diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 2debf48..dbac399 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -527,9 +527,13 @@ 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`.
+The command `dump-things-gitaudit-report <path to directory> <PID-pattern>` can be used to show the audit-log for all PIDs that match the given `PID`-pattern (pattern are in python `re`-module syntax, i.e. use `'.*'` to report changes for all PIDs).
 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.
 
+The command `dump-things-gitaudit-rebuild-index <path to directory>` can be used to rebuild an index for a git-audit backend.
+Executing this command should not be necessary in normal operations because the backend will rebuild an index if it is instantiated on a directory that has no index.
+The command mainly exists for maintenance purposes.
+
 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.
 
@@ -673,7 +677,7 @@ The service provides the following user endpoints (In addition to user endpoints
 
 The service supports a set of curation endpoints that allows direct access to the curated area as well as the incoming areas.
 A `CURATOR`-token required to access these endpoints.
-Details about the curation endpoints can be found in [this issue](https://github.com/christian-monch/dump-things-server/issues/118).
+Details about the curation endpoints can be found in [this issue](https://codeberg.org/datalink/dump-things-server/issues/118).
 
 
 ### Tips & Tricks
diff --git a/dump_things_service/audit/__init__.py b/dump_things_service/audit/__init__.py
index 3bfef2b..c7520ce 100644
--- a/dump_things_service/audit/__init__.py
+++ b/dump_things_service/audit/__init__.py
@@ -8,15 +8,18 @@ class AuditBackend(metaclass=ABCMeta):
     @abstractmethod
     def add_record(
             self,
-            record_id: str,
             record: dict,
-            user_id: str,
+            committer_id: str,
+            author_id: str | None = None,
     ) -> 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.
+        :param record: the content of the new record. The record must contain
+               a `pid`-key which is associated with the ID of the record (the
+               record will be stored in YAML format).
+        :param committer_id: the ID of the user who adds the record.
+        :param author_id: the ID of the user who modified the record, defaults
+               to `committer_id` if not given.
         :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
diff --git a/dump_things_service/audit/gitaudit.py b/dump_things_service/audit/gitaudit.py
index 8d4ce51..5feeefe 100644
--- a/dump_things_service/audit/gitaudit.py
+++ b/dump_things_service/audit/gitaudit.py
@@ -7,6 +7,8 @@ committed.
 Changes are annotated with a time stamp and a user-id
 """
 import hashlib
+import re
+import string
 from datetime import datetime
 from pathlib import Path
 
@@ -28,24 +30,33 @@ class GitAuditBackend(AuditBackend):
             path: Path,
     ):
         self.path = path
-        self.cache = {}
+        self.index_path = None
+        self.cached_index_entries = []
         self.current_change_set = {}
-        self.repo = self._init_repo()
+        self._init_repo()
 
     def add_record(
             self,
-            record_id: str,
             record: dict,
-            user_id: str,
+            committer_id: str,
+            author_id: str = '',
     ) -> None:
+        author_id = committer_id if author_id == '' else author_id
+        committer_id = self._escape_person_id(committer_id)
+        author_id = self._escape_person_id(author_id)
+        record_id = record['pid']
         location = self._get_location_for(record_id)
         if self._has_pending_changes(location):
             self._persist_pending_changes()
-        self._add_elements(location, user_id, record)
+        self._add_elements(record_id, location, committer_id, author_id, record)
 
     def flush(self):
         if self.current_change_set:
             self._persist_pending_changes()
+        if self.cached_index_entries:
+            with self.index_path.open('at') as f:
+                f.write('\n'.join(self.cached_index_entries) + '\n')
+            self.cached_index_entries = []
 
     def get_audit_log(
             self,
@@ -75,7 +86,7 @@ class GitAuditBackend(AuditBackend):
                     log_diff_lines,
                 )
             )[0][1:]
-            time_stamp, user_id = log_entry.split(' ', 1)
+            time_stamp, committer_id, author_id = log_entry.split(' ')
 
             # Get the YAML diff
             yaml_diff_lines = call_git(
@@ -91,15 +102,36 @@ class GitAuditBackend(AuditBackend):
                 cwd=self.path,
                 capture_output=True,
             ).decode()
-            changes.append((time_stamp, user_id, yaml_diff, yaml_content))
+            changes.append(
+                (time_stamp, committer_id, author_id, yaml_diff, yaml_content)
+            )
 
         changes.sort()
         return {c[0]: c[1:] for c in changes}
 
+    def get_audit_logs(
+            self,
+            record_id_pattern: str,
+    ) -> dict:
+        self.flush()
+        matcher = re.compile(record_id_pattern)
+        matching_ids = tuple(
+            filter(
+                lambda record_id: matcher.fullmatch(record_id) is not None,
+                self.index,
+            )
+        )
+        return {
+            record_id: self.get_audit_log(record_id)
+            for record_id in sorted(matching_ids)
+        }
+
     def _add_elements(
             self,
+            record_id: str,
             location: tuple[str, Path, Path],
-            user_id: str,
+            committer_id: str,
+            author_id: str,
             record: dict,
     ) -> bool:
         existing_record = self._read_record_from_repo_path(location[1])
@@ -110,20 +142,30 @@ class GitAuditBackend(AuditBackend):
                 allow_unicode=True,
                 default_flow_style=False,
             )
-            self._add_log_entry(location[2], user_id)
+            self._add_log_entry(location[2], committer_id, author_id)
+            self._add_index_entry(record_id)
             return True
         return False
 
     def _add_log_entry(
             self,
             log_location: Path,
-            user_id: str,
+            committer_id: str,
+            author_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'
+        log_content += f'{time_stamp} {committer_id} {author_id}\n'
         self.current_change_set[log_location] = log_content
 
+    def _add_index_entry(
+            self,
+            record_id: str,
+    ):
+        if record_id not in self.index:
+            self.cached_index_entries.append(record_id)
+        self.index.add(record_id)
+
     def _read_from_repo_path(
             self,
             path: Path,
@@ -181,19 +223,77 @@ class GitAuditBackend(AuditBackend):
             location_dir / (base + '.log'),
         )
 
-    def _init_repo(self) -> Repo:
+    def _init_repo(self) -> None:
         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)
+        self.index_path = self.path / 'index.log'
 
-        apply_changeset(
-            self.repo,
-            {'README.txt': 'A git-based audit backend\n'},
-            message='add README.txt',
-        )
-        return self.repo
+        if is_empty:
+            call_git(['init', '--bare', str(self.path)], capture_output=True)
+            self.repo = Repo(self.path)
+            apply_changeset(
+                self.repo,
+                {'README.txt': 'A git-based audit backend\n'},
+                message='add README.txt',
+            )
+            self.index_path.write_text('')
+        else:
+            self.repo = Repo(self.path)
+
+        if not self.index_path.exists():
+            self._rebuild_index()
+
+        with open(self.index_path, 'rt') as f:
+            self.index = set(line.strip() for line in f.readlines())
+
+    def _add_to_index(
+            self,
+            record_id: str,
+    ):
+        if record_id not in self.index:
+            self.cached_index_entries.append(record_id)
+        self.index.add(record_id)
+
+    def _rebuild_index(self):
+        print('rebuilding index')
+        tree_entries = call_git(
+            ['ls-tree', '-r', 'master:'],
+            cwd=self.path,
+            capture_output=True,
+        ).decode().splitlines()
+        with open(self.index_path, 'wt') as f:
+            for line in tree_entries:
+                if not line.endswith('.yaml'):
+                    print('ignoring line:', repr(line))
+                    continue
+                print('got line:', repr(line))
+                flag, object_type, object_hash, file_name = line.split()
+                record = yaml.safe_load(
+                    call_git(
+                        ['show', object_hash],
+                        cwd=self.path,
+                        capture_output=True,
+                    ).decode()
+                )
+                print('got record:', repr(record))
+                f.write(record['pid'] + '\n')
+
+    def _escape_person_id(
+            self,
+            person_id: str,
+    ):
+        if not person_id:
+            msg = f'empty ID string not allowed: {person_id}'
+            raise ValueError(msg)
+        if any(
+                map(
+                    lambda character: character in person_id,
+                    string.whitespace
+                )
+        ):
+            msg = f'ID string must not contain whitespace: {person_id}'
+            raise ValueError(msg)
+        return person_id
diff --git a/dump_things_service/audit/tests/test_gitaudit.py b/dump_things_service/audit/tests/test_gitaudit.py
index 1620355..ef1e059 100644
--- a/dump_things_service/audit/tests/test_gitaudit.py
+++ b/dump_things_service/audit/tests/test_gitaudit.py
@@ -27,9 +27,9 @@ def test_gitaudit_basic(tmp_path_factory):
 
     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',
+            committer_id=f'committer_{100 + index}@x.org',
+            author_id=f'author_{index}@y.org',
         )
 
     # Check that the log file has 4 entries
@@ -44,7 +44,10 @@ def test_gitaudit_basic(tmp_path_factory):
     # 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)))
+    assert tuple(map(lambda e: e[0:2], changes.values())) == tuple(
+        (f'committer_{100 + i}@x.org', f'author_{i}@y.org')
+        for i in range(4)
+    )
 
 
 def test_gitaudit_identical_change(tmp_path_factory):
@@ -54,15 +57,15 @@ def test_gitaudit_identical_change(tmp_path_factory):
 
     record_id = 'test_gitaudit_idempotent'
     backend.add_record(
-        record_id=record_id,
         record={'pid': record_id},
-        user_id='tester@example.com',
+        committer_id='committer_b@x.org',
+        author_id = 'author_b@y.org',
     )
 
     backend.add_record(
-        record_id=record_id,
         record={'pid': record_id},
-        user_id='tester@example.com',
+        committer_id='committer_b@x.org',
+        author_id = 'author_b@y.org',
     )
 
     # Check that there is only one entry in the audit log
@@ -91,9 +94,9 @@ def test_gitaudit_huge_log(tmp_path_factory):
         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',
+                committer_id='committer@x.org',
+                author_id = 'author@y.org',
             )
 
     # Check that the changes are reported
diff --git a/dump_things_service/commands/gitaudit_rebuild_index.py b/dump_things_service/commands/gitaudit_rebuild_index.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..bde297e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/dump_things_service/commands/gitaudit_rebuild_index.py
@@ -0,0 +1,29 @@
+from __future__ import annotations
+
+import sys
+from argparse import ArgumentParser
+from pathlib import Path
+
+from dump_things_service.audit.gitaudit import GitAuditBackend
+
+
+parser = ArgumentParser(
+    prog='Rebuild the index of a `gitaudit`-database',
+    description='This command rebuilds the index of a `gitaudit`-database.'
+)
+parser.add_argument(
+    'audit_store',
+    help='The directory in which the `gitaudit`-database is located.'
+)
+
+
+def main():
+    arguments = parser.parse_args()
+
+    audit_backend = GitAuditBackend(Path(arguments.audit_store))
+    audit_backend._rebuild_index()
+    return 0
+
+
+if __name__ == '__main__':
+    sys.exit(main())
diff --git a/dump_things_service/commands/gitaudit_report.py b/dump_things_service/commands/gitaudit_report.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..06600b8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/dump_things_service/commands/gitaudit_report.py
@@ -0,0 +1,56 @@
+from __future__ import annotations
+
+import json
+import re
+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='Regex pattern that identifies PIDs of the record for which audit '
+         'information should be reported '
+         '(to see all audit log entries, specify ".*").',
+)
+
+
+def main():
+    arguments = parser.parse_args()
+
+    try:
+        re.compile(arguments.pid)
+    except re.error as e:
+        print('Error in PID pattern:', e, file=sys.stderr, flush=True)
+        return 1
+
+    audit_backend = GitAuditBackend(Path(arguments.audit_store))
+    all_changes = audit_backend.get_audit_logs(arguments.pid)
+    for record_id, report_changes in all_changes.items():
+        for time_stamp, change in report_changes.items():
+            report = {
+                'time-stamp': time_stamp,
+                'record-id': record_id,
+                'committer-id': change[0],
+                'author-id': change[1],
+                'diff': change[2],
+                'resulting-record': change[3],
+            }
+            print(json.dumps(report, ensure_ascii=False), flush=True)
+    return 0
+
+
+if __name__ == '__main__':
+    sys.exit(main())
diff --git a/dump_things_service/commands/report_gitaudit.py b/dump_things_service/commands/report_gitaudit.py
deleted file mode 100644
index 5ec037a..0000000
--- a/dump_things_service/commands/report_gitaudit.py
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,47 +0,0 @@
-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/curated.py b/dump_things_service/curated.py
index 6f12927..7366343 100644
--- a/dump_things_service/curated.py
+++ b/dump_things_service/curated.py
@@ -44,17 +44,20 @@ if TYPE_CHECKING:
 _endpoint_curated_template = """
 async def {name}(
     data: {model_var_name}.{class_name},
+    author_id: str | None = None,
     api_key: str = Depends(api_key_header_scheme),
 ) -> JSONResponse:
     logger.info(
-        '{name}(%s, %s)',
+        '{name}(%s, %s, %s)',
         repr(data),
+        repr(author_id),
         repr({model_var_name}),
     )
     return await store_curated_record(
         '{collection}',
         data,
         '{class_name}',
+        author_id,
         api_key,
     )
 """
@@ -353,6 +356,7 @@ async def store_curated_record(
     collection: str,
     data: BaseModel,
     class_name: str,
+    author_id: str | None = None,
     api_key: str | None = Depends(api_key_header_scheme),
 ):
 
@@ -377,7 +381,7 @@ async def store_curated_record(
 
     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'],
+            committer_id=instance_config.tokens[collection][api_key]['user_id'],
+            author_id=author_id,
         )
diff --git a/dump_things_service/tests/test_curated.py b/dump_things_service/tests/test_curated.py
index 3af68d7..e6a99a3 100644
--- a/dump_things_service/tests/test_curated.py
+++ b/dump_things_service/tests/test_curated.py
@@ -131,7 +131,7 @@ def test_audit_backend(fastapi_client_simple):
 
     for i in range(2):
         response = test_client.post(
-            '/collection_1/curated/record/Person',
+            f'/collection_1/curated/record/Person?author_id=author_{i}@www.org',
             headers={'x-dumpthings-token': tokens[i]},
             json=json_objects[i],
         )
@@ -145,4 +145,5 @@ def test_audit_backend(fastapi_client_simple):
     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]
+        assert values[i][1] == f'author_{i}@www.org'
+        assert yaml.safe_load(values[i][3]) == json_objects[i]
diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index 9104d5f..af15cfa 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -55,7 +55,8 @@ 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"
+dump-things-gitaudit-report = "dump_things_service.commands.gitaudit_report:main"
+dump-things-gitaudit-rebuild-index = "dump_things_service.commands.gitaudit_rebuild_index:main"
 
 [tool.hatch.build.targets.wheel]
 exclude = [
@@ -118,7 +119,7 @@ extra-dependencies = [
 ]
 
 [tool.hatch.envs.tests.scripts]
-run = 'python -m pytest {args:dump_things_service/tests dump_things_service/backends/tests}'
+run = 'python -m pytest {args}'
 
 [tool.ruff]
 extend-exclude = [