An interactive Dropbox-like bidirectional sync tool over SSH for devs.

Current status

• Local scanner with support for:
  • nested .dropboxignore
  • excluded folders (node_modules, .tox, cache dirs)
• Remote scanner over SSH helper (streamed JSONL) with nested .dropboxignore + excluded folders.
• Local and remote scan status are persisted in SQLite under each sync root:
  • <local_root>/.limsync/state.sqlite3
  • <remote_root>/.limsync/state.sqlite3
• First comparison report that separates:
  • content status
  • metadata status (mode + mtime)
• scan progress with adaptive path depth for long-running scans
• Always excludes .DS_Store, excluded folder families, and .limsync.
• Also excludes .venv and Finder Icon\\r marker files.
• Interactive review TUI with:
  • tree navigation
  • per-file/per-folder action assignment
  • in-TUI plan apply with confirmation + progress + errors

Install dependencies

uv sync

Run

uv run limsync --help
uv run limsync --source local:/path/to/source --destination user@host:/path/to/destination
uv run limsync review --source local:/path/to/source --destination user@host:/path/to/destination

Useful scan overrides

uv run limsync \
  --source local:/path/to/source \
  --destination ssh://user@example-host/path/to/destination

# Scan without opening the review UI immediately
uv run limsync \
  --source /path/to/source \
  --destination user@example-host:~/path/to/destination \
  --no-open-review

# Enable SSH compression during apply operations in the review UI
uv run limsync \
  --source local:/path/to/source \
  --destination /path/to/destination \
  --apply-ssh-compression

# Review by inferred state DB (~/.limsync/<source>__<destination>.sqlite3)
uv run limsync review \
  --source local:/path/to/source \
  --destination ssh://user@example-host/path/to/destination \
  --apply-ssh-compression

# Or review from an explicit DB path
uv run limsync review --state-db ~/.limsync/some_pair.sqlite3

Review UI keys

• Arrow keys: navigate tree
• Enter: open/close selected folder
• ?: show advanced Commands modal (Up/Down to select, Enter to execute), including scoped path update (U), clear plan, and metadata-suggestion bulk apply
• P: copy selected file/folder relative path to clipboard
• V: view current plan as grouped action tree (copy/metadata/delete categories)
• h: show/hide completely identical folders (preference persisted in SQLite)
• D: delete selected file/folder on both sides (with confirmation)
• F: diff selected file (left vs right) in a modal
• l: left wins (applies to selected file/subtree)
• r: right wins (applies to selected file/subtree)
• i: ignore (applies to selected file/subtree)
• I: add selected file/folder name to parent .dropboxignore and hide it from current review state
• s: suggested planner action (applies to selected file/subtree)
• a: apply current plan (press twice to confirm)
• q: quit

Planner behavior

• Default action is ignore (do nothing) until you assign actions.
• Plan summary shows operation counts:
  • delete left/right
  • copy left->right and right->left
  • metadata updates left<->right
• a is disabled when total planned operations is zero.
• Applying opens:
  • confirmation modal (A apply / C cancel)
  • execution modal with progress bar and error list
• After apply:
  • successful paths are marked done in-place during execution (no rescan)
  • failed paths stay pending in the UI

Notes

• There is no standalone CLI apply command; apply is executed from the review TUI.
• xattr-based exclusion is intentionally disabled in current scan path for performance.