Backup

Two things to back up: the database and GITHOME_DATA_DIR where git bare repos are stored.

Git repositories

Git repos are plain bare directories. Back them up with rsync or tar:

rsync -a /var/lib/githome/repos/ backup-host:/backups/githome/repos/

# or as a tarball
tar -czf githome-repos-$(date +%Y%m%d).tar.gz -C /var/lib/githome repos/

SQLite

# Online backup (safe while githome is running)
sqlite3 /var/lib/githome/githome.sqlite \
  ".backup /backups/githome-$(date +%Y%m%d).sqlite"

For continuous replication, use Litestream. It streams SQLite WAL frames to S3, GCS, or any S3-compatible store in real time with near-zero overhead.

PostgreSQL

pg_dump -U githome githome > /backups/githome-$(date +%Y%m%d).sql

Or use pg_basebackup for binary backups. A managed Postgres service handles backups and point-in-time recovery automatically.

Restore

1. Stop githome: docker compose down
2. Restore the database to its configured path
3. Restore GITHOME_DATA_DIR
4. Start githome: docker compose up -d

Test your restore on a staging instance before you need it in production.