datasette-sqlite-history-json

Track changes to data using triggers and hidden JSON tables using sqlite-history-json.

Installation

Install this plugin in the same environment as Datasette.

datasette install datasette-sqlite-history-json

Usage

Install tracking on a table from Datasette's table actions menu (Enable tracking) or access the route directly:

/-/history-json/<database>/<table>/-/enable

Once enabled, the table action menu also shows:

• View history → table history page at /-/history-json/<database>/<table>
• Disable tracking if tracking is already active

On each row in a tracked table, the row action menu now shows:

• View row history → /-/history-json/<database>/<table>/<primary-key>, with a subtitle showing the number of changes.
• If the table is not tracked, or the user lacks permission, that action does not appear.

API

All endpoints return JSON for machine access and can be used in scripts:

• Table history: /-/history-json/<database>/<table>.json
• Row history: /-/history-json/<database>/<table>/<primary-key>.json
• Filter by operation: ?operation=insert|update|delete

Permissions

The plugin registers:

• sqlite-history-json for enabling/disabling tracking (database-level action)
• sqlite-history-json-view for viewing history (table-level action)

sqlite-history-json-view is automatically allowed in non---default-deny mode when the actor can view-table.

Required permissions by feature:

• Enable tracking: sqlite-history-json on DatabaseResource(database)
• Disable tracking: sqlite-history-json on DatabaseResource(database)
• View table history page/action: sqlite-history-json-view on TableResource(database, table) (plus the implicit view-table check)
• View row history action/page: same as table history permission above

In --default-deny mode, sqlite-history-json-view is not auto-granted. In that case, provide explicit grants for that action in your permission policy (and keep sqlite-history-json grants as needed for managing tracking).

Notes

<primary-key> is URL-safe, tilde-encoded values in the same format Datasette uses internally (for example comma-joined values for composite keys).

Development

To set up this plugin locally, first checkout the code. You can confirm it is available like this:

cd datasette-sqlite-history-json
# Confirm the plugin is visible
uv run datasette plugins

To run the tests:

uv run pytest