : deep directory structures fully browsable - Select one or more files/directories directories include their subtrees , restore to a new directory of your choice Never overwrites current files — zero-risk trial- Full-volume restore also supported with confirmation before executing - Built-in detection for 30+ mainstream agents Claude Code, Cursor, Copilot, Gemini CLI, Kimi, Qwen, Codex, DeepSeek, … — newly installed tools work with zero configuration Global memory injection unique : writes a protection directive into your ~/AGENTS.md and installed agents' global memory files — "snapshot before sessions, snapshot before dangerous operations, recover with unlose". The AI reads it itself. Original content preserved, injection block clearly marked, no residue after uninstall. And it's not theoretical: our own snapshot logs show "agent-initiated" entries daily — agents pausing to snapshot before bulk deletes, unprompted - Main UI shows four true states: Protecting / Paused / Suspended low disk / Offline — never a fake "all safe" - Event log with 6 filterable categories Agent sessions / System restores / Snapshot events / Storage alerts / Protection state / All — every row is real - Storage card: real disk usage + auto-snapshot status Snapshot interval, protected volumes, low-disk threshold, agent list… save in Settings and the service hot-reloads immediately . No restart. Every control on the settings page is real. CLI unlose.exe : snapshot / status / list / restore with strict exit codes 0/1/2 — script-friendly MCP Server : AI tools call snapshot capabilities directly via MCP Skill file : the service auto-deploys an unlose-snapshot skill into detected agents' skill dirs — teaching the AI to "snapshot before acting" requires zero configuration ⬇ Download for Windows x64 — one self-contained MSI ~140 MB, .NET runtime embedded, no prerequisites . | Channel | Link | Notes | |---|---|---| | Website direct | | releases/latest https://github.com/unlose-app/unlose/releases/latest Both channels serve the byte-identical installer — verify the SHA256 against the value in the release notes https://github.com/unlose-app/unlose/releases/latest or on the docs page https://unlose.app/docs . The installer is currently unsigned, so Windows may show "publisher cannot be verified"; this is expected and code signing is in progress. unlose.app and this repository are the only official sources. 1. Install the MSI see Download above — registers the Windows service, auto-starts with the system installs to C:\Program Files\unlose\ 2. Take a snapshot unlose snapshot --label "protecting before I work" 3. Check status & list snapshots unlose status unlose list-snapshots 4. Restore unlose restore-snapshot