# Feature request: Publish commit comments

**URL:** <https://talk.observablehq.com/t/feature-request-publish-commit-comments/1117>\
**Category:** Uncategorized\
**Created:** [August 21, 2018, 1:44pm UTC](https://talk.observablehq.com/t/feature-request-publish-commit-comments/1117 "2018-08-21T13:44:00Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![RandomFractals](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/talk.observablehq.com/randomfractals/32/759_2.png) [@RandomFractals](https://talk.observablehq.com/u/RandomFractals)\
**Post date:** [August 21, 2018, 1:44pm UTC](https://talk.observablehq.com/t/feature-request-publish-commit-comments/1117/1 "2018-08-21T13:44:01Z")

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Since you are using slugs and version notebooks as they are published and refined, the one feature I found lacking is Publish comments for the updated notebook log tracking.

Recently I just pulled down all my notebooks and put them in github repos, but I find myself doing it frequently with every major notebook update to keep track of what changed despite the fact that you can reference diff. notebook versions on observablehq.

So, I propose adding an optional Note input box to the Publish button for the detail oriented devs.

Including that note in your es6 JS module code export header comments could be a win win:

// URL: [https://beta.observablehq.com/@randomfractals/chicago-community-areas](https://beta.observablehq.com/@randomfractals/chicago-community-areas)  
// Title: Chicago Community Areas  
// Author: Taras Novak (@randomfractals)  
**// Commit: added communities geo json and sides grouping**  
// Version: 114  
// Runtime version: 1

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![RandomFractals](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/talk.observablehq.com/randomfractals/32/759_2.png) [@RandomFractals](https://talk.observablehq.com/u/RandomFractals)\
**Post date:** [August 28, 2018, 7:27pm UTC](https://talk.observablehq.com/t/feature-request-publish-commit-comments/1117/2 "2018-08-28T19:27:55Z")

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Could be just same Publish button with an arrow down. For most folks Publish will commit changes, for those who’d like to add comments, click on the arrow button, add a note and click publish in that drop down.

not looking for anything fancy here

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![RandomFractals](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/talk.observablehq.com/randomfractals/32/759_2.png) [@RandomFractals](https://talk.observablehq.com/u/RandomFractals)\
**Post date:** [September 17, 2018, 10:45am UTC](https://talk.observablehq.com/t/feature-request-publish-commit-comments/1117/3 "2018-09-17T10:45:05Z")

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see extensive followup on this from @mbostock here:

> [@lost notebook](https://talk.observablehq.com/t/lost-notebook/1208/8):
>
> We’re planning a history feature to show how a notebook has changed over time. Authors will be able to browse every version, while readers will only be able to see published versions. Authors will also be able to restore work, say by reverting to an earlier version or cherry-picking changes. And forking, too, of course. For this to work well, I expect we’ll want a way of attaching notes to specific versions (the equivalent of git tags or commit messages), since the number of automatically-saved…