Back up and restore an application

Create one encrypted recovery unit for an application's owned data. Run these commands inside a deployed application repository, such as orders-api with SQL data.

Interactive backup

baha app backup --output ../orders-api.baha-backup

The terminal flow asks for a hidden password and shows the recovery scope. Preserve that password separately from the archive. An archive without a verified backup result is not proof of recoverability.

Backup from automation

Prepare an owner-only password file outside Git through your secret manager and keep the same password available for recovery:

baha --no-input app backup   --password-file "$HOME/.config/orders/backup-password"   --output ../orders-api.baha-backup

Copy the encrypted archive and required recovery material to your protected off-host backup storage. The application name alone is not enough to restore an archive whose password has been lost.

Restore deliberately

Restore replaces the selected application's owned recovery state. Check the destination Target and application before proceeding:

baha target show
baha app show
baha app restore ../orders-api.baha-backup   --password-file "$HOME/.config/orders/backup-password"
baha status
baha doctor

BaseHarbor validates/decrypts the archive before mutation, restores owned state, rebinds and verifies the recovered capabilities. Finally check a known business record, such as order 42, through your application's own API or database query.

Shared PostgreSQL boundary

For orders-api with SQL instances default and analytics, backup includes both registered application databases. It excludes a sibling application's databases and provider-global state; it never uses pg_dumpall.

Restore targets those registered databases without dropping sibling databases, changing sibling roles or rotating sibling credentials. Ownership is checked before and after mutation. Shared provider infrastructure stays available while sibling applications consume it.

See Backup and restore reference for exact recovery behavior and supported state classes.