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Backup & Restore

Your memories live on your infrastructure. This guide covers backup and restore for all environments.

Data Location​

EnvironmentData PathVolume
Local/Mac~/.cybermem/data/cybermem-openmemory-data
Raspberry Pi~/.cybermem/data/cybermem-openmemory-data
VPS/Cloud/data/openmemory.sqliteKubernetes PVC

The SQLite file contains:

  • 🧠 Memories — facts and context stored by AI clients
  • 📊 Audit logs — request history for Dashboard
  • ⚙️ Vectors — embeddings for semantic search

Quick Commands​

Create Backup​

npx @cybermem/cli backup

Creates timestamped archive: cybermem-backup-YYYY-MM-DD-HHMM.tar.gz

Restore from Backup​

npx @cybermem/cli restore ./cybermem-backup-2026-01-13-1430.tar.gz
warning

Restore overwrites existing data. Backup the target first if needed.

Environment-Specific Instructions​

Local (Mac/Linux)​

Backup:

# Using CLI
npx @cybermem/cli backup

# Or manually
cd ~/.cybermem && tar czf ~/backup.tar.gz data/

Restore:

# Using CLI
npx @cybermem/cli restore ./backup.tar.gz

# Or manually
cd ~/.cybermem && rm -rf data && tar xzf ~/backup.tar.gz

Raspberry Pi​

SSH into your Pi first:

ssh pi@<rpi-ip>

# Backup
npx @cybermem/cli backup

# Copy to Mac
scp pi@<rpi-ip>:~/cybermem-backup-*.tar.gz ./

Restore on Pi:

scp ./cybermem-backup.tar.gz pi@<rpi-ip>:~/
ssh pi@<rpi-ip>
npx @cybermem/cli restore ./cybermem-backup.tar.gz

VPS / Cloud (Docker)​

Backup:

docker run --rm \
  -v cybermem-data:/data \
  -v $(pwd):/backup \
  alpine tar czf /backup/backup.tar.gz /data

Restore:

# Stop services first
cd ~/.cybermem && docker compose down

docker run --rm \
  -v cybermem-data:/data \
  -v $(pwd):/backup \
  alpine sh -c "tar xzf /backup/backup.tar.gz -C / && chown -R 1001:1001 /data"

# Restart services
cd ~/.cybermem && docker compose up -d

Migration Between Environments​

  1. Local → RPi: Backup on Mac, SCP to Pi, restore
  2. RPi → Cloud: Backup on Pi, SCP to VPS, restore with volume adjustments
  3. Cloud → Local: docker cp from container, restore locally

Automated Backups (Cron)​

Add to crontab for daily backups:

# Edit crontab
crontab -e

# Add line (daily at 3am)
0 3 * * * cd ~/.cybermem && tar czf ~/backups/cybermem-$(date +%Y-%m-%d).tar.gz data/
note

In crontab, % has special meaning. If pasting directly, escape as \%Y-\%m-\%d.

tip

Keep last 7 backups: find ~/backups -name "cybermem-*.tar.gz" -mtime +7 -delete