# Revisions & Versioning

> Revisions are created when an _original_ Item is updated. These alternate versions are tracked so that previous states
> can be recovered, or potential edits can be staged.

Every change made to items in Directus is stored as a complete versioned snapshot. The Revisions system is tightly
coupled to the Activity Logs system, with each revision being linked to the specific
[Activity](/concepts/application/#activity-log) event which created it.

## Revision Fields

- **Data** — A full snapshot of the item _after_ the event
- **Delta** — The specific field data changed by this event
- **Parent** — If this revision was created via a nested relationship

<!-- @TODO ::: tip Customizing Version Data
Since versions store a full data snapshot and delta, the
`directus_revisions` collection can quickly grow quite large, increasing database size and
potentially decreasing performance. To remedy this, Directus allows
[configuring version scope](/concepts/app-overview) per collection to set the exact field data
saved.
:::

::: tip Creating Detached Versions

You can also create a new version for an item without saving the data to the parent item itself. This allows you to "stage" changes to an item that may already be live/published.

:::

-->

#### Relevant Guides

- [Reverting an Item](/guides/items/#reverting-an-item)