Atuin: Orientation

Atuin records rich shell history locally in SQLite and optionally synchronizes encrypted records across machines. Its current V2 protocol is a generic record store used by history, key/value data, aliases, variables, and scripts.

local domain change → encrypted tagged record(host, index) → SQLite/WAL
                                      ↕ diff + pages
                              untrusted sync server
                                      ↓
                       rebuild local domain projections

Design thesis

Atuin treats the encrypted append-oriented record log as synchronization truth and local feature databases as rebuildable projections, so every machine remains useful offline and the server never needs plaintext.

• Per-host, per-tag indices turn sync into tail comparison.
• Typed builders make incomplete records and history entries harder to create.
• Envelope encryption binds metadata to ciphertext before upload.
• Sync is deliberately ordered today; correctness precedes parallel transfer.
• Projection failures are isolated so one feature does not block the others.