Docs/Settings/Versioning

Versioning

Minerva keeps a copy of every version of every note you save, so you can read them and put one back from the History panel. That costs disk, and these three settings decide how much: how long a version lives, how many pile up for one note, and how big a file has to get before it stops being recorded.

The three limits

Keep versions for

How many days an unnamed version lives before it's dropped. Default: 30. Raise it if you want a longer memory; lower it if history is using more disk than it's worth to you. The minimum is 1; a 0 is raised to 1, since nobody means "keep nothing" by it.

Versions per note

How many unnamed versions to keep for a single note, newest first. Default: 500. This is the backstop for a long editing session, which can otherwise produce hundreds of versions of one note in an afternoon. The minimum is 1, as above.

Maximum file size

Files bigger than this get no history at all. Default: 1024 KB — far above any note you'd write by hand, and low enough that a large generated .csv isn't copied on every save. This is the one limit where 0 means something: set it to 0 if you'd rather have history on everything and have the disk for it.

What is never dropped

Neither limit touches a version you've named — a name is a deliberate "keep this" — or the Deleted marker left when a note is deleted, which holds no text and is how a deleted note's history stays findable. A note's initial version is half-exempt: its row stays in the timeline for good, but its text ages out like any other unnamed version, after which it can no longer be restored. Name it if you want to keep it.

What happens when you lower a limit

The open thoughtbase is re-pruned as soon as you change a setting, so tightening a limit frees the disk immediately rather than gradually as you happen to edit each note. Other thoughtbases on this machine catch up the next time each of their notes is saved.

Pruning removes stored versions permanently. If there's a state of a note you want to survive a shorter retention window, name it first.

Per-machine, not per-thoughtbase

These limits are stored for this computer and apply to every thoughtbase you open on it — what they're budgeting is this machine's disk, and the same thoughtbase on a roomier machine can reasonably keep more. The history itself is per-thoughtbase: it lives in the .minerva folder beside the notes, so a thoughtbase carries its own past with it if you move it.

What gets recorded

Every save of every note — markdown and the .csv, .ttl and .py notes alike — whether the save came from you, from an AI change you approved (a thinking tool, a conversation, Auto-tag), from restoring an earlier version, or from reverting several notes at once. Deleting a note records its final text first (Final version before deletion), then a Deleted marker.

A change made in another app isn't recorded when it happens. It's picked up the next time Minerva writes, labels or deletes that note: labelling or deleting captures the note exactly as it stands first, and a save records whatever the note holds once it lands.

Attachments and images aren't notes and aren't recorded. Neither is anything inside .minerva itself.