Backups and restore

Your server holds everyone's work. Back it up automatically, keep a copy somewhere else, and try a restore once so you know it works.

What to back up

Everything lives in the data directory (/data in the container): the SQLite database and the attachments. Nothing else needs saving; configuration is in your .env file (keep a copy of that too).

With the built-in command (recommended)

tessera-server backup writes one .tar.gz file with a consistent copy of the database and every attachment, while the server keeps running:

docker exec tessera tessera-server backup /data/backups/tessera-$(date +%F).tar.gz

Then copy the file off the machine (to another server, object storage, or your laptop).

Every night with cron

On the Docker host, crontab -e and add:

# 03:15 every night: back up, then keep the 14 newest backups.
15 3 * * * docker exec tessera tessera-server backup /data/backups/tessera-$(date +\%F).tar.gz && docker exec tessera sh -c 'ls -1t /data/backups/*.tar.gz | tail -n +15 | xargs -r rm --'

Copy /data/backups somewhere else afterwards, for example with rclone or restic.

Restore

1. Copy the backup file into ./backups next to docker-compose.yml, then stop the server: docker compose down.
2. Restore, then start the server:

docker compose run --rm -v "$PWD/backups:/backups" tessera tessera-server restore /backups/tessera-2026-09-23.tar.gz
docker compose up -d

Restore checks the archive and the database's integrity, then moves whatever is currently in DATA_DIR to DATA_DIR/pre-restore-<timestamp>/ before replacing it, so nothing is ever deleted outright: you don't need to start from an empty volume.

Clients reconnect on their own. Edits people made while the server was down are still on their devices, and sync as soon as it's back.

Volume snapshots

If you snapshot volumes (ZFS, LVM, your cloud provider), stop the container first or use the built-in command: copying a live SQLite file can capture a half-written state.

Client-side backups

Every user can also export a full JSON backup of a workspace from the app. See Import and export.