History and branches

A notebook is a Git repository, so nothing you save is lost and nothing overwrites silently.

History

Every save is a commit with the message you wrote. The history button shows recent commits with a short id, the message, the author, and when.

Use it to answer “what did this note say before I rewrote it?” and “who changed this?” — including changes Kyra made on your behalf, which are attributed like any other.

Tip

Write commit messages you would want to read in six months. “Update” tells you nothing; “Dropped option B after the pricing call” tells you everything.

Caution

History protects notes, not notebooks. Deleting a notebook removes its files, its settings, and its entire history permanently. There is no undo.

Branches

Cloud notebooks support branches. Use one when you want to try something without committing to it yet.

Genuinely useful for:

• Restructuring a notebook you are not sure about
• Drafting a version of a published notebook before readers see it
• Working through a decision you might reverse

From the sidebar:

• Switch with the branch picker.
• Create with the plus button beside it.
• Merge a branch back with the merge button.

Save or discard unsaved work before switching, creating, or merging.

Branch names can use letters, numbers, dots, dashes, underscores, and slashes.

Branches as published versions

A published notebook serves from a branch you choose, so branches double as versions: keep main as what readers see, work on v2, and switch the published branch when it is ready. See publishing.

Using Git properly

If commits, branches, and diffs are things you already use, you can clone the notebook and work in your own tools — the history is the same history. Git access →

Next

• Sharing
• Publishing