A revision request is received at a revision control system that includes a repository identifier, version summary information, and a change description. In response to receiving the revision request, a determination is made as to whether a document repository identified by the repository identifier is active or offline. If the document repository is offline, the version summary information is utilized to determine whether the revision request is probably consistent with current contents of the document repository. If the revision request is probably consistent with the current contents of the document repository, the revision request is placed into a queue, an acceptance message is transmitted in response to the revision request, the document repository is placed into an active state, and the revision request is dequeued and applied to the document repository using the change description.