Version history
Eden snapshots every doc and board as you edit. Here's how version history works, how often a new version is captured, how to preview and restore one, and the guarantee that the latest snapshot is always kept.
Eden quietly snapshots every markdown doc, sticky note, folder, and board as you edit. The history is always at most one menu click away, the latest snapshot is always preserved, and restoring a version is non-destructive (it adds a new version on top, never overwrites irreversibly).
This article covers what gets versioned, how often a snapshot is taken, how to browse the history, how restore works, and the one promise we always keep.
What gets versioned
Version history is on by default for every item that holds editable content:
- Markdown documents (notes opened in focus mode).
- Sticky notes placed directly on a canvas.
- Folders (the canvas layout inside a folder is itself versioned so you can rewind a reorganization).
- Boards (the whole canvas layout, including which cards live on it).
Media items like images, videos, and PDFs do not get version snapshots in the doc sense. They have a single uploaded file. If you replace a media file with a new upload, that's a new item, not a new version.
How often a new version is captured
Eden auto-snapshots a new version roughly every 10 seconds of active editing. Concretely:
- A short burst of typing creates one snapshot at the end of the burst.
- Typing for a long stretch creates one snapshot every 10 seconds while you're going.
- Saving manually is not required (and there's no Save button). Snapshots fire from the same persistence path the live sync uses.
Each snapshot is the full document at that moment, not a diff. That keeps restore boring: any version is a complete, internally consistent state of the doc.
Opening the history
For a markdown doc, open the doc in focus mode and click the overflow menu in the top right. The "Version history" entry opens the side modal with the timeline.
For a board or canvas, click the "..." (more) menu in the board's top right and pick "Version history" there.
The history panel groups versions by day. Days with multiple versions are collapsed by default so the list stays scannable. Click any day to expand it and see each version's exact timestamp.
Previewing a version
Clicking a version in the timeline loads it into the read-only preview panel on the right. Scroll through, compare against the live version (open in another tab if you want them side by side), and decide whether to restore.
Previewing does not change your live document. You can hop between as many versions as you want, and nothing on disk changes until you click Restore.
Restoring a version
When you've picked the version you want, click the "Restore" button in the top right of the version history view. Eden then:
- Reads the previewed version's content.
- Writes it on top of the live document as a new edit.
- Creates a new version snapshot that captures the restored state.
The crucial detail: the version you restored from is also still in the history. Restoring is one-way (forward), never destructive. If you restored to the wrong version, open history again and restore the version that was current before you clicked Restore.
A small toast confirms the restore happened: "Restored to version N".
The latest-snapshot guarantee
Eden's reaper trims old version snapshots after a per-tier retention window passes (see Trash and version retention for the day counts). But there's one rule the reaper will never break:
This rule exists so Restore never falls off a cliff. The retention window only reaps the back half of an item's history (every snapshot except the latest). The current state and the most recent saved checkpoint are permanent for as long as the item itself exists.
What restore does not do
A few things worth knowing the limits of:
- Restore does not bring back trashed items. A document that's in Trash isn't actively edited, so version history isn't the right tool. Use the Trash popover (see Trash and restoring items).
- Restore does not bring back permanently deleted items. Permanently deleting an item scrubs both the live storage and every version snapshot in one pass. Use Permanently Delete with the knowledge that it really is permanent.
- Restore does not roll back other items on the same board. A board's version history captures the board's layout (which cards live where), but the cards themselves are versioned independently. Restoring a board to last Tuesday brings back Tuesday's layout, not Tuesday's contents of every card on it.
Where to go next
- For how Trash relates to version history, read Trash and restoring items.
- For the per-tier retention numbers, read Trash and version retention.
- For a step-by-step decision tree on getting lost work back, read recovering a deleted item.
Trash and restoring items
How Eden's Trash works. Sending things to Trash, restoring them, the Cmd+Z undo, and what happens to a board's children when you trash the whole board.
Trash and version retention
How long Eden keeps trashed items and old version snapshots before reaping them, per plan. Includes the 14-day grace window after a plan downgrade so nothing falls off a cliff the moment your card is charged.
Recovering a deleted item
A decision tree for getting something back when you've deleted it. Covers Cmd+Z, the Trash popover, version history, and the cases where the item is genuinely gone.
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