Backup & Restore

What to back up, how to restore it, and how to avoid losing encrypted data.

What to back up

Data	Where it lives	Criticality
Playbooks, inventories, executions	PostgreSQL	High
SSH keys and vault passwords	PostgreSQL, encrypted	High
ENCRYPTION_KEY	Deployment secrets	Critical
AUTH_SECRET	Deployment secrets	High
Deployment config	Compose/Coolify/project settings	High

Danger

A database backup without the matching ENCRYPTION_KEY cannot recover encrypted credentials.

Backing up PostgreSQL

Docker Compose

bash

docker compose exec postgres pg_dump -U postgres sculptops > backup.sql

External PostgreSQL

bash

pg_dump "$DATABASE_URL" > backup.sql

Backing up secrets

Store production secrets in a deployment secret manager. At minimum, preserve ENCRYPTION_KEY, AUTH_SECRET, and the database connection configuration.

Restoring

Stop the application service.
Restore the PostgreSQL backup.
Restore the same deployment secrets, especially ENCRYPTION_KEY.
Start the application service.
Verify that playbooks, inventories, SSH key names, and execution history are visible.

Warning

Do not run two production instances against the same database unless you have planned the migration carefully.

Upgrades