Release Notes

May 28, 2026

›⚠️ First release with decoupled chart versioning (Helm chart version is now independent of app version)

›Fix diff rendering of formulas containing comparison operators (<, >, <=, >=, <>) and the & concatenation operator — these characters were not escaped in equal-opcode output, causing the browser to silently drop cell content. Note that diff cache is cleared on upgrade.

›Fix database connection errors when using PgBouncer in transaction pooling mode — psycopg3 auto-prepared statements are now disabled to prevent "prepared statement does not exist" errors

›REST API now returns JSON error responses (instead of HTML) when the backend is unavailable (502 Bad Gateway on /api/* routes)

December 11, 2025

›Support email notifications

›Bugfixes

July 4, 2025

›Efficiency improvements for spreadsheet diffs

›Bugfixes

›New versioning scheme: `..-` Helm OpenShift

›New Persistent Volume Claim (PVC) for Git repositories on disk — upgrade instructions Helm OpenShift

April 28, 2025

›⚠️ This version affects Linux/Compose based installations only. Upgrade instructions

›New versioning scheme (major.minor.build)

›Efficiency improvements for very large spreadsheet diffs

›Bugfixes

March 18, 2025

›Improved user interface feedback

›Garbage collection for internal Git repositories

›Bugfixes

March 9, 2025

›Support external TLS/SSL encrypted Redis connection

›Support branching for internal projects

›New user interface for committing workbooks

›New user interface for creating directories

›Support zip up- and downloads

February 13, 2025

›Support external Redis url via secrets Helm OpenShift

›Improved logging

January 31, 2025

›Support external Redis Helm OpenShift

October 30, 2024

›Helm chart OpenShift support

October 9, 2024

›⚠️ If your current xltrail installation is < 4.0, you need to upgrade to 4.0 first

›Run container as non-root user — migration notes

›Bugfixes

September 22, 2024

›Not applicable to self-hosted version

September 13, 2024

›⚠️ If your current xltrail installation is < 4.0, you need to upgrade to 4.0 first

›Support BASE_URL option to allow deployment on a non-root URL

›Use commit hashes instead of branch names for Merge Request Urls

›Better handling of insufficient token scope when setting up Gitlab integration

›Update Nginx Content Security Policy for static assets

›Bugfixes

July 26, 2024

›⚠️ If your current xltrail installation is < 4.0, you need to upgrade to 4.0 first

›More efficient handling of commits to internally hosted repositories.

›Bug fixes.

July 18, 2024

›⚠️ If your current xltrail installation is < 4.0, you need to upgrade to 4.0 first

›Workbooks can now be uploaded to external Git repositories.

›More detailed UI feedback during processing.

›Gitlab integration: receive incoming webhooks from Gitlab merge requests.

›Gitlab integration: xltrail adds a comment to Gitlab merge request with xltrail backlinks.

›Show incoming webhooks and outgoing API calls in Settings > Events (admin only).

›New view to manage project settings Projects > Project > Settings (admin only).

›Run file upload and delete in separate worker.

›Bug fixes.

March 28, 2024

›⚠️ The upgrade will log you out of the xltrail web app if you were logged in. The repositories will be reprocessed, which may take a while. Upgrade instructions: Compose

›Faster navigation and workbook processing.

›Git integrations now show detailed error messages on the landing page.

›Syntax highlighting for Power Queries and CustomUI.xml.

›When a project is processing new workbooks, its progress is now shown under Settings > Project Status.

›The text comparison view now scrolls in sync when using the split view.

›URLs have been changed. If you are using bookmarks etc. to a specific project or file, you may have to update them.

›Bug and security fixes.

›External Git repos are now synced with only the latest 2 commits when you first add them. You can change this by going to Settings > Manage Projects and clicking on the "Edit" icon of the respective project.

›Power Query errors don't stop a file from processing the rest anymore.

›There is now a scheduled job to prevent storage size from growing over time.

›The license key can now be updated directly in the app by admins.

›Landing page redesign.

›Reintroduction of REST API.

›Bug and security fixes.

August 17, 2022

›Fixed a bug with Active Directory/LDAP configuration when used with TLS.

May 22, 2022

›This fixes parsing errors with certain workbooks.

March 13, 2022

›Deleted and readded files were showing a 'processing' badge.

›Syncing wasn't restarted after editing credentials of Git integrations.

February 18, 2022

›Autorefresh landing page and workbook view during processing.

›Git integrations now default to `main` branch.

›Various bug and security fixes.

January 5, 2022

›Added password reset feature (requires setting up SMTP settings).

›Various bug fixes.

November 23, 2021

›Switching between branches on the VBA view wasn't always updating the content correctly.

›If a comparison of a sheet is bigger than what xltrail can handle, there is now a proper error shown.

›Fixed an error that would prevent the URL from specific comparisons to be used directly.

October 19, 2021

›Fixed a bug with disconnects when using externally hosted databases.

›Fixed a bug that prevented the correct display of the History page under certain circumstances.

September 14, 2021

›Fixed a bug that caused the Permissioning menu on airgapped systems to be hidden.

August 22, 2021

›Fixed a bug with the `xltrail encrypt` command.

May 31, 2021

›Fixed a bug when using ssh keys to connect with Git repos that was introduced with 3.4.5.

May 6, 2021

›Self-hosted installations: faster downloads due to smaller and fewer Docker images.

May 5, 2021

›This is a bug fix release.

April 9, 2021

›Published Helm chart for installation into a Kuberentes cluster.

March 24, 2021

›Changes in formulas with named ranges are now properly shown in the diff view.

February 12, 2021

›This is a bug fix release.

January 18, 2021

›Added support for the new lambda functions, thereby renaming `Named Ranges` to `DefinedNames`.

›Various bug fixes.

December 22, 2020

›Improved `Secrets` handling.

December 18, 2020

›New `Secrets` section under `Settings` that allow you to add passwords to be able to display password-protected workbooks.

December 15, 2020

›In the diff view of the grid, sometimes the row or column label was off.

›When you download files from the history, they now have again the version number in the file name like it used to be the case pre v3.0.

›LDAP users can now be deleted.

November 12, 2020

›xltrail now also tracks cell notes and comments.

›After resyncing a project it could happen that the history page threw an error.

October 14, 2020

›Allow to mount the application on a specific endpoint by defining a `BASE_URL` in the config.

October 13, 2020

›Bug Fixes

October 12, 2020

›Fixed a bug with CA Certificates used for remote Git repos

September 28, 2020

›Prevent occasional hanging during `xltrail start`

›The upload warning about new versions with a different name can now be muted under `Settings` > `Drag & Drop`

›Various bug fixes

September 16, 2020

›xltrail now also tracks the CustomUI.xml file which is used to define Ribbon add-ins.

›Very large Excel files now keep memory consumption under control resulting in faster processing times and preventing out-of-memory issues.

›Various bug fixes

August 26, 2020

›Fixed an issue that caused a few Power Queries to be read incorrectly.

August 12, 2020

›Various bug fixes.

July 16, 2020

›⚠️ This is a major release. Repositories will be re-processed after upgrading. Upgrade instructions

›xltrail now additionally tracks named ranges, power queries and properties

›Drag-and-Drop project now allow multi-line commit messages

›Various bug fixes

March 2, 2020

›Deleting a project now requires to confirm the action.

›Some bugs were fixed that sometimes occurred during the initial processing of the Excel file.

February 17, 2020

›Fixed a bug that could occur when Git repos contain spaces.

January 10, 2020

›When comparing (any) two versions of a file, there is now a summary at the top.

›Line numbers can now be hidden for VBA modules so it is easier to copy/paste.

›When hovering over a version on the "History" page, there are two buttons appearing: Compare From/Compare To.

›On the History page, when clicking in the From/To boxes, there is now a dropdown with the Git branch names.

December 20, 2019

›Faster diffs.

›Various bug fixes.

November 17, 2019

›Maintenance release.

November 6, 2019

›Fixed a bug with the new ssh key functionality.

October 30, 2019

›Fixed a bug with the new ssh key functionality.

October 28, 2019

›Allow to connect to Git repositories via ssh (via deploy keys).

August 29, 2019

›LDAP_BIND_PASSWORD can now be stored encrypted in the config file.

›Setting up internal users requires now to confirm the password.

July 15, 2019

›Allow to add CA certificates via the `CA_CERTIFICATES` setting.

July 10, 2019

›Support for advanced LDAP settings.

July 9, 2019

›⚠️ Note that this upgrade will trigger a reprocessing of all your workbooks which may take a while.

›When diffing sheets/cells, xltrail now compares the values of the cells by taking into account the cell style.

›This means e.g. that dates will be formatted as dates instead of a number, and a change from `100` to `100.00` or from `0.25`

›to `25%` will show up as change. Generally speaking, values will be compared as they appear in Excel. No changes for formulas.

›Enterprise plan only: In addition to User permissions, you can now also handle Group permissions.

›Resolve an LDAP bug that could happen with certain AD setups.

July 1, 2019

›Resolve an LDAP bug that could happen with certain AD setups.

June 28, 2019

›Bug fixes with regards to branch dropdown and comparison

June 24, 2019

›Self-hosted only: Enabled log rotation to prevent containers from growing too much in size.

June 21, 2019

›This fixes a bug in the differ that was introduced with 2.6.3.

June 20, 2019

›Enterprise plan only: User permissions can now be handled via settings.

›Better navigation back from the sheet diffs to the list of changes.

June 10, 2019

›If the sheet differ encounters an error, it will now be displayed.

June 4, 2019

›For drag-and-drop projects, the default version comment is now set to the name of the uploaded file.

May 16, 2019

›The change view from the current to the previous version is now directly accessible by clicking the version message in the gray box.

›Changes in contiguous cells, rows and columns are now shown as one change only in the list of changes

›Sometimes, the initial project creation got stuck

April 26, 2019

›Drag and drop projects now ask for a confirmation when you upload a new version of an Excel file with a

›completely different file name.

April 17, 2019

›The latest version of the workbook can now be downloaded from the landing page.

›The drag and drop interface now accepts workbooks that are bigger than 50 MB.

›Improved handling of long running diffs.

›Enterprise only: The LDAP setup is now much more flexible, see (requires the new installer).

›Enterprise only: Project permissions have been introduced to lock down access of certain projects to specific

›users/groups.

March 22, 2019

›The comparison view now shows a list of the cell changes. You can still switch to the full sheet view to get the context.

March 15, 2019

›Drag and drop projects now allow to delete workbooks. Users with links to old versions will still be able to look at them though.

›On the history page, versions to compare can now be easily swapped from left to right and vice versa

›Various bug fixes

February 27, 2019

›LDAP fixes

›Scrollbar issues were resolved

›Various workflow enhancements for drag and drop projects

›Errors of past versions are not shown anymore on the landing page, but only on the history page

February 6, 2019

›Git repos can now also be added from the landing page like drag-and-drop projects.

›Admin users can now be deleted again.

February 1, 2019

›Enterprise only: A bug that was leaving zombie processes has been resolved.

January 18, 2019

›New REST API to get meta information about the workbooks, see the [docs](/rest-api/repositories) for details.

January 5, 2019

›In addition to integrating with external Git repositories, xltrail now allows to create Projects without any dependency on an external system. New workbook versions can be added via drag and drop.

October 26, 2018

›Fix horizontal scrollbar on sheets

October 25, 2018

›The sheet formula bar can now be expanded to show longer formulas

›Enterprise only: All ports used by xltrail can now be changed in the Management console

October 19, 2018

›Fixed an issue with special characters in sheet names

October 18, 2018

›Team members can now be added with admin privileges, i.e. they will be able to set up new repositories and team members.

October 13, 2018

›New formula bar in the sheet view that makes it easy to see the whole formula of the active cell without having to change the width of the columns

October 12, 2018

›Within diffs, the next/previous change button has been replaced with a list of changes for easier navigation

September 7, 2018

›Fixed an issue with Git repo synchronisation

August 24, 2018

›Various bug fixes

August 10, 2018

›Fixed an issue that prevented some branch names to work with the new branch comparison

August 9, 2018

›New comparison tool on the History page: Compare any two commits or branches

›Individual VBA lines and cells/cell ranges can now be selected and shared via URL

›The repository names now show a link to the original Git repository when hovering over them

›A new summary of changes at the top of the diff view makes it easy to jump to the relevant changes

›You can now right click a cell on a sheet to copy its content

›Various bug fixes

August 8, 2018

›Enterprise only: You can now set the port on which xltrail runs

May 30, 2018

›Enterprise only: Resolved connectivity issues that could occur in rare cases

May 10, 2018

›Search now allows to search for repositories

›Various bug fixes

March 22, 2018

›Unknown named ranges were preventing sheet diffs to show correctly

March 15, 2018

›Enterprise only: Log level can be set via the management console

›Diff urls were sometimes causing issues

March 12, 2018

›Enterprise only: Timeout can now be increased for complex sheet diffs via the management console

›Allow @ in git user names

March 9, 2018

›All diffs for a commit are now shown on a single page (via history page)

›Repo username and password can now be edited

›Workbooks that were tracked via Git LFS were causing an error

›Empty repos were causing an error

February 27, 2018

›Some VBA diffs were causing an error message when called from the history page

›Enterprise only: Improved installation size

February 21, 2018

›xltrail now properly supports Git branches

February 21, 2018

›MaintenanceMaintenance Release

January 2, 2018

›Enterprise only: Allow to disable Git SSL certificates verification

December 18, 2017

›Allow to change user passwords when using the internal user directory

›Add a new repo: Don't hang when Git remote can't be validated

December 2, 2017

›More prominent "Processing" badge

›Validate Git url

November 8, 2017

›Enterprise only: LDAP/AD authentication for users

›Enterprise only: Show notification when updates are available

›Improved sheet diff algorithm

›Sheet diff caching

October 24, 2017

›Enterprise only: xltrail now works behind a proxy server

October 20, 2017

›Enterprise only: Support Git remotes on file system

›Workbook size is now shown

›Better progress indication

›Show all Git versions in history

›Workbook vba/sheet search

›Collapsible sidebar

›Memory issues with big workbooks are resolved

September 26, 2017

›Show/sort VBA types analogous to VB Editor

September 22, 2017

›Initial release