Justin Nealey

First Draft Feed is a WordPress block that renders a single post’s revision history as a readable, chronological feed. Each revision is a “moment” — timestamped, with a visual diff showing what changed. Readers follow the evolution of thinking, not just the finished product.
Who is this for?
<ul>
<li>Writers who work in public and want to expose how their thinking evolved.</li>
<li>Readers who want to follow a post’s development over time like a story.</li>
<li>Site owners who want to control which posts expose their drafts and how much history is visible.</li>
</ul>
How it works
Drop the First Draft Feed block onto any post or page. It renders a feed of that post’s revision history, pulled from a custom REST API endpoint that safely surfaces WordPress revision data without requiring authentication.
Each revision card shows:
<ul>
<li>Timestamp — when the revision was saved</li>
<li>Word count delta — e.g. “+ 312 words”</li>
<li>Visual diff — additions and removals highlighted in context, rendered as clean text (no raw HTML diffs)</li>
</ul>
The feed loads oldest-to-newest so readers experience the post as it was written.
Features
<ul>
<li>Per-post opt-in — revisions are only exposed when the author explicitly enables the feed</li>
<li>Author notes — optional context shown at the top of the feed</li>
<li>Three diff styles — inline, split, or summary view</li>
<li>Image tracking — images in revisions are preserved and diffed alongside text</li>
<li>Collapsible cards — readers expand only what interests them</li>
<li>Max revision limit — cap how many revisions appear (1-50)</li>
<li>Toggle individual elements — show or hide diffs, word counts, and timestamps</li>
<li>Block supports — wide/full alignment, background/text color, spacing, and font size</li>
</ul>
<h3>Source Code</h3>
The full source code is available on GitHub:
https://github.com/jnealey88/first-draft-feed

First Draft Feed

Show a post's revision history as a readable, chronological feed.

Pixy Puala

Sidebar Diff brings revision comparisons directly into the editor so you don’t have to leave your flow.
<ul>
<li>Always-visible panel in the editor sidebar</li>
<li>Live comparison of your current edits vs. last saved copy</li>
<li>Optionally compare against any revision from the dropdown</li>
<li>Per-block grouping with per-paragraph highlights (insertions and deletions)</li>
<li>Zero front‑end impact; editor-only assets</li>
<li>Improved diff highlighting with color-coded line indicators</li>
<li>Dark mode support for WordPress 6.8+ compatibility</li>
<li>Responsive design optimized for different screen sizes</li>
<li>Keyboard shortcuts (Ctrl+D/Cmd+D) to toggle diff panel quickly</li>
<li>Performance optimizations with lazy loading and debounced calculations</li>
</ul>
Why this isn’t a duplicate: Existing revision/workflow plugins (e.g., PublishPress Revisions) provide queues and separate compare screens. Sidebar Diff embeds an always-visible diff inspector inside the editor sidebar for continuous awareness.
<h3>Privacy</h3>
The plugin does not transmit data to third parties, set cookies, or track users. Editor-only scripts run for logged-in users with edit capabilities.

Sidebar Diff Revisions Viewer

Adds a persistent diff viewer to the Block Editor sidebar, showing live changes against the last saved revision with per-block highlights.

First Draft Feed vs Sidebar Diff Revisions Viewer