Why 'Undo' Restores State But Rarely Proves What Changed

Most software undo features are designed to restore a previous state, but they rarely provide tamper-evident proof of what was actually changed or why. The article distinguishes between two separate capabilities: state restoration, which puts data back to a prior condition, and action provenance, which verifiably records what was undone and by whom. Tools like a text editor's undo stack handle restoration reasonably well, while git revert stands out as a rare example that also documents the change with an auditable trail. AI agent undo features are highlighted as the weakest current implementation, lacking any independent verification mechanism. The author argues that users and developers should ask two questions of any undo feature: does it restore the data, and can an outside party verify what was undone without relying solely on the system that performed the action.