A content management system (CMS) provides a way to minimize accesses to a repository when reconstituting a document. When a document is first reconstituted, the CMS reads links in the document, reads the corresponding objects from the repository, then stores the values of those objects in fallback elements in the document. In addition, a list is generated that provides both original links to the objects in the repository and voidable links to those object, and the document is then modified, if needed, to reference the voidable links. When the document needs to be subsequently reconstituted, the repository is queried to determine which of the objects corresponding to the original links have not changed since the last reconstitution. If the object has not changed, the voidable link in the list is invalidated for the object, causing the fallback element to be used without accessing the repository.