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Backup & restore

A Waymark home should be safe to keep, move, and recover — without ever leaving your machine. waymark backup writes a versioned JSON snapshot of every user-data table, restores it on demand, and can create a readable portable folder bundle.

Create a backup

waymark backup create .\backups\waymark-backup.json

The snapshot captures every user-data table: entries, tags, sources, decisions, decision links, reflections, and embeddings. It will not overwrite an existing file unless you add --force:

waymark backup create .\backups\waymark-backup.json --force

What is not in the backup

The full-text search index is derived data and is intentionally excluded. When entries are restored, database triggers rebuild it automatically, so keyword search works immediately.

Inspect a backup

See what a file contains — timestamp and per-table row counts — without restoring it:

waymark backup info .\backups\waymark-backup.json

Restore a backup

waymark backup restore .\backups\waymark-backup.json

Restore is deliberately cautious:

  • Into an empty or new home, it simply rebuilds everything.
  • Into a home that already holds any user data, it refuses unless you pass --force, which clears existing user data first and then restores.
waymark backup restore .\backups\waymark-backup.json --force

Create a portable bundle

waymark backup bundle .\backups\waymark-portable

A bundle contains:

  • waymark-backup.json for exact restore
  • README.md with restore instructions and counts
  • markdown/timeline.md
  • one Markdown file per memory
  • one Markdown file per saved reflection
  • markdown/sources.md

Original imported files are not copied into the bundle. Source metadata is kept inside the backup and readable sources.md export.

Move your memory trail to another machine

  1. waymark backup create waymark-backup.json on the old machine.
  2. Copy the JSON file across (it's plain, local, and portable).
  3. Set WAYMARK_HOME on the new machine if you want a specific location.
  4. waymark backup restore waymark-backup.json.

Everything stays on disk on both ends — no network access is involved.