diff --git a/.forgejo/workflows/run_tests.yaml b/.forgejo/workflows/run_tests.yaml
index 1716e7e..6630ca2 100644
--- a/.forgejo/workflows/run_tests.yaml
+++ b/.forgejo/workflows/run_tests.yaml
@@ -4,6 +4,11 @@ jobs:
   Test-all:
     runs-on: ubuntu-latest
     steps:
+      - name: Set up environment
+        run: |
+          git config --global user.email "test@example.org"
+          git config --global user.name "CI Tester"
+
       - name: Check out repository code
         uses: actions/checkout@v4
 
diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 10d0b85..71547df 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -1,4 +1,15 @@
-# 5.5.1 (2026-03-10)
+# x.x.x ()
+
+## New features
+
+- Support for audit backends was added to `dump-things-service`. Currently there
+  is one audit backend type: `gitaudit`. The audit backend stores provenance information
+  about records, i.e. who changed what at which time. 
+
+- The new tool `dump-things-report-gitaudit` reports audit information for
+  individual PIDs, i.e., timestamps, user-id, associated diffs, and the
+  resulting record.
+
 
 ## Improvements
 
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 530b3dd..2debf48 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -502,6 +502,38 @@ collections:
 
 ```
 
+#### Audit Backends
+
+The service supports audit-logs of changes that are made via the curation interface.
+Audit logs are configured per collection via the key `audit-backends`.
+The key expects a list of audit-backend configurations.
+Currently the only supported audit-backend type is `gitaudit`:
+
+```yaml
+type: collections
+version: 1
+collections:
+  collection_1:
+
+    ...
+
+    audit-backends:
+      - type: gitaudit
+        path: <path to directory>
+
+  ...
+```
+Here `<path to directory>` must be a path to a directory.
+If the directory does not exist, it will be created.
+If the directory exists, it should contain a bare git repository.
+
+The commands `dump-things-report-gitaudit <path to directory> <PID>` can be used to show the audit-log for the given `PID`.
+Each log entry contains the timestamp of the change, the ID of the curator that posted the change, a diff of the change, and the resulting record.
+
+Note: currently the user ID of the curator will be stored as author in the audit-log entries.
+The "original" author of a change is usually identified in the `annotations`-field of the record.
+
+
 ### Endpoints
 
 Most endpoints require a *collection*. These correspond to the names of the "data record collection"-directories (for example `myschema-v3-fmta` in [Dump Things Service](https://concepts.datalad.org/dump-things-storage-v0/)) in the stores.
diff --git a/dump_things_service/audit/__init__.py b/dump_things_service/audit/__init__.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3bfef2b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/dump_things_service/audit/__init__.py
@@ -0,0 +1,60 @@
+from abc import (
+    ABCMeta,
+    abstractmethod,
+)
+
+
+class AuditBackend(metaclass=ABCMeta):
+    @abstractmethod
+    def add_record(
+            self,
+            record_id: str,
+            record: dict,
+            user_id: str,
+    ) -> None:
+        """Add information about a new record version to the audit log
+
+        :param record_id: the ID of the record (this is usually `record['pid']`.
+        :param record: the content of the new record (will be stored in YAML format).
+        :param user_id: the ID of the user who adds the record.
+        :return: A dictionary where the keys are time stamps of the changes,
+                 the values are tuples containing the elements:
+                 (user_id, diff, resulting_record), where user_id is the
+                 `user_id` that was used in `add_record`, `resulting_record` is
+                 the YAML-representation of `record` that was given to
+                 `add_record`, and diff is path the transfers the previous
+                 version of the record to the version provided in `record` (in
+                 git-diff format).
+        """
+        raise NotImplementedError
+
+    @abstractmethod
+    def flush(self):
+        """Ensure that all audit-log entries are persisted on disk
+
+        After `flush()` is external tools should be able to pick up all
+        log-entries from the persisted data.
+        """
+        raise NotImplementedError
+
+    @abstractmethod
+    def get_audit_log(
+            self,
+            record_id: str,
+    ) -> dict:
+        """Get the content of the audit log
+
+        All diffs and content are communicated in YAML format.
+
+        :param record_id: the ID of the record (as given in the parameter
+               `record_id` in the call to `add_record`).
+        :return: A dictionary where the keys are time stamps of the changes,
+                 the values are tuples containing the elements:
+                 (user_id, diff, resulting_record), where user_id is the
+                 `user_id` that was used in `add_record`, `resulting_record` is
+                 the YAML-representation of `record` that was given to
+                 `add_record`, and diff is path the transfers the previous
+                 version of the record to the version provided in `record` (in
+                 git-diff format).
+        """
+        raise NotImplementedError
diff --git a/dump_things_service/audit/gitaudit.py b/dump_things_service/audit/gitaudit.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8d4ce51
--- /dev/null
+++ b/dump_things_service/audit/gitaudit.py
@@ -0,0 +1,199 @@
+"""A git-based audit backend
+
+The backend minimizes commits by caching changes until an already
+changed record is changed again. In this case all changes are
+committed.
+
+Changes are annotated with a time stamp and a user-id
+"""
+import hashlib
+from datetime import datetime
+from pathlib import Path
+
+import yaml
+from datalad_core.git_utils import apply_changeset
+from datalad_core.repo import Repo
+from datalad_core.runners import (
+    call_git,
+    CommandError,
+)
+
+from . import AuditBackend
+
+
+class GitAuditBackend(AuditBackend):
+
+    def __init__(
+            self,
+            path: Path,
+    ):
+        self.path = path
+        self.cache = {}
+        self.current_change_set = {}
+        self.repo = self._init_repo()
+
+    def add_record(
+            self,
+            record_id: str,
+            record: dict,
+            user_id: str,
+    ) -> None:
+        location = self._get_location_for(record_id)
+        if self._has_pending_changes(location):
+            self._persist_pending_changes()
+        self._add_elements(location, user_id, record)
+
+    def flush(self):
+        if self.current_change_set:
+            self._persist_pending_changes()
+
+    def get_audit_log(
+            self,
+            record_id: str,
+    ) -> dict:
+        self.flush()
+
+        # Get all commits that updated the log. Those will also have updated
+        # the records
+        changes = []
+        yaml_location, log_location = map(str, self._get_location_for(record_id)[1:])
+        commit_hashes = call_git(
+            ['log', '--format=%H', '--', log_location],
+            cwd=self.path,
+            capture_output=True,
+        ).decode().splitlines()
+        for commit_hash in commit_hashes:
+            log_diff_lines = call_git(
+                ['show', '--format=%b', commit_hash, '--', log_location],
+                cwd=self.path,
+                capture_output=True,
+            ).decode().splitlines()
+            # Get the log entry
+            log_entry = tuple(
+                filter(
+                    lambda l: not l.startswith('+++') and l.startswith('+'),
+                    log_diff_lines,
+                )
+            )[0][1:]
+            time_stamp, user_id = log_entry.split(' ', 1)
+
+            # Get the YAML diff
+            yaml_diff_lines = call_git(
+                ['show', '--format=%b', commit_hash, '--', yaml_location],
+                cwd=self.path,
+                capture_output=True,
+            ).decode().splitlines()
+            yaml_diff = '\n'.join(filter(lambda l: l != '', yaml_diff_lines)) + '\n'
+
+            # Get the YAML content
+            yaml_content = call_git(
+                ['show', f'{commit_hash}:{yaml_location}'],
+                cwd=self.path,
+                capture_output=True,
+            ).decode()
+            changes.append((time_stamp, user_id, yaml_diff, yaml_content))
+
+        changes.sort()
+        return {c[0]: c[1:] for c in changes}
+
+    def _add_elements(
+            self,
+            location: tuple[str, Path, Path],
+            user_id: str,
+            record: dict,
+    ) -> bool:
+        existing_record = self._read_record_from_repo_path(location[1])
+        if existing_record != record:
+            self.current_change_set[location[1]] = yaml.dump(
+                data=record,
+                sort_keys=False,
+                allow_unicode=True,
+                default_flow_style=False,
+            )
+            self._add_log_entry(location[2], user_id)
+            return True
+        return False
+
+    def _add_log_entry(
+            self,
+            log_location: Path,
+            user_id: str,
+    ) -> None:
+        time_stamp = datetime.now().isoformat()
+        log_content = self._read_from_repo_path(log_location).decode()
+        log_content += f'{time_stamp} {user_id}\n'
+        self.current_change_set[log_location] = log_content
+
+    def _read_from_repo_path(
+            self,
+            path: Path,
+    ) -> bytes:
+        try:
+            return call_git(
+                ['cat-file', '-p', f'master:{str(path)}'],
+                cwd=self.path,
+                capture_output=True,
+            )
+        except CommandError as e:
+            if e.returncode == 128:
+                return b''
+            raise
+
+    def _read_record_from_repo_path(
+            self,
+            path: Path,
+    ):
+        return yaml.safe_load(self._read_from_repo_path(path))
+
+    def _has_pending_changes(
+            self,
+            location: tuple[str, Path, Path],
+    ) -> bool:
+        log_pending = location[1] in self.current_change_set
+        record_pending = location[2] in self.current_change_set
+        if log_pending != record_pending:
+            msg = (
+                f'change status mismatch: changed: '
+                f'{location[1]} ({log_pending}), '
+                f'{location[2]} ({record_pending})'
+            )
+            raise SystemError(msg)
+        return log_pending
+
+    def _persist_pending_changes(self) -> None:
+        apply_changeset(
+            self.repo,
+            self.current_change_set,
+            message='persist changes',
+        )
+        self.current_change_set = {}
+
+    def _get_location_for(
+            self,
+            record_id: str,
+    ) -> tuple[str, Path, Path]:
+        base = hashlib.sha1(record_id.encode()).hexdigest()
+        dir_1, dir_2, name = base[0:3], base[3:6], base[6:]
+        location_dir = Path(dir_1) / Path(dir_2)
+        return (
+            base,
+            location_dir / (base + '.yaml'),
+            location_dir / (base + '.log'),
+        )
+
+    def _init_repo(self) -> Repo:
+        if self.path.exists():
+            is_empty = len(tuple(Path(self.path).glob('**'))) == 1
+        else:
+            self.path.mkdir(parents=True)
+            is_empty = True
+        if is_empty:
+            call_git(['init', '--bare', str(self.path)], cwd=self.path)
+        self.repo = Repo(self.path)
+
+        apply_changeset(
+            self.repo,
+            {'README.txt': 'A git-based audit backend\n'},
+            message='add README.txt',
+        )
+        return self.repo
diff --git a/dump_things_service/audit/tests/__init__.py b/dump_things_service/audit/tests/__init__.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e69de29
diff --git a/dump_things_service/audit/tests/test_gitaudit.py b/dump_things_service/audit/tests/test_gitaudit.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1620355
--- /dev/null
+++ b/dump_things_service/audit/tests/test_gitaudit.py
@@ -0,0 +1,103 @@
+import subprocess
+from pathlib import Path
+
+from dump_things_service.audit.gitaudit import GitAuditBackend
+
+
+def _get_git_log(path: Path) -> list[str]:
+    result = subprocess.run(
+        ['git', '-C', str(path), 'log', '--oneline'],
+        capture_output=True,
+        check=True,
+    )
+    return result.stdout.decode().splitlines()
+
+
+def _get_audit_log_lines(backend: GitAuditBackend, record_id: str) -> list[str]:
+    locations = backend._get_location_for(record_id)
+    return backend._read_from_repo_path(locations[2]).decode().splitlines()
+
+
+def test_gitaudit_basic(tmp_path_factory):
+    tmp_path = tmp_path_factory.mktemp("gitaudit_backend")
+
+    backend = GitAuditBackend(tmp_path)
+
+    record_id = 'test_gitaudit_basic'
+
+    for index in range(4):
+        backend.add_record(
+            record_id=record_id,
+            record={'pid': record_id, 'content': index},
+            user_id=f'tester_{index}@example.com',
+        )
+
+    # Check that the log file has 4 entries
+    backend.flush()
+    log_lines = _get_audit_log_lines(backend, record_id)
+    assert len(log_lines) == 4
+
+    # Check that the commit log has 4 + 1 (from `README.txt`) entries
+    commit_log_lines = _get_git_log(tmp_path)
+    assert len(commit_log_lines) == 5
+
+    # Check that the changes are reported
+    changes = backend.get_audit_log(record_id)
+    assert len(changes) == 4
+    assert tuple(map(lambda e: e[0], changes.values())) == tuple((f'tester_{i}@example.com' for i in range(4)))
+
+
+def test_gitaudit_identical_change(tmp_path_factory):
+    tmp_path = tmp_path_factory.mktemp("gitaudit_backend")
+
+    backend = GitAuditBackend(tmp_path)
+
+    record_id = 'test_gitaudit_idempotent'
+    backend.add_record(
+        record_id=record_id,
+        record={'pid': record_id},
+        user_id='tester@example.com',
+    )
+
+    backend.add_record(
+        record_id=record_id,
+        record={'pid': record_id},
+        user_id='tester@example.com',
+    )
+
+    # Check that there is only one entry in the audit log
+    log_lines = _get_audit_log_lines(backend, record_id)
+    assert len(log_lines) == 1
+
+    # Check that there are two entries in the commit history, one for the
+    # `README.txt`-file, one for the log entries.
+    commit_log_lines = _get_git_log(tmp_path)
+    assert len(commit_log_lines) == 2
+
+    # Check that the changes are reported
+    changes = backend.get_audit_log(record_id)
+    assert len(changes) == 1
+
+
+def test_gitaudit_huge_log(tmp_path_factory):
+    tmp_path = tmp_path_factory.mktemp("gitaudit_backend")
+
+    backend = GitAuditBackend(tmp_path)
+
+    change_number = 2
+    record_number = 100
+
+    for j in range(change_number):
+        for i in range(record_number):
+            record_id = f'huge_{i}'
+            backend.add_record(
+                record_id=record_id,
+                record={'pid': record_id, 'content': f'j:{j}, i:{i}'},
+                user_id='tester@example.com',
+            )
+
+    # Check that the changes are reported
+    for i in range(record_number):
+        record_id = f'huge_{i}'
+        changes = backend.get_audit_log(record_id)
+        assert len(changes) == change_number
diff --git a/dump_things_service/commands/report_gitaudit.py b/dump_things_service/commands/report_gitaudit.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5ec037a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/dump_things_service/commands/report_gitaudit.py
@@ -0,0 +1,47 @@
+from __future__ import annotations
+
+import json
+import sys
+from argparse import ArgumentParser
+from pathlib import Path
+
+from dump_things_service.audit.gitaudit import GitAuditBackend
+
+
+parser = ArgumentParser(
+    prog='Report audit information for a PID',
+    description='Report the audit information that was stored for a specific '
+                'PID. For every change to a record the tool will report: '
+                'time stamp, user ID, diff, and the resulting record.',
+)
+parser.add_argument(
+    'audit_store',
+    help='The path to the gitaudit store',
+)
+parser.add_argument(
+    'pid',
+    help='The PID of the record for which audit information should be reported.',
+)
+
+
+def main():
+    arguments = parser.parse_args()
+
+    audit_backend = GitAuditBackend(Path(arguments.audit_store))
+    changes = audit_backend.get_audit_log(arguments.pid)
+
+    output = {
+        time_stamp: {
+            'user-id': change[0],
+            'diff': change[1],
+            'resulting-record': change[2],
+        }
+        for time_stamp, change in changes.items()
+    }
+
+    print(json.dumps(output, indent=2, ensure_ascii=False))
+    return 0
+
+
+if __name__ == '__main__':
+    sys.exit(main())
diff --git a/dump_things_service/config.py b/dump_things_service/config.py
index 59b8a16..b47b236 100644
--- a/dump_things_service/config.py
+++ b/dump_things_service/config.py
@@ -27,6 +27,7 @@ from dump_things_service import (
     HTTP_404_NOT_FOUND,
     Format,
 )
+from dump_things_service.audit.gitaudit import GitAuditBackend
 from dump_things_service.backends.record_dir import RecordDirStore
 from dump_things_service.backends.schema_type_layer import SchemaTypeLayer
 from dump_things_service.backends.sqlite import SQLiteBackend
@@ -129,6 +130,11 @@ class ConfigAuthConfig(StrictModel):
     type: Literal['config'] = 'config'
 
 
+class GitAuditBackendConfig(StrictModel):
+    type: Literal['gitaudit']
+    path: Path
+
+
 class TagConfig(StrictModel):
     submitter_id_tag: str = 'http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/NCIT_C54269'
     submission_time_tag: str = 'http://semanticscience.org/resource/SIO_001083'
@@ -143,6 +149,7 @@ class CollectionConfig(StrictModel):
     submission_tags: TagConfig = TagConfig()
     use_classes: list[str] = dataclasses.field(default_factory=list)
     ignore_classes: list[str] = dataclasses.field(default_factory=list)
+    audit_backends: list[GitAuditBackendConfig] = dataclasses.field(default_factory=list)
 
 
 class GlobalConfig(StrictModel):
@@ -174,6 +181,7 @@ class InstanceConfig:
     validators: dict = dataclasses.field(default_factory=dict)
     use_classes: dict = dataclasses.field(default_factory=dict)
     maintenance_mode: set = dataclasses.field(default_factory=set)
+    audit_backends: dict = dataclasses.field(default_factory=dict)
 
 mode_mapping = {
     TokenModes.READ_CURATED: TokenPermission(curated_read=True),
@@ -446,6 +454,13 @@ def process_config_object(
         # authentication routine.
         instance_config.token_stores[collection_name] = {}
 
+        # Generate audit backends
+        instance_config.audit_backends[collection_name] = []
+        for audit_backend in collection_info.audit_backends:
+            instance_config.audit_backends[collection_name].append(
+                GitAuditBackend(audit_backend.path)
+            )
+
     # Create validator for each collection
     for collection_name, _ in config_object.collections.items():
         instance_config.validators[collection_name] = FormatConverter(
diff --git a/dump_things_service/curated.py b/dump_things_service/curated.py
index bb70aad..6f12927 100644
--- a/dump_things_service/curated.py
+++ b/dump_things_service/curated.py
@@ -374,3 +374,10 @@ async def store_curated_record(
             class_name,
             json_object,
         )
+
+    for audit_backend in instance_config.audit_backends[collection]:
+        audit_backend.add_record(
+            record_id=pid,
+            record=json_object,
+            user_id=instance_config.tokens[collection][api_key]['user_id'],
+        )
diff --git a/dump_things_service/tests/fixtures.py b/dump_things_service/tests/fixtures.py
index 6edc5b0..5eb4cb7 100644
--- a/dump_things_service/tests/fixtures.py
+++ b/dump_things_service/tests/fixtures.py
@@ -42,6 +42,9 @@ collections:
     submission_tags:
       submitter_id_tag: oxo:NCIT_C54269
       submission_time_tag: https://time
+    audit_backends:
+      - type: gitaudit
+        path: {{audit_store_path}}
   collection_2:
     default_token: basic_access
     curated: {curated}/collection_2
@@ -269,7 +272,10 @@ tokens:
 @pytest.fixture(scope='session')
 def dump_stores_simple(tmp_path_factory):
     tmp_path = tmp_path_factory.mktemp('dump_store')
-    (tmp_path / config_file_name).write_text(global_config_text)
+    audit_store_path = tmp_path_factory.mktemp('audit_store')
+
+    final_config_text = global_config_text.format(audit_store_path=str(audit_store_path))
+    (tmp_path / config_file_name).write_text(final_config_text)
 
     default_entries = {
         f'collection_{i}': [('Person', pid, test_record)] for i in range(1, 9)
@@ -289,7 +295,7 @@ def dump_stores_simple(tmp_path_factory):
     default_entries['collection_dlflatsocial-2'] = [('Person', pid_trr, test_record_trr)]
     create_store(
         root_dir=tmp_path,
-        config=GlobalConfig(**yaml.safe_load(global_config_text)),
+        config=GlobalConfig(**yaml.safe_load(final_config_text)),
         per_collection_info={
             'collection_1': (str(schema_path), 'digest-md5'),
             'collection_2': (str(schema_path), 'digest-md5-p3'),
diff --git a/dump_things_service/tests/test_curated.py b/dump_things_service/tests/test_curated.py
index b1888c1..3af68d7 100644
--- a/dump_things_service/tests/test_curated.py
+++ b/dump_things_service/tests/test_curated.py
@@ -1,11 +1,13 @@
 from __future__ import annotations
 
 import pytest
+import yaml
 
 from dump_things_service import (
     HTTP_200_OK,
     HTTP_404_NOT_FOUND,
 )
+from dump_things_service.config import get_config
 
 delete_record = {
     'schema_type': 'abc:Person',
@@ -109,3 +111,38 @@ def test_curated_delete(fastapi_client_simple):
         headers={'x-dumpthings-token': 'token_1_xxxxx'},
     )
     assert response.status_code == HTTP_404_NOT_FOUND
+
+
+def test_audit_backend(fastapi_client_simple):
+    test_client, _ = fastapi_client_simple
+
+    record_id = 'abc:audit-trailed'
+    names = 'Frederick', 'Johny'
+    tokens = 'token_1_xxxxx', 'token_admin'
+    user_names = 'test_user_1_curated', 'test_admin'
+    json_objects = tuple(
+        {
+            'schema_type': 'abc:Person',
+            'pid': record_id,
+            'given_name': name,
+        }
+        for name in names
+    )
+
+    for i in range(2):
+        response = test_client.post(
+            '/collection_1/curated/record/Person',
+            headers={'x-dumpthings-token': tokens[i]},
+            json=json_objects[i],
+        )
+        assert response.status_code == HTTP_200_OK
+
+    config_instance = get_config()
+    audit_backend = config_instance.audit_backends['collection_1'][0]
+
+    changes = audit_backend.get_audit_log(record_id)
+    assert len(changes) == 2
+    values = tuple(changes.values())
+    for i in range(2):
+        assert values[i][0] == user_names[i]
+        assert yaml.safe_load(values[i][2]) == json_objects[i]
diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index f852c96..9104d5f 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -2,6 +2,10 @@
 requires = ["hatchling"]
 build-backend = "hatchling.build"
 
+[tool.hatch.metadata]
+# This is required for the git+https dependency
+allow-direct-references = true
+
 [project]
 name = "dump-things-service"
 dynamic = ["version"]
@@ -27,6 +31,7 @@ classifiers = [
 dependencies = [
     "aiohttp",
     "click",
+    "datalad-core @ git+https://hub.datalad.org/datalad/datalad-core@minilad",
     "fastapi[standard]",
     "fastapi-pagination",
     "fsspec",
@@ -50,6 +55,7 @@ dump-things-rebuild-index = "dump_things_service.commands.rebuild_index:main"
 dump-things-copy-store = "dump_things_service.commands.copy_store:main"
 dump-things-pid-check = "dump_things_service.commands.check_pids:main"
 dump-things-create-merged-schema = "dump_things_service.commands.create_merged_schema:main"
+dump-things-report-gitaudit = "dump_things_service.commands.report_gitaudit:main"
 
 [tool.hatch.build.targets.wheel]
 exclude = [