Checkpoints and work sessions

Rolling back change by change is slow when an AI app has made thirty of them. A checkpoint and a work session let you go back in one step. A checkpoint is a point you mark before the work starts. A work session is a group of changes that PowerWP AI forms by itself.

Checkpoints#

A checkpoint is a named marker in the change log. It does not copy anything. It only remembers where the log was when you set it. Everything the same connection changes afterwards can be rolled back to that point.

The AI app creates it with the tool checkpoint_create. You ask for it in plain words:

Before you start, create a checkpoint called "before kitchen price update". Then lower the price of all tea towels by 10 percent, and show me the exact old and new prices first.

The answer contains the checkpoint ID and the line to undo it: changes_rollback {"checkpoint_id": N}.

A few rules:

• The connection needs at least one permission beyond Read & diagnostics. A read-only connection gets the message "This token is read-only; checkpoints are only useful for tokens that can change something."
• A checkpoint covers the changes made with the same connection after it. Changes by another connection, or by you in wp-admin, are not part of it.
• Rolling back to a checkpoint uses the snapshots of the later changes, so it works as long as those snapshots exist (30 days by default).

When a checkpoint is set#

Your AI app sets one when you ask. The built-in recipes also ask for it. Every recipe that changes something ends with the same working style: look first, checkpoint_create, then a dry run or preview, exact new texts and your approval, small batches, a check afterwards, and a note on how to undo. Three examples:

• Make a change safely plans the change, asks for your approval and sets a checkpoint before the first edit.
• Before updating plugins takes a backup, sets the checkpoint "before plugin updates" and updates one plugin at a time.
• Fix a broken site sets a checkpoint before it applies the fix you approved.

Work sessions#

Every change is filed under a work session. PowerWP AI forms them by itself:

• A session belongs to one connection and one user. Two AI apps working at the same time have separate sessions.
• A new session starts when that connection makes a change after 30 minutes without any change. A long task with a lunch break becomes two sessions.
• A session has an ID such as ws-20261028-143012-a1b2c3.

Look at them under PowerWP AI › Changes › Work sessions. Each row shows the app that made the changes, when the session started, how long it lasted, how many changes it holds, how many are already rolled back and how many are irreversible. View opens the changes of that session. Roll back undoes every change of the session that is still applied.

In your AI app, changes_list with sessions: true returns the sessions and the latest checkpoints.

Which one to use#

Roll back to a checkpoint#

1. Open PowerWP AI › Changes and choose Checkpoints.
2. Find the checkpoint. It shows its label, number, the connection and the time, and how many changes were made since.
3. Select Roll back to here. PowerWP AI lists the changes it will undo, newest first.
4. Confirm. If a target was modified outside the group, you are asked to confirm Force rollback.

The same works for a work session: select Roll back on its row.

Some points to know:

• Changes that cannot be rolled back are skipped. They stay in the log, marked Irreversible.
• A group rollback stops at the first problem. What was undone stays undone, and each rollback can itself be undone.
• Every rollback saves the current state first.

Your AI app can do it too. Ask for a preview before it acts:

Roll back to the checkpoint "before kitchen price update". Run it as a dry run first and tell me what it would restore.

The tool call is changes_rollback with checkpoint_id or work_session, and dry_run: true for the preview. See Change log and undo for conflicts and force.