Matter2

A version control system for office documents.

What is Matter?

Matter is a VCS designed for office documents (DOCX, PPTX, PDF, etc.) rather than source code. It provides:

• ZIP-aware storage — Office formats are unpacked and stored efficiently. A one-word edit to a DOCX doesn't duplicate the entire file.
• Document identity tracking — Rename a file and Matter knows it's the same document.
• Branch and merge — Branch document collections for review cycles. Conflicts are surfaced as side-by-side files for manual resolution.
• Portable format — Export a repository as a self-contained archive.

Installation

pip install matter2

With optional diff support (DOCX/PDF text extraction):

pip install matter2[diff]

Quick Start

# Initialize a repository
matter init

# Add and commit documents
matter add contract.docx proposal.pdf
matter commit -m "Initial documents" -a user@example.com

# Check status
matter status

# View history
matter log

# Branch for review
matter branch client-review
matter switch client-review

# Merge back
matter switch main
matter merge client-review

# Track a document across renames
matter track contract.docx

# Export for sharing
matter export backup.tar.gz

Library Usage

from matter import Repository

repo = Repository.init("/path/to/repo")
repo.add(["contract.docx"])
cp = repo.commit(message="Add contract", author="user@example.com")
content = repo.restore(cp.id, "contract.docx")

Architecture

See design spec for the full architecture.

License

MIT