Introducing Notebook Version History: Your Safety Net for Experimentation

This git-like experience integrated directly into our notebook interface allows you to track changes, compare versions and easily revert to previous states of your work.

Why Version History?

Data science work is inherently experimental. You try different approaches, refine your code and sometimes need to backtrack when things don't work out. Until now, many of you have been manually creating duplicate notebooks at different stages of development — a time-consuming process that can quickly become unwieldy.

Getting started

The Version History feature is now available to all users. To get started:

1. Open any notebook
2. Look for the "Version History" clock icon in the toolbar
3. Click it to view your saved versions

Our Version History feature eliminates hassle by automatically tracking changes and giving you the ability to:

• View a chronological list of versions. Every saved version is automatically timestamped, giving you a complete history of your notebook’s evolution.
• Side-by-side comparison. Visually compare two versions and spot the differences at a glance with our compare mode toggle.

• Restore or duplicate with one click. Revert confidently, or branch your work with a duplicated copy in either personal or shared space.

• Bookmark milestones. Highlight important checkpoints by marking them as Favorites — they’ll be saved permanently.

• Streamline version tracking. New versions are created only when changes occur, and our retention policy keeps your version history manageable and relevant.

How it works

• Automatic version creation. A new version is saved only if changes occur and at least two minutes have passed since the last version. This behavior ensures your notebook isn’t cluttered with trivial changes.
• Side-by-side comparison. When you toggle the compare versions option, your Notebook displays the selected version alongside the current Notebook. Changes are highlighted visually, making it easy to spot differences between two versions — or you can toggle it off to just see the contents of the notebook for a particular version.
• Smart retention policy
  • Current day. All versions created on the current day are retained.
  • Previous days. Only the oldest version from each previous day is kept — up to a maximum of 30 days. Versions older than 30 days are automatically purged, keeping your history concise.
  • Favorites. You can bookmark up to 10 versions to ensure they are retained permanently. Simply add a version to your Favorites list directly from the Version History pane.
• Detailed version information.You can view version details — including the creator, timestamp and description — by selecting the version name/timestamp or using the ellipsis menu for more options. Editing details and adding favorites are also supported, making your version management seamless

What's next

This initial release of Version History lays the groundwork for more advanced collaboration features in the future. We're already exploring several exciting enhancements based on your feedback:

Expanding to SQL files and beyond

We're actively working to extend version history capabilities to other code files, with SQL files already in public preview. This expansion will allow you to track changes, compare versions, and restore previous states across more of your codebase.

Database time travel integration

Since our notebook Version History conceptually resembles time travel functionality, we're exploring native database integrations that would combine version history with database branching. This would enable you to execute the same SQL queries against database states from different points in time — providing powerful capabilities for:

• Investigating data corruption events
• Analyzing data evolution over time
• Testing queries against historical data states without affecting current operations

Semantic diffing and feature-rich diff viewer

We are exploring options to integrate feature-rich, semantic diffs that not only highlight changes in code but also reflect differences in outputs and provide deeper, context-aware comparisons between versions.

Enhanced RBAC security controls

We're developing more granular role-based access controls (RBAC) specifically for version history features. These controls allow administrators to define precisely who can access versions, and control actions like restore, duplicate and add to favorites based on user permissions.

This ensures only authorized users can perform potentially impactful operations like restoring to previous states, while maintaining appropriate access levels for collaboration.

We'd love to hear about your experience with Notebook Version History! Share your thoughts, suggestions, or questions in the comments below or reach out to our support team.

Happy versioning!