The Deployer documentation
Creating & deploying a project

Env history: see, compare and restore changes

Every change to your project's environment variables is kept as a numbered version. History shows who changed what, when and from where, lets you see an old value, and puts an older version back with one click. Use it when something broke after a settings change, when you want to know who changed a key, or when you need to undo a change quickly.

Opening History

  1. Open your project's Dashboard.
  2. Click Environment variables.
  3. Switch to the History tab.

You'll see a timeline, newest first, ten versions to a page.

What each version shows

Each entry tells you:

  • Who made the change: a teammate's name, or The Deployer for changes made for you.
  • What happened, in one line, for example "changed 2 variables in api" or "synced 3 variables from Git".
  • The version number (such as v14) and when it happened. Hover over the time to see the exact date.
  • Which variables changed: green + for added, amber ~ for changed, red − for removed.
  • The note you left when you saved, if any, such as "rotate the Stripe key".
  • Current on the version that is set now.
  • For a change synced from Git, the short commit it came from.
  • When a deployment applied the change, a dot that says live, deploying, deploy failed or deploy cancelled. Click it to open that deployment.

Changes come from different places, and the icon says which: you or a teammate on the dashboard, a file in Git, a blueprint, a restore, or something The Deployer did for you, such as attaching a database. The first entry, Starting point, saved when history began, is what was set when history started.

Finding a change

  • Type in the search box, for example STRIPE_KEY, to find versions that touched a key or service.
  • Use the filters: All, Mine, Git, Blueprint, Restores and Automatic (changes The Deployer made for you).

Comparing and seeing values

Click a version to open it. For each variable you see the old value and the new value side by side. Values stay hidden: you see a short fingerprint of each, enough to tell whether two values are the same.

To see the actual values, click the eye beside one variable. It shows that one variable's value before and after this version. Click it again to hide them. Each time someone does this, it is recorded in the audit log. You don't need to enter a password, but you do need Values access to this project's environment variables. With Names access you see which variables changed, never their values.

Restoring an older version

  1. Click Restore on an older version, or Undo on the newest one to go back to the version before it.
  2. The Deployer compares that version with what's set now and lists exactly which variables would change. If they already match, it says there is nothing to change.
  3. Choose how to apply it:
    • Restore and redeploy puts the old values back and redeploys only the services they changed. You're taken to the deployment's live logs.
    • Restore without redeploying saves the old values. They go live on the next deploy.
    • Before the project has gone live, there is a single Restore button.

A restore never rewrites history. It is saved as a new version, such as "restored version 9", so you can undo it the same way.

Restoring needs env Edit access and Deploy, because it can redeploy your app. See Working with your team.

What to expect

  • The newest 20 versions can be restored. Older entries show record only: they still say who changed what and when, but no longer hold the values.
  • Services you removed are skipped. If an old version has variables for a service that no longer exists in the project, the restore says so and leaves them out.
  • Git sync pauses after a restore. If a service takes its variables from a file in Git, that file would overwrite your restore on its next change, so its sync pauses. Click Resume in the Source tab when you're ready. See Environment variables.
  • Values from a secret manager don't stick. A variable that comes from a secret manager is read again from it at the next deploy. Change it there instead. See Environment from a secret manager.

An AI coding agent connected through The Deployer's MCP server can read the history and restore a version for you too. It sees variable names, never their values: see Use The Deployer from your AI coding tool.

Common problems

  • No Restore button. The version is too old (record only), or you don't have env Edit access.
  • No eye beside a variable. Seeing values needs env Values access. Ask the workspace owner.
  • "Version is too old to restore." Only the newest 20 versions keep their values. Pick a newer one.
  • The restore didn't go live. You chose Restore without redeploying, so the values go live on the next deploy.
  • Another deployment is running. Restore and redeploy can't start while another deployment is in progress, and nothing is changed. Wait for it to finish, then try again.