Rollback

What is Rollback?

Say agent_pr_workflow ran — it created agent/fix-149, opened a PR, and merged it straight to main by mistake. You need to undo all three steps. One call:

rollback_result, rollback_receipt = enact.rollback(receipt.run_id)

print(rollback_result.decision)          # "ROLLED_BACK"
print(rollback_result.actions_reversed)  # ["revert_commit", "close_pr", "delete_branch"]

How It Works

rollback() does four things in order:

Loads the receipt by run_id — reads receipts/a1b2c3d4-....json
Verifies the signature — if the receipt was tampered with, rollback refuses to run
Walks actions_taken in reverse — last action first, so nothing is orphaned
Calls the undo action for each step and writes a new rollback receipt

Why Reverse Order?

Original run (forward):          Rollback (reverse):

  Step 1: create_branch           Step 3 undone: revert_commit  (new commit on main)
  Step 2: create_pr            →  Step 2 undone: close_pr
  Step 3: merge_pr                Step 1 undone: delete_branch

merge_pr happened last — you have to undo it first before closing the PR makes sense. Reverse order preserves the dependency chain.

The Rollback Receipt

{
  "run_id": "rb-9f8e7d6c-...",
  "original_run_id": "a1b2c3d4-...",
  "workflow": "agent_pr_workflow",
  "decision": "ROLLED_BACK",
  "actions_reversed": [
    {
      "action": "revert_commit",
      "system": "github",
      "success": true,
      "output": { "revert_sha": "f7c3a1b...", "reverted_merge": "e9d2c4a...", "base_branch": "main" }
    },
    { "action": "close_pr",      "system": "github", "success": true },
    { "action": "delete_branch", "system": "github", "success": true }
  ],
  "timestamp": "2026-02-26T03:35:00Z",
  "signature": "hmac-sha256-hex..."
}

How `merge_pr` Rollback Works

revert_commit is git revert -m 1 <sha> under the hood — it adds a new commit to main that restores its pre-merge state. Safe on protected branches; no force-push needed. The merge SHA is captured automatically in the receipt when merge_pr runs.

After reverting a merge, if you fix the issue and try to re-merge the same branch, Git will skip those commits (they look already-merged). Run git revert <revert_sha> first — “undo the undo” — then re-merge. This is standard Git behavior, not an Enact quirk.

What If an Action Can’t Be Undone?

Some actions have no safe inverse. If rollback hits one, it stops, records which action couldn’t be reversed, and tells you exactly what to fix manually. It never silently skips.

Action	Rollback?	Why not
`github.push_commit`	❌	Un-pushing requires a destructive force-push, blocked on protected branches
`postgres.DROP TABLE`	❌	Blocked by `block_ddl` policy — even with rows, you’d lose indexes, constraints, sequences
`postgres.TRUNCATE`	❌	Same — blocked by policy. Prevention beats fake recovery.
`slack.delete_message`	❌	Slack doesn’t allow un-deleting messages

For everything else — see the full rollback table in Connectors.

Get Started

Concepts

Cloud

Reference

What is Rollback?

How It Works

Why Reverse Order?

The Rollback Receipt

How `merge_pr` Rollback Works

What If an Action Can’t Be Undone?

​What is Rollback?

​How It Works

​Why Reverse Order?

​The Rollback Receipt

​How merge_pr Rollback Works

​What If an Action Can’t Be Undone?

What is Rollback?

How It Works

Why Reverse Order?

The Rollback Receipt

How `merge_pr` Rollback Works

What If an Action Can’t Be Undone?