Versions
Entities, briefs and skills each exist twice: a draft you edit, and an active version ContextWorks assembles agent payloads from. Versions work like Flow versions: edit the draft, then activate to publish an immutable version.
Draft and active
| State | Who reads it | How it changes |
|---|---|---|
| Draft | You, in the builder and Preview | Every Save |
| Active version | Every agent, tool and API call assembles from it | Only Activate |
Nothing you save reaches an agent until you activate. The bar under the builder header says where you stand: Unsaved Changes while edits are local, Edited Draft after you save but before you activate, nothing once the two agree.
No agent sees an artifact you never activate. ContextWorks refuses an inactive entity at the agent boundary and skips an inactive brief or skill. Studio previews and edits the draft either way. Seeded entities and skills arrive active at v1; copies and new artifacts start inactive.
Activate
Click Activate in the header.
- ContextWorks saves your unsaved edits first, then publishes that draft.
- The dialog lists what differs from the active version.
- Write the required comment saying why this version exists.
ContextWorks numbers versions per artifact, never reusing or renumbering one.
Roll back
Versions in the header lists the history — number, comment, who activated it and when — with the active row badged.
| Action | What it does |
|---|---|
| Activate this version | Agents immediately receive data assembled from it. The active pointer moves; ContextWorks creates no new version |
| Load into draft | Copies the version into the draft without activating |
| View payload | Shows the stored configuration |
Rolling back also offers to load that version into the draft, checked by default.
WARNING
Clear that checkbox and the draft keeps the configuration you rolled away from, which your next Activate publishes again.
Deactivate
Deactivate, at the bottom left of the Versions dialog, clears the active pointer. ContextWorks deletes nothing: every version stays, and Activate publishes again from the draft or any version listed. Agents stop receiving the artifact immediately, so this is your emergency stop.
What a version covers
A version freezes the artifact’s own configuration. For an entity: fields at every level, field properties, instructions, related lists, references, write access, and which elements it uses.
It does not freeze the elements themselves: edit a shared metric and every entity using it changes at once. Domain membership carries no version either, so those changes go live immediately.
Because a version holds write access, a rollback can widen what agents may write as well as narrow it. The activation dialog names write access among the changes, so you see the widening before you publish.
Versions you activated before ContextWorks captured write access carry none, and fall back to whatever the entity allows now.
Notes
| Action | Effect on versions |
|---|---|
| Save | Edits the draft. Agents unaffected |
| Copy | Copies the source’s draft. The copy starts inactive with no history, stamped with its origin |
| Delete | Deletes its versions with it |
| Preview (builder) | The draft, including unsaved edits |
| Preview (catalog) | Data assembled from the active version — what agents get right now |
Every load records the version that served it, so usage reports version as a dimension and the charts mark each activation. Every activation comment lands in the Change Log.
What’s next
- Domains — who receives what
- Your first entity — the model in practice