Version History
Learn how to read an earlier version of a document, see exactly what changed, and put it back.
How versions are recorded
Meldoc saves your writing as you type, so a version for every keystroke would be useless. Instead, versions follow editing sessions.
A session is one stretch of work by one person through one channel. Meldoc closes it and stores a version when you pause for a few minutes, when a long session passes a checkpoint, when someone else edits the document, or when a large amount of text disappears at once. That last rule is deliberate: an accidental “select all, delete” is always recoverable.
This is why a version can say 147 autosaves — that whole session became a single entry you can actually read.
Versions are recorded on every plan, including Free. Custom field values are part of a version too, so a field someone cleared is not lost.
Open the history
You can get there three ways:
- Open a document.
- In the right sidebar, under Document Info, select View version history.
The More (⋮) menu in the document top bar has a Version history entry, and rows in the Audit Log have a button that jumps straight to the version that edit produced.
Move between versions
The banner at the top always tells you which version you are reading — its number, when it was stored, who wrote it, and which channel it came from (Web, MCP, CLI, API or System).
Use Back and Forward to walk one version at a time, or Version to jump straight to a date. The ← and → keys do the same thing, and Esc leaves.
Forward disappears on the newest version. The live document is not a step on the axis — leaving history is always Back to current, so you never step out of it by accident.
Who is credited with a version
The banner names the author — whoever saved that version — and, underneath it, a co-authored by line when git credits the change to somebody else as well.
The two are different questions and the line never replaces the author. Co-authors come from the commits behind a meldoc push or a synced repository, so they are the people who wrote the text; the author is whose session saved it. When they are the same person, which is the usual case for a push from your own machine, no extra line appears.
A name here becomes a colleague’s name once their git account is linked to their membership, and that applies to versions already stored — see Contributors and Co-authors.
See what changed
The banner has two modes. Snapshot shows the document as it was. Changes shows the difference — added and removed lines, plus a summary of what moved in the title and custom fields.
In Changes you pick the comparison: from previous answers “what did this session do?”, and to current answers “what happened since?”.
Note: A version whose comparison base is no longer stored shows the snapshot instead of a diff. Meldoc never renders a missing base as “the whole document was added.”
Restore a version
Restoring replaces the current document with the version you are reading. You need edit permission, and the document must not be locked.
- Open the version you want.
- Select Restore.
- Choose what to bring back — Content, Title, Custom fields.
- Confirm.
Your current version is stored in history first, so a restore is itself reversible: open the version it created and restore that one to undo. Fields whose definition no longer exists in the project are skipped, and Meldoc tells you which.
Tip: Preview with Changes → to current before restoring. It shows exactly what the restore will undo.
Why a version is marked
Most versions carry no note. A handful do, and the note says what was unusual about that session:
| Note | What happened |
|---|---|
| First tracked version | The oldest version recorded for this document |
| Handed over to another author | The next session was started by someone else |
| Large deletion | A lot of content disappeared in that session |
| Merge conflict recorded | The session was sealed with a conflict still unresolved |
| Restored from an earlier version | The session was a restore |
Large deletion is the one to look for when something has gone missing: it marks exactly the session you want to open.
Who can read history
Workspace members only. An earlier version can contain material that was later removed on purpose, so history is never reachable through a public page or an Anyone with the link share — see Document Visibility & Access Level.
Plans and retention
Reading version history requires a paid plan. Versions are recorded while you are on Free, so upgrading opens the history that already accumulated — nothing had to be captured in advance.
Your plan sets how far back the history reaches. Beyond that window versions are hidden rather than deleted, so a later upgrade brings them back.
There is a second limit underneath it, and the two are worth keeping apart. Independently of any plan, versions eventually pass an absolute storage age and are genuinely gone. A version in that state says no longer stored and offers no upgrade, because upgrading cannot bring it back. It is also why a Changes comparison is sometimes unavailable: the version it would compare against is the one that expired.
So “hidden on your plan” is recoverable and “no longer stored” is not. See Plans & Billing for what each plan includes.
What’s next?
Document Editor — Write and format content in the Markdown editor.
Contributors and Co-authors — Who is credited with a document, and how to hide a name.
Audit Log — See every action in your workspace, including who edited what and when.