lore

lore [OPTIONS] [COMMAND]

lore is the command-line client for Lore, an open source version control system from Epic Games. It is a centralized, content-addressed VCS optimized for projects that mix source code with large binary assets. Repository state is stored as Merkle trees and an immutable revision chain; files are chunked into reusable fragments so large binaries deduplicate and transfer incrementally.Everyday editing — staging, committing, branching, and diffing — runs against the local working tree and does not require a network round trip. A Lore Server is the durability and access-control source of record for clone, push, and sync. Remote URLs use the `lore://` scheme (for example `lore://127.0.0.1:41337/my-project`). Local metadata lives in .lore/; the companion server binary is loreserver.Unlike Git, lore status does not walk the filesystem by default. Changes made outside Lore stay invisible until they are marked with lore dirty, or until lore status --scan / lore stage --scan reconciles the tree. Directory stage only picks up files already marked dirty; passing an explicit file path always compares that file to the current revision.Branches are lightweight mutable pointers over shared fragment storage, so creating and switching branches does not duplicate underlying data. Workspaces can stay sparse: clones and syncs can fetch only selected files and their declared dependencies.

.lore/config.toml

Per-repository client settings, created by lore repository create and lore clone. Records remote_url, commit identity, [store] capacity/eviction, [file] write behavior, and optional [shared_store_to_use]. If identity is unset, commit fails until you pass --identity or set the field.

User-level CLI settings (Linux; or `$XDGCONFIGHOME/lore/cli.toml`). On macOS: `~/Library/Application Support/com.epicgames.lore/cli.toml`. Currently the only field is pager (default `less -R`). --no-pager overrides it for one command.

--repository path

Use path as the repository instead of the current working tree.

Enable debug output.

Force the operation if possible.

Report what would change without writing to the local filesystem.

Disable pagination.

Force offline mode (no server round trip).

Prefer remote or local data.

Use the given commit identity.

Use this authentication token instead of one from the secure store.

Use this authorization token instead of exchanging one with the authentication service.

Disable interactive prompts.

Skip automatic incremental garbage collection for this command.

Cache fragment payloads fetched from remote in the local store.

repository create url

Create a repository in the current directory, registering it at url (for example `lore://127.0.0.1:41337/my-project`).

Clone a remote repository. Supports --bare, --branch, --revision, --use-shared-store, and sparse/dependency-based clones.

Show the staged revision and files already marked dirty. Pass --scan to walk the filesystem and refresh dirty flags.

Stage changes for commit. A directory path stages only files already marked dirty unless --scan is given. Named files are always compared to the current revision.

Mark files dirty so they appear in status and are picked up by directory stage, without reading or staging content.

Unstage changes to a file or directory.

Discard local changes and restore paths to the current (or given) revision. --purge also deletes untracked files.

Commit the staged revision. Staging and committing work fully offline.

Push commits to the remote. Defaults to the current branch.

Synchronize the working tree to a repository state (alias: synchronize). Omitting revision syncs to the remote latest.

Show differences. Defaults compare the current revision to the filesystem; --source / --target select revisions.

List revisions of the repository. --oneline prints one line per revision.

Create a new lightweight branch at the current revision.

Switch the working tree to another branch.

Merge branch into the current branch. Clean merges commit automatically; conflicts leave a staged merge to resolve or abort.

Push the named (or current) branch to the remote.

Advisory file locks to signal that a non-mergeable asset is being edited.

Create a shared immutable store so multiple working trees reuse the same on-disk fragments.

Start or stop a background service process for the local repository.

Authenticate the CLI against a Lore Server.

Generate shell completions (`bash`, `zsh`, `fish`, `elvish`, `powershell`).

Lore is pre-1.0: APIs, on-disk formats, and the CLI may change between releases. File locking is advisory — it informs collaborators rather than blocking writes. UEFN (Unreal Editor for Fortnite) projects historically used a proprietary compressor and cannot yet be opened with the open source CLI or desktop client. lore status without --scan will miss externally edited files. Commits need a configured identity. Pushing to a branch that moved remotely requires lore sync, conflict resolution, and another push.

Lore was developed at Epic Games as Unreal Revision Control, the built-in VCS for UEFN. Epic open-sourced it in June 2026 under the MIT license. The library, server, and CLI are written in Rust; language SDKs exist for C/C++, C#, Go, Python, and JavaScript.

git(1), jj(1), hg(1), p4(1), svn(1)

Source code · Homepage · Documentation