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Report Snapshots

A snapshot is a point-in-time save of a report's state. Snapshots let curators and reviewers preserve a given moment — before a major edit, after an internal review round, or as a checkpoint in a long case — and come back to compare.

Snapshots are not the same as amendments. Amendments produce a new signed PDF that supersedes the old one; snapshots are advisory captures attached to a single report, used during drafting.

What a snapshot contains

Each ReportSnapshot record stores:

  • description — a short label the curator provides.
  • summary — the clinical summary at the moment of capture.
  • notes — any notes on the report at capture time.
  • variant_ids — the ordered list of variants included at capture time.
  • created_by, created_at — audit fields.
  • tags, properties — flexible metadata.

Snapshots do not fork the report; they are read-only captures of selected fields. The report continues to evolve around them.

When to use a snapshot

  • Before a destructive edit — bulk-remove a tier, swap the template, re-do the summary. If the edit does not pan out, the snapshot is the reference point.
  • At internal review checkpoints — "this is what we sent to the second reviewer". The comment thread references the snapshot label.
  • For training — a completed case with well-labelled snapshots teaches new curators how the draft evolved.

Snapshot before destructive edits

About to bulk-remove variants, swap templates, or rewrite the summary? Take a snapshot first. If the edit doesn't work out, the snapshot is your reference point.

What a snapshot does not do

  • It does not revert the report to that state automatically. Reverting is a manual process: read the snapshot fields and re-apply them through the normal UI.
  • It does not render a PDF. If you want a frozen PDF at a moment in time, sign the report (or amend it); the preview PDF rendered by the signoff flow is the closest equivalent.
  • It does not unlock a signed report. Once status = signed, edits require an amendment; snapshots on the original cannot bring the signed version back.

UI

  • Snapshots list is surfaced on the report detail page, usually as a secondary tab.
  • Create snapshot prompts for a short description and captures the current state.
  • View snapshot shows the saved summary, notes, and variant list.

API

Snapshots are owned by the Report service under /api/v1/reports/{report_id}/snapshots/.