History

It allows you to:

• Undo one or more actions.
• Redo previously undone actions.
• Restore some selections associated with an operation.
• Clear the complete undo and redo chain.

;set stone
;undo
;redo

History is a temporary safety system. It is not a permanent world backup.

History Actions

A history action represents one completed WorldEdit operation.

One command can modify one block, thousands of blocks, or several separate regions and still count as a single action.

Examples of commands that normally create history actions:

;set stone
;replace dirt grass_block
;paste
;move 10 east

Commands that do not directly modify world blocks normally do not create block-history entries:

;copy
;gmask stone
;sel cuboid
;pos1
;pos2

What a History Entry Stores

A completed action can store:

• The block state before the operation.
• The block state after the operation.
• One or more affected regions.
• An optional selection before and after the operation.
• The potential block volume used for change-limit checks.

Conceptually:

UNDO = world state before the action
REDO = world state after the action

redo restores the saved result. It does not execute the original command again.

Undo Actions

;undo restores one or more earlier history states.

;undo [times]

Default value:

times = 1

Undo the most recent action:

;undo

Undo five actions:

;undo 5

WorldEdit starts with the newest available action.

If fewer actions are available than requested, it processes all available actions and then stops.

Redo Actions

;redo reapplies one or more actions that were previously undone.

;redo [times]

Default value:

times = 1

Redo one action:

;redo

Redo five actions:

;redo 5

Redo actions are restored in chronological order.

Undo and Redo Chain

Consider this action sequence:

A → B → C → D

After:

;undo 2

The current state is conceptually:

A → B
C and D are available for redo

After:

;redo

The state becomes:

A → B → C

Creating a New Action after Undo

Creating a new world edit after undo removes the previous redo branch.

Original chain:

A → B → C

Undo two actions:

;undo 2

Create a new action D:

A → D

The old B → C redo branch is permanently removed from the current history.

Clear History

;clearhistory deletes the complete undo and redo chain for the current player.

;clearhistory

It removes:

• Actions available for undo.
• Actions available for redo.
• Temporary history buffers.

It does not modify:

• Current world blocks.
• The current selection.
• The clipboard.
• Gradients.
• Masks.
• Brushes or tools.

Clearing history cannot be undone.

History Size

The default configuration stores up to:

maxHistorySize = 25

The limit counts actions, not individual blocks.

When a new action exceeds the configured history size, the oldest stored action is removed.

A larger history can consume significantly more memory because one action can store both the previous and resulting states of multiple regions.

Player Sessions

History belongs to the individual player’s WorldEdit session.

Player A → History A
Player B → History B

The current commands operate on the history of the player executing them. They do not accept another player’s name as a history target.

The default disconnected-session retention is approximately:

ticksToDeleteSession = 12000 ticks
12000 ticks ≈ 10 minutes

History can remain available after reconnecting while:

• The world or server remains active.
• The session has not expired.
• The configured retention time has not elapsed.

History is lost when the world or server closes and the sessions are removed.

Multi-Region Actions

A single history action can contain more than one affected region.

For example, moving a structure can track both:

original region
destination region

Undoing that one action attempts to restore both areas together.

Multiple copies created by an operation such as stack can also be stored as one completed action.

Selection History

History is not a general undo system for every selection command.

Commands such as these should not be expected to create normal history actions:

;pos1
;pos2
;expand
;contract
;shift

Some world-editing operations explicitly track their previous and resulting selections.

Examples include operations using selection-update flags:

;paste -s
;paste -n
;move -s
;stack -s
;rotate -ws 90
;flip -ws east
;scale -ws 2

Undoing these actions can restore both the world and the previous selection.

A preview created with ;paste -n can create a selection-history action even though it does not place blocks.

History and Clipboard State

History and clipboard are separate systems.

• ;copy changes the clipboard but not the world.
• ;cut changes the world and can be undone.
• ;paste changes the world and can be undone.
• Clipboard-only ;rotate, ;flip, and ;scale do not create world-history actions.
• Transformations using -w modify the world and can enter history.

Undo restores recorded world regions. It does not restore an older clipboard or previous clipboard transformations.

Redo with Random Results

Redo restores the exact stored result of the original action.

;set 50%stone,50%andesite
;undo
;redo

The redo operation restores the same saved random distribution. It does not generate a new random pattern.

Running the original ;set command again can produce a different distribution.

Entities

Current regional history buffers focus on blocks and do not include entities by default.

Therefore, operations involving entities may not be completely restored by undo.

Possible limitations include:

• Removed entities may not return.
• Duplicated entities may remain.
• Entity position or data may not be reconstructed.
• Players are not included as clipboard entities.

Create an independent backup before editing areas containing important entities.

Indirect Minecraft Effects

History records direct changes made by WorldEdit. It does not automatically track every later consequence produced by Minecraft.

Examples include:

• Flowing water or lava.
• Spreading fire.
• Explosions.
• Redstone or block updates.
• Changes caused by another add-on.

For example, undoing a water placement can restore the directly edited region while water that flowed outside that region may remain.

Dimensions

For safety, run undo and redo in the same dimension where the original edit was performed.

The current implementation can load stored buffers using the player’s current dimension.

perform edit in Overworld
return to Overworld
;undo

Before undoing:

1. Return to the original dimension.
2. Move near the affected region.
3. Allow the required chunks to load.
4. Run ;undo or ;redo.

Large and Active Operations

Large operations can run through WorldEdit’s job system and history may still be recording while the edit is in progress.

During this time, history commands can report that history is still being recorded.

Wait for the current job to finish before using:

;undo
;redo
;clearhistory

Canceling a running operation does not guarantee a complete rollback. A canceled job can leave partial changes without a confirmed history action.

Common Problems

Nothing to Undo

Possible causes:

• No recorded world-editing action was completed.
• History was cleared.
• The action exceeded the stored history window and was removed.
• The player session expired.
• The world or server was closed.
• The operation failed before history was confirmed.
• Another player performed the action.

Nothing to Redo

Possible causes:

• No action has been undone.
• Every undone action has already been redone.
• A new action was created after undo.
• History was cleared.
• The session expired.

The World Was Not Fully Restored

Possible causes:

• Fluids, fire, explosions, or later game updates.
• Entities.
• Changes from another add-on.
• Areas outside the recorded buffers.
• A canceled operation.
• Undo or redo executed in another dimension.

Confusing Actions with Blocks

The number in ;undo 5 means five history actions, not five blocks.

Expecting Clipboard Recovery

Undo does not restore earlier clipboard contents.

Expecting Redo to Re-run a Command

Redo restores the saved resulting state instead of executing the command again.

Recommended Practices

• Test large edits on a small selection first.
• Stay in the original dimension until the result is confirmed.
• Wait for large jobs to finish before using history commands.
• Avoid relying on undo for fluids, fire, explosions, or entities.
• Do not clear history until you are certain it is no longer needed.
• Increase maxHistorySize carefully.
• Keep a separate world backup for important builds.

Quick Reference

;undo [times]
;redo [times]
;clearhistory

maxHistorySize       = 25 actions
ticksToDeleteSession = 12000 ticks
session retention     ≈ 10 minutes

undo → new action → previous redo branch removed

direct WorldEdit changes = normally recorded
later Minecraft effects = not guaranteed