Model Versioning and Rollback

Model Versioning and Rollback

Metapad automatically tracks your model's history, letting you view, pin, and restore previous versions — so you never lose work to a mistake.

The Versions tab at a glance

Open the Versions tab from the workspace. Snapshots are organised into three sections:

• 📌 Pinned — versions you've marked to keep indefinitely. These are never cleaned up automatically.
• Recent — automatic snapshots, grouped by date and time. Metapad keeps a rolling window of the most recent ones and quietly drops the oldest as new ones arrive.
• Rollback points — created whenever you roll back to an earlier version (collapsed by default).

Each entry shows when it was saved and an optional annotation describing what changed.

How versions get created

• Automatically — a snapshot is taken each time you open the model, and before the AI assistant makes a destructive change, so there's always a recent fallback.
• Manually — click New Version to capture the current state on demand.
• Both kinds land in Recent and are part of the rolling window.

Pinning the versions that matter

Automatic snapshots roll over as you keep working, so anything you want to keep long-term should be pinned:

1. Find the version in Recent (or any version you want to protect)
2. Click Pin (📌)
3. It moves up to the Pinned section and is kept indefinitely — no automatic cleanup

Click Unpin to send it back to the rolling window. There's a limit on how many versions you can pin at once; if you reach it, unpin one before pinning another. Pinning is the right tool for milestones — "before the Q3 redesign", "approved baseline", and the like.

Adding an annotation

Click the tag area on any version to add or edit a short note — handy for labelling what a snapshot represents. Annotations work on every kind of version.

Restoring a previous version

1. Browse the version history
2. Find the version you want to return to
3. Click Restore (rollback) on that version
4. The model is rolled back to that state

Important notes

• Restoring a version creates a new entry (under Rollback points) — it doesn't erase history, so you can always go forward again
• All collaborators see the restored state immediately
• Pinned versions survive indefinitely; automatic snapshots are kept on a rolling basis

When to use versioning

• Accidental deletions: restore to recover deleted elements
• Experimentation: try structural changes, then roll back if they don't work
• Milestones: pin a version at key moments so it's always one click away
• Audit trail: see how the model evolved over time

Tips

• Pin sparingly and deliberately — pins are for the snapshots you'd be upset to lose
• Add a meaningful annotation when you pin or make a significant change, so the history reads well later
• Major structural changes are a good moment to take a manual New Version and pin it