treestore stores two different types of data: 1) values, which are stored according to their SHA-1 hashcode 2) trees, which are sets of values and/or other trees, stored via a SHA-1 hashcode In addition, there are references that allow you to 'bookmark' a SHA-1 hashcode for easier lookup. If you think of the core git, but on any key-value backend store (like the included Redis one), you've got the right idea.