Board snapshots

Keep a copy of a board, compare it with today, and put back only the changes you pick.

A snapshot is a copy of a board at one moment. Compare it with the board as it is now, then put back only the changes you pick. Use it after a bad import, a wrong bulk edit or an Agent that went too far.

What a snapshot keeps

Kept	Not kept
The board’s name, columns (with their rules and summaries) and groups	Comments, files and docs attached to items
Every live item: its group, its place in the group and its cells	Automations, forms and dashboard cards (they sit beside a board, not in it)
The board’s saved views	Cells that are worked out for you (Formula, Lookup, Created at, Updated at) and File and Doc cells
Subitems, up to 20,000

Items in the Recycle bin are not copied. A board with more than 20,000 items cannot be copied. A board with more than 20,000 subitems is copied without them, and Work says so.

When a snapshot is taken

Kind	When	How long it is kept
Manual	You take one. You need Manage on the board. Up to 100 per board.	Until you delete it
Daily	Work copies a board once a day, if it changed.	30 days
Before an import	Right before rows are added to an existing board.	30 days
Before a big change	An Agent, automation or API token changes more than 20 items.	30 days
Before a restore	Every restore saves the board first.	30 days

Work keeps at most 60 automatic snapshots per board and drops the oldest first. If a board is too big to copy, the import or the change still goes ahead.

Compare and restore

Open the board’s options and choose Snapshots. Choose Take snapshot to make a copy, with a name if you like. Open a copy to see how it differs from the board today. Each change has a tick:

• A cell holds another value now. Restore writes the value from the snapshot. If someone changed that cell after the comparison was made, Work skips it.
• An item was deleted. If it is still in the Recycle bin, Work recovers it. If it was purged, Work creates it again from the snapshot.
• An item was added. Restore archives it. Nothing is deleted.

Tick the changes you want, or choose Select all, then Restore N selected. Restore never silently overwrites newer work. The result lists everything it left alone and why, for example “changed since” or “item is gone”. A restore holds at most 2,000 changes.

Before each restore Work takes a snapshot of the board as it was, so a restore can itself be undone by restoring that copy. After a restore, the comparison is read again before you can restore a second time.

Each comparison has its own link, so a reload or a shared link opens the same screen. An item with no name shows as “Untitled item”.

Restore as a new board

Restore as a new board builds a new board from the snapshot and leaves the current board alone. It brings back items, saved views, subitems, summaries and column rules. The dialog lists what is not copied: comments, files, automations, forms and dashboard cards. You need Manage on the source board.

Column permissions

A snapshot holds every cell. If a column is hidden or read-only for you, you cannot compare snapshots or restore them. You can still list them and take one.

Agents

Agents use four tools: boardy_list_snapshots, boardy_take_snapshot, boardy_diff_snapshot and boardy_restore_snapshot. A restore takes exactly one of: the changes picked from the comparison, all: true, or asNewBoard: true. A restore of cells and items answers with the id of the safety copy. See Work MCP tools.

API

Call	Needs
GET /v1/boards/{id}/snapshots	Read
GET /v1/boards/{id}/snapshots/{snapshotId}/diff	Read
POST /v1/boards/{id}/snapshots with { "label": "..." }	Manage
DELETE /v1/boards/{id}/snapshots/{snapshotId}	Manage
POST /v1/boards/{id}/snapshots/{snapshotId}/restore with { "changes": [...] }	Write
POST /v1/boards/{id}/snapshots/{snapshotId}/restore-as-board with { "name": "..." }	Manage

_{Source: worksong-ai/worksong:services/work/docs/board-snapshots.md@956ab3b. Docs version: Worksong 2.0 with Work 1.2.}