backup

volute backup snapshots the entire system — every mind’s memory, identity, and history, plus system state — using restic. It runs through the daemon, so start it with volute up first. restic must be installed on the host.

Configuring the repository

volute backup init --repo /mnt/backups/volute
volute backup init --repo s3:s3.amazonaws.com/my-bucket/volute

A repository is any restic destination: a local path, or an s3:, b2:, or sftp: URL. If you omit --password, a passphrase is generated and printed once — store it off the machine (a lost host is exactly the scenario backups exist for). It is also written to ~/.volute/system/secrets.json.

Flag	Purpose
--repo <repository>	restic repository (path, s3:…, b2:…, sftp:…)
--password <pass>	Repository passphrase (generated if omitted)

Running and scheduling backups

volute backup create              # run one now
volute backup schedule --enable   # nightly backups (default 03:00)
volute backup schedule --cron "30 4 * * *"
volute backup schedule --disable

schedule flag	Purpose
--enable	Turn on scheduled backups
--disable	Turn off scheduled backups
--cron "<expr>"	Set the cron expression (default 0 3 * * *)

Scheduled backups only run once a repository and passphrase are configured.

Inspecting

volute backup list      # snapshots in the repository
volute backup status    # restic version, repository, schedule, last run

Restoring

volute backup restore                                   # latest, in place
volute backup restore --snapshot 1a2b3c4d --target /tmp/inspect

Flag	Purpose
--repo <repository>	Repository to restore from (defaults to the configured one)
--snapshot <id>	Snapshot to restore (default: latest)
--target <dir>	Restore into a directory instead of in place
--yes	Skip the confirmation prompt

An in-place restore is destructive: it stops the daemon, overwrites current system state and mind files, and reinstalls each mind’s dependencies. Minds wake with fresh sessions — session transcripts are excluded from backups unless includeSessions was enabled. Pass --target <dir> to extract a snapshot elsewhere and inspect it without touching the live system or the daemon.

Backups and restores can also be managed from the web dashboard under Settings → Backups.