Time-travel: history, diff & restore

Time-travel lets you browse any note's past, see exactly what changed, and restore an earlier version — with the signed history to prove it.

Every note in Altretta has a history you can move through: a series of snapshots, a diff view that shows what changed between them, and a restore action that brings any earlier version back. What makes it more than an "undo" is what it's built on — the signed DAG, not a folder of backup copies. So you're not just recovering old text, you're proving what changed, when, and by whom.

Because history is append-only and signed, restoring an old version doesn't erase the newer one — the restore is itself a new signed action, and the version you restored from becomes a version of its own.

How much history you get

Version history is capped at 50 versions per note. When a note reaches the cap, recording the next version discards the oldest. A record of the discard is kept, but the discarded text itself is gone. This is a real limit and it applies on every plan.

On the Free plan, you can browse and restore versions from the last 7 days — plus the newest version, always, so a note you haven't touched in months is still navigable. A paid plan lifts that window and gives you every version the store is holding, up to the cap. Older versions on Free aren't deleted, only hidden: upgrade and they're there.

Version history does not sync between devices. It is kept by the app on the machine that recorded it, not inside your vault folder. Open the same vault on a second computer and it starts its own history from scratch; syncing the folder moves your notes, not their past. Moving or renaming the vault folder also starts a fresh history, because the store is keyed to the folder's path.

What you can do

Browse history

Open a note's snapshot history to see its earlier states over time.

Diff versions

Use the diff view to see exactly what was added, changed, or removed between any two versions.

Restore

Bring back any earlier version of the note. The restore is recorded as a new signed action, so it's fully accountable.

Why signed history beats file backups

A backup or a Git commit can tell you a previous state existed. It can't prove that state hasn't been edited since, because the backup is a plain copy and the commit log is mutable.

Altretta's time-travel is anchored to the signed DAG, so a diff is verifiable evidence of change, not just your editor's opinion:

Prove what changed. Each version is keyed by a content hash that matches the one in the signed action history, so a diff reflects the real, recorded past rather than your editor's opinion.
Prove when. Actions are ordered in the hash-linked chain, so the timeline can't be quietly reshuffled.
Prove it wasn't altered afterwards. Actions are signed, so a change to a recorded action breaks its signature.

Obsidian ships no version history at all — recovering a past state means you kept a manual backup.
Logseq relies on Git auto-commit: a mutable, rewritable log you have to trust.
Altretta time-travels over a signed, append-only DAG — recoverable and provable.

Deletion is reversible

Deleting a note moves the file into the vault's own .trash/ folder, keeping its original path — it leaves your active vault, but it is still on disk and still recoverable. Separately, the facts it contributed to the graph are retracted with signed actions rather than vanishing, so the record stays honest about what was taken away.

This is your safety net for accidents and disputes: a deleted note is recoverable from .trash/, its recent versions are recoverable from its history, and every recovery leaves its own signed trace.

Under the hood

Time-travel reads the same signed action history exposed over MCP, so your connected AI can reason about a note's evolution too:

aingle_dag_history — walk the recorded actions for the note.
aingle_dag_chain — follow the hash-linked chain between versions.

See how every change gets recorded in Signed history (the DAG).
See the vault-wide view in The audit trail.

Verifiable knowledge

Back to the verifiable section overview.

Activity log & revert

Undo an AI edit the same way you restore a note — as a new signed action.

Provenance & proofs

Every version you diff or restore is anchored to a verifiable proof.

Files and folders

How restored and deleted notes behave in your vault's structure.

MCP tools reference

The aingle_dag_* tools that read a note's history.

Glossary

Snapshot, diff, restore, retraction — defined.