Versions and branches

A project changes under you: an edit, a polish, a new art direction. Versions let you keep a state on purpose, look at two states side by side, and go back to any of them. Branches let you try another direction on the same project without risking the one you had.

Open them with Versions in the project toolbar. A screen's own history is in its context menu: Versions of this screen.

Saving a version#

Type a name (optional) in the Versions panel and press Save. The version holds every screen of the project — its code, its prompt, its pictures, its links — and the project's art direction (DESIGN.md).

Why it works this way

Versions are kept on the server, not in the browser. The browser keeps the working copy in a space of about 5 MB that the screens' code already fills; ten copies of the project there would be the first thing to make saving fail. On the server, a code shared by two versions is written once, so a version of a project where one screen changed costs that one screen.

A screen can also be saved on its own, from Versions of this screen.

Comparing#

Tick a version in the history, then:

• Compare with the current state — that version on one side, the canvas on the other;
• tick a second one and Compare these two versions.

The comparison window lists every screen of either side, marked changed, added, removed or unchanged, and shows the chosen one side by side, each at its own size. It also says when the art direction differs. Either side can be switched to another version from its list.

Going back#

Restore on a project version puts the whole project back as it was: screens, art direction, pinned reference screen.

Why it works this way

Before anything is replaced, the current state is saved as an automatic save on its branch. If that save fails — no network, a full disk — nothing is restored. Going back must never cost the state you were in.

The project's name is not restored: it is what you call the work, not a state of it. Restoring a version saved on another branch puts the project on that branch.

Restore this screen, from the comparison or a screen's history, brings back that one screen and nothing else. It keeps where the screen sits on the canvas and the notes written on it since. The ordinary Revert on the screen undoes it, like it undoes an edit. A screen deleted since comes back as a new screen.

Keeping both#

Keep beside, from the comparison or a screen's history, restores nothing: it adds that version of the screen to the canvas, right of the current one, named after the version (Home — Light). Both stay, both work, and you compare them whenever you like — the usual way to weigh two art directions, or a branch against the main one, before choosing.

The copy is made like Duplicate: without the links, the notes or the route of the original, so the demo never has two screens answering to the same page.

Branches#

A branch is another line of versions of the same project. The usual case:

Switching branch saves the current state on the branch you leave, then opens the newest version of the other one. A branch exists as long as it has versions; the main one always exists. The branch you are on cannot be deleted — switch first.

What a version costs#

Deleting an account deletes its versions.