Default Version Guard - ArcGIS Pro SDK add-in

James_Blouin — Tue, 30 Jun 2026 16:10:18 GMT

The Problem

If you edit enterprise, branch-versioned feature service data in ArcGIS Pro, you've probably had that moment of dread wondering whether you just made edits on the Default version instead of a child branch version. Even if you set Default to protected, users with Portal admin & version admin roles have the ability to make edits directly to Default.

The Solution

Minnesota DOT and the Roads and Highways User Group Community (RHUG) has developed "Default Version Guard" - an add-in for ArcGIS Pro that alerts and attempts to block edits to branch-versioned, feature services that are pointing to Default in your active map window. You can find the download for the add-in below. Once downloaded, double-click the .esriAddinX file to install in ArcGIS Pro.

Default Version Guard v1.1.1 - GitHub Release

Default Version Guard - Main GitHub Repo

Note: (Add-in compatibility: ArcGIS Pro 3.1 or later)

How it works

Alert System

Default Version Guard scans the active map in Pro and provides visual notifications.

A prominent banner appears in the map window indicating that features in the map are pointing to Default.
The Default Version Layers dock pane lists all of the layers and tables in your active map that are pointed to Default.

Default Version Guard alerts and dock pane, layer list

Optional feature - toggling editability

Features pointing to Default are only flagged if they are edit-enabled. Toggling editability off in the “List By Editing” Contents pane, will disable the alert system. This comes in handy when your map contains reference layers pointing to Default that you don’t intend to edit.

Toggling editability removes the alerts.

Block Edits

If the alerts are ignored or closed and the user attempts to edit data pointing to Default, a pop-up will fire to once again provide another warning. When edits are made to Default-sourced features, Default Version Guard will attempt to block the edit(s). See the table below for a summary of edit transaction types and blocking coverage:

Edit Interface	Edits blocked
Attribute Table	Yes
Attribute Pane	Yes
Geometry edits in map window	Yes
Calculate Field (attribute table)	Yes
ArcPy / Geoprocessing Tools / ModelBuilder	No
Location Referencing ribbon tools (merge events, etc.)	No
REST API	No

Edits in map window are blocked.

Let me know if you have any questions or encounter any issues with the add-in.

~ James Blouin - Minnesota IT Services / MnDOT

james.blouin@state.mn.us

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Default Version Guard - ArcGIS Pro SDK add-in