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workflow · Jan 7, 2026 · 8 min read

Mem UI Deep Dive: Replaying Your AI Coding Timeline

Complete guide to using the Mem UI web interface for inspecting snapshots, filtering branches, comparing diffs, and navigating session history.

Mem UI Deep Dive: Replaying Your AI Coding Timeline

MemoV ships with a local web interface that transforms your AI coding history into a visual, explorable timeline. This guide covers everything you can do with Mem UI.

Launching Mem UI

From any project with MemoV enabled:
bash
mem ui
This starts a local server at
code
http://localhost:38888
. The port auto-increments if 38888 is busy.

The Timeline View

The main interface shows your session history as a vertical timeline. Each entry represents a snapshot with:
  • Prompt — What you asked the AI
  • Response summary — A brief description of what the AI did
  • Timestamp — When the interaction happened
  • Branch — Which MemoV branch contains this snapshot
  • Files changed — Icons showing which files were modified

Reading the Timeline

Snapshots are ordered chronologically, newest at the top. Color-coded indicators show:
  • 🟢 Green — Code additions
  • 🔴 Red — Code deletions
  • 🟡 Yellow — Modifications

Viewing Diffs

Click any snapshot to expand the diff viewer. You'll see:

Side-by-Side Comparison

The left panel shows the previous state, the right shows the new state. This makes it easy to see exactly what the AI changed.

Inline Mode

Toggle to inline mode to see changes in a single column with additions and deletions highlighted.

File Tabs

When multiple files changed, tabs let you switch between them. A badge shows the number of changes in each file.

Branch Filtering

Working on multiple features? Use the branch dropdown to filter:
  1. Click the branch selector in the top bar
  2. Choose a specific branch or "All branches"
  3. The timeline updates to show only relevant snapshots
This is useful when you want to focus on one line of experimentation.

Jumping Between States

Found an earlier state you want to restore?
  1. Hover over any snapshot
  2. Click the "Jump" button
  3. Your working directory updates to that snapshot's state
Important: Jumping updates your files but doesn't affect Git. You can safely explore past states without losing uncommitted work.

Search and Filter

Use the search bar to find snapshots by:
  • Prompt keywords
  • Response content
  • File names

Date Range

Click the calendar icon to filter by date. Useful for finding "what I did last week."

Topic Tags

MemoV auto-tags sessions by topic (feature, bugfix, refactor, etc.). Click tags to filter.

Comparing Snapshots

To compare two different points in time:
  1. Select the first snapshot
  2. Hold Shift and click the second snapshot
  3. The diff viewer shows cumulative changes between them
This helps answer questions like "what changed between Monday's version and today's?"

Export Options

Export Session

Right-click any snapshot to export:
  • Markdown — Human-readable session summary
  • JSON — Machine-readable for tooling
  • Patch — Git-compatible patch file

Share Timeline

Generate a static HTML report of your timeline:
bash
mem ui --export timeline.html
Share this file with teammates without them needing MemoV installed.

Keyboard Shortcuts

KeyAction
code
j
/
code
k
Navigate up/down
code
Enter
Expand/collapse diff
code
b
Toggle branch filter
code
/
Focus search
code
Esc
Close panels

Use Cases

Code Review Prep

Before submitting a PR, review your MemoV timeline to:
  • Write a better commit message
  • Remember why you made certain decisions
  • Catch accidental changes

Debugging Regressions

When something breaks:
  1. Open Mem UI
  2. Find when the code last worked
  3. Compare diffs to identify the breaking change
  4. Jump back to verify

Learning from Sessions

After a productive AI session:
  1. Review which prompts worked well
  2. Note prompt patterns that got good results
  3. Build a personal prompt library

Configuration

Custom Port

bash
mem ui --port 9000

Dark Mode

Mem UI respects your system theme. Override with:
bash
mem ui --theme dark

Auto-Open Browser

Disable automatic browser opening:
bash
mem ui --no-open

Next Steps