Backups and restore

Your server snapshots every app's data folder each hour into a restic repository on its disk. You restore one project at a time from the dashboard.

• Each app's data folder, DATA_DIR. Code and public files come back with the next deploy.
• SQLite databases, copied consistently while the app writes.
• The server's own state: secrets, access lists and Caddy's settings, restored by hand only.

The server keeps the newest snapshot of each of the last 24 hours, 7 days and 4 weeks, plus the last 3 taken before a restore. To leave an app out, write "backup": false in its sitesolide.json.

A running PostgreSQL or MongoDB fails the snapshot rather than being copied file by file. Declare a backup command on its service:

"postgres": {
  "start": "/bin/sh /srv/sites/shop/app/postgres.sh",
  "port": 3081,
  "internal": true,
  "backup": { "folder": "postgres", "command": "/bin/sh /srv/sites/shop/app/postgres-backup.sh" }
}

The command leaves a consistent copy in $BACKUP_DIR, which the snapshot keeps instead of the live folder. The PostgreSQL recipe gives both scripts.

From the project's folder, over the owner's SSH:

$ sitesolide backups

=== backups of notes ===
TAKEN                 KIND          SIZE      ADDED     WHERE
2026-10-20 13:00 UTC  scheduled     12 MB     24 KB     server, offsite
2026-10-20 12:00 UTC  scheduled     12 MB     3.7 MB    server, offsite

The owner and the project's Admins restore.

1. 1Open the project's Backups section in the dashboard.
2. 2Click Restore on a snapshot, and unlock when asked.
3. 3Type the project's slug to confirm, then click Restore.

The server first saves the current data as a Before restore snapshot: restore that one to undo. If the app does not come back on the restored data, its previous data is put back. The dashboard and the portal are restored by hand.

Create a bucket at an S3 provider, such as Hetzner Object Storage, Cloudflare R2 or Backblaze B2, with a key that may read, write, list and delete in it. Then create the settings file on the server, once:

$ ssh <user@host> 'sudo install -m 600 -o root -g root /dev/null /etc/sitesolide/dashboard-backup.env'

In the dashboard, open the dashboard site's Secrets, unlock, and fill dashboard-backup.env:

Store the passphrase in your password manager: without it, nobody reads the copy. The next hourly run copies the snapshots, encrypted on the server, and sitesolide backups lists them as server, offsite.

• Monitoring: hear when a snapshot fails.
• Manifest reference: the backup key.