ConfigGuard

ConfigGuard

Broke your configs? Roll them back in two clicks.

ConfigGuard keeps automatic snapshots of your config files and shows exactly what changed between them. Any file, or the whole folder, can be restored from a snapshot. It is made for players who tweak modpacks, pack makers who test updates and server owners who edit configs by hand.

Features

• Automatic snapshots when the game starts (on Fabric, before other mods load and rewrite their files) and when it closes. You can also take a snapshot by hand and give it a label.
• Change detection: if config files changed while the game was closed (a modpack update, manual editing, another launcher), a notification tells you how many files changed.
• Visual diff: a snapshot list → the files that changed since then (new, changed, deleted) → a line-by-line diff with removed lines in red and added lines in green.
• Restore one file or everything. Before restoring, ConfigGuard saves the current state as another snapshot, so every restore can be undone.
• Pinned snapshots are never removed automatically. Old unpinned snapshots are cleaned up once the limit is reached.
• Compact storage: files are stored by their SHA-256 hash in the configguard/ folder, so a file that did not change is never stored twice.

Opening the screen

• Fabric: Mod Menu → ConfigGuard → config button (Mod Menu is optional).
• NeoForge: Mods → ConfigGuard → Config.
• Any loader: set a key for Open ConfigGuard snapshots in Controls → Key Binds (unbound by default).

Server commands

For operators (permission level 4), on dedicated servers and in single player with cheats enabled:

Command · What it does
/configguard snapshot [label] · Take a snapshot now
/configguard list · List snapshots, newest first (click an id to see its changes)
/configguard changes · Files that changed since the snapshot
/configguard diff · Line diff of one file in chat
/configguard restore [path] · Restore one file or all changed files
/configguard pin / unpin · Keep a snapshot forever, or release it

Snapshot ids and file paths are suggested with Tab. Restart the game or server after a restore so mods read the restored files.

Settings

config/configguard.json (created on first launch):

Key · Default · What it does
trackedPaths · config, defaultconfigs, options.txt, server.properties · Files and folders in the game folder that are captured
excludedGlobs · *.log, *.tmp, *.bak, *.lock, **.old · Files that are skipped
maxFileSizeKb · 1024 · Larger files are skipped
maxSnapshots · 40 · How many unpinned snapshots are kept
snapshotOnStartup · true · Snapshot when the game starts
snapshotOnShutdown · true · Snapshot when the game closes
notifyExternalChanges · true · Notify about changes made while the game was closed

Compatibility

• Works on the client, on a dedicated server, or on both. It does not need to be installed on the other side.
• Fabric: requires Fabric API; Mod Menu is optional. NeoForge: no dependencies.
• Works with any mod that keeps its settings in the config folder: TOML, JSON, JSON5, properties and other text formats get a line diff; binary files are listed with their size.

License

MIT. You are welcome to include ConfigGuard in modpacks.