Backups

Back up Tako app data to private S3-compatible storage, inspect backup status, download encrypted archives, and restore a selected server safely.

Backups protect a deployed app/environment’s data tree on a server. They are opt-in, compressed, encrypted, and uploaded to a private S3-compatible storage resource. Use release rollback to recover code; use a backup to recover data.

Configure a destination

[envs.production]
backup = { storage = "private_backups" }

[storages.private_backups]
provider = "s3"
bucket = "app-backups"
endpoint = "https://example.r2.cloudflarestorage.com"
region = "auto"

Set credentials without creating an app-facing binding:

tako storages credentials private_backups --env production

Deploy the configuration. Backup resources must use S3-compatible storage and must not set public_base_url; local storage cannot be the backup destination. A backup-only resource is not exposed through tako.storages unless separately bound to the app.

Know the backup boundary

The server snapshots /opt/tako/apps/<app>/<env>/data/:

Data	Included?
App-owned files under `data/app/`, including local SQLite	Yes; SQLite files are snapshotted consistently.
Local workflow state under `data/tako/`	Yes.
Channel replay and `tako.cache` databases	No; these are transient or recomputable.
Symlink targets outside the data tree	No; symlinks themselves are preserved.
External databases, shared Postgres, or S3 object contents	Not copied by the app-data snapshot; protect them separately.
Release code and dependencies	Not part of the data snapshot; releases have separate history.

Deploy creates a backup after successful finalization when enabled. The server scheduler also creates due backups at roughly 24-hour intervals. Backups are per server; one server’s local data does not automatically represent another’s.

Create and inspect

tako backups status --env production --json
tako backups now --env production --server la
tako backups list --env production --server la --json

Use explicit environment and server names when selecting recovery data. Download an archive by the ID returned by the list:

tako backups download <backup-id> --env production --server la \
  --output ./backup.tar.zst.enc

Downloads are encrypted archives. Retain access to the environment-managed backup keys as well as the storage credentials. Download and restore require --server when the environment has multiple servers.

Restore data

Confirm the app, environment, server, and backup ID before restoring:

tako backups restore <backup-id> --env production --server la

Restore verifies the archive checksum and decrypts it, stops app and workflow processes, replaces the data tree, then synchronizes workflows and resumes the app according to its desired instance state. It replaces data and can interrupt service; it is not a merge or a code rollback. An agent must establish authorization for the selected restore before using a confirmation-skipping flag.

Verify recovery

Inspect status and finite app logs, request the deployed app, and check a known record or file from the restored snapshot. Verify a recovery procedure before depending on backups for an application. If setup or credential checks fail, use backup troubleshooting.