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Undo and redo#

Made a change you didn't mean to? Take it back. Nabu gives you a normal undo for your own typing, plus a special one-click way to undo a change Nisaba made to a scene.

Mistakes are part of writing. So is changing your mind. You can step backward — and forward again if you change your mind a second time. This page covers the two kinds of "take it back" in Nabu: the everyday undo for your own edits, and the Undo button that appears after Nisaba writes a scene for you.

Undoing your own typing#

While you're writing in the editor, undo and redo work exactly like they do everywhere else.

  1. To take back your last change, press Cmd+Z (Mac) or Ctrl+Z (Windows).
  2. Keep pressing to step back through more changes, one at a time.
  3. To put a change back, press Cmd+Shift+Z (Mac) or Ctrl+Shift+Z (Windows).

You can also use the Undo and Redo buttons at the left of the editor's top toolbar. They do exactly what the keys do, and grey out when there's nothing left to undo or redo.

This is your moment-to-moment safety net for typing, deleting, reformatting a line, and the small edits you make while writing.

Tip: Undo steps back one change at a time, not one keystroke. Reformatting a line or accepting an edit each count as a single step.

How far back undo reaches#

Undo steps back in two stages:

  1. This session's typing first. Right after you open a scene, undo walks back through the changes you've made since you opened the editor — stepping back through small groups of recent edits (a burst of typing, a deletion, a reformat), not one letter at a time.
  2. Then your saved changes. When there's nothing left from this session, undo keeps going — taking back your most recent saved change, whichever scene it's in, including edits from previous sittings and changes Nisaba made for you. These steps are kept with your project, not just in your browser, so they survive a reload and are still there the next day.

Nabu saves as you type, so undo is only for stepping back through changes.

When you want to jump to a whole earlier state of the project — not step change-by-change — that's what version history is for. See Save points and version history.

Note: Undo steps back change by change; version history travels back to earlier saved moments, even days later. They work together.

Undoing a change Nisaba made#

When you pick a draft from a set — an A/B choice, a Workshop pass, or a synthesized version — the words you chose land in your scene right away, and a brief message appears: Nisaba's draft applied. Undo? with an Undo button. (If the draft you picked happens to match what was already in the scene word-for-word, the message appears without an Undo button — there's nothing to undo.)

  • Click Undo and the scene snaps back to exactly how it was before the draft you picked.
  • Do nothing and the new draft simply stays — that's the normal case when you're happy with it.

This one-click message is a quick prompt: it fades after a few seconds.

When Nisaba writes or rewrites a scene directly, the new words land right away and her reply says so: Written — 3 pages, in your script now. Undo takes it back. That covers a plain write, an edit she makes on her own, and a Try Hard rewrite. There is nothing to accept. To take the change back, press Cmd+Z or click Undo in the toolbar. Cmd+Shift+Z puts it back.

When Nisaba creates and writes a new scene, one Cmd+Z takes the whole scene back off the page and out of its place in your story. One Cmd+Shift+Z brings it back, words and placement included. Moving the card while she writes does not split that step: Redo brings it back where Undo found it. If the card’s status changes before her first write, Undo takes back the words but cannot take back adding the card. A status change after a combined creation and write prevents that combined step from being undone. Another run’s write before her initial words keeps separate steps. When you add a card and Nisaba writes in it, Undo takes back the words first, then the card; earlier changes remain reachable.

If you've typed in that scene since Nisaba wrote it, Cmd+Z undoes your typing first. It never skips over your own words to reach hers.

Undo reaches AI changes to a scene's words, prompt or not. Once this session's typing is undone, Cmd+Z steps back through your saved changes, newest first, and Nisaba's write is one of them — whether it came from a rewrite, a workshop pass, an A/B draft you picked, or an edit Nisaba made directly. Because those steps live with your project, this works even after a reload or the next day, and it restores just that one scene, leaving the rest of your script untouched.

Tip: The one-click Undo prompt (after picking a draft) is brief, but the undo step is stored with your project, so Cmd+Z can still reach an AI change to an existing scene after the prompt is gone.

Why you can trust it#

Before Nisaba's draft is applied, Nabu records what the scene said. Undo — from the one-click prompt or Cmd+Z later — restores that saved version.

A few careful touches:

  • It only affects the one scene. Undoing an AI write to a scene leaves your other scenes alone.
  • It keeps any edits you made to the scene's details. If you adjusted the scene's heading or notes after accepting the draft, those are preserved.
  • It won't overwrite newer work by surprise. If the scene has moved on since the AI write — for example, you or a collaborator edited it in the meantime — Nabu won't quietly overwrite that newer version. The one-click undo won't apply; you can still reach the earlier state through Save points and version history.

What each control does#

Control What it does
Cmd+Z / Ctrl+Z Undoes your last change — this session's typing first, then your most recent saved change anywhere in the script (including AI writes), even after a reload.
Cmd+Shift+Z / Ctrl+Shift+Z Redoes a change you just undid.
Undo / Redo buttons (editor toolbar) The same as the keys. They grey out when there's nothing to undo or redo.
Undo button (the Nisaba's draft applied message) Restores a scene to how it was before Nisaba's last change to it. A brief prompt — after it fades, use Cmd+Z.

Good to know#

  • Nabu saves as you write. Undo is only for stepping back through changes. See Saving and autosave.
  • Deleted or cleared a scene? A Scene deleted or Scene cleared message appears with an Undo button.
  • Undoing an AI write survives a refresh. The one-click prompt is brief, but the undo step itself is stored with your project — so Cmd+Z can still take back an AI write after you leave and come back.
  • For bigger journeys back in time, use version history. Undo handles the last step or two; version history lets you compare, rename, pin, and restore whole earlier states of your project.