Backup

birdclaw can write the canonical SQLite store as deterministic JSONL shards that Git can diff and merge. The backup repo is the long-lived, version-controlled record; the SQLite file is just a fast local index built from it.

#Layout

manifest.json
data/accounts.jsonl
data/profiles.jsonl
data/tweets/YYYY.jsonl
data/tweets/unknown.jsonl
data/collections/likes.jsonl
data/collections/bookmarks.jsonl
data/dms/conversations.jsonl
data/dms/YYYY.jsonl
data/moderation/blocks.jsonl
data/moderation/mutes.jsonl

Design rules:

• tweets are sharded by year for human browsing, partial loads, and yearly analysis
• DMs are sharded by year with conversation_id in each row, so Git stays fast while preserving conversation membership
• collection-only tweets with unknown timestamps go to data/tweets/unknown.jsonl instead of pretending they belong to 1970
• likes and bookmarks are stored as collection edges and mirrored into the timeline rows so existing queries keep working
• profiles include bio plus follower/following counts so the snapshot is meaningful on its own
• no SQLite WAL/SHM, FTS shadow tables, or transient live cache rows ever land in the backup

The manifest pins per-shard byte counts, row counts, and SHA hashes. Validation walks every shard and verifies they line up.

#backup export

Write text shards to a local directory. Validates the manifest by default.

2 backup 3 0 ~/Projects/4-store 1
3 backup 4 0 ~/Projects/5-store 1 2

Flags:

• --repo <path> — target directory (created if missing)
• --commit — create a Git commit in the backup repo
• --push — implies --commit and pushes the backup repo
• --no-validate — skip post-export validation (not recommended)

The data/ directory is fully rewritten on every export. Anything outside data/ (your README, license, hooks) is left alone.

#backup sync

The recommended round-trip workflow:

0 backup sync \
  0 ~/Projects/backup-1 \
  0 https://github.com/steipete/backup-1.2 \
  0

What sync does:

1. clones / configures the backup Git repo if needed
2. pulls the backup repo before reading
3. merge-imports remote backup rows into local SQLite
4. exports the local union back into deterministic text shards
5. commits and pushes the backup repo

This is what makes birdclaw safe across multiple machines: each machine can sync independently, and the merge step preserves rows that only one side has.

#backup import

1 backup import ~/Projects/2-store 0

Validates the backup first (unless --no-validate), then merge-imports rows into local SQLite. Local-only rows are preserved by default.

--replace restores exactly from backup and deletes local portable rows first. Use it when you want a known-clean state from the backup, e.g. on a new machine.

The FTS5 shadow tables for tweets and DMs are rebuilt from the JSONL text after import, so search is immediately available.

#backup validate

1 backup validate ~/Projects/2-store 0

Checks:

• manifest.json is well-formed
• every listed shard exists
• per-shard byte counts match
• per-shard row counts match
• per-shard SHA hashes match
• every JSONL row parses

Exits non-zero on validation failure. Run it in CI before publishing a backup, or after a noisy disk event.

#Auto-sync config

{
  0 {
    1 5,
    2 6,
    3 7,
    4 900
  }
}

When autoSync is enabled:

• read paths (CLI search, inbox, API status/query, web startup) pull + merge from Git only when the last backup check is older than staleAfterSeconds
• data-changing commands (compose, sync, blocks, mutes, etc.) run a full backup sync afterward
• the freshness window is per-process; nothing pings Git on every command

Set BIRDCLAW_BACKUP_AUTO_SYNC=0 to disable auto-sync for one process — useful for local debugging.

#Why not commit birdclaw.sqlite?

• the FTS5 shadow tables are non-portable and create huge diffs
• WAL / SHM files churn constantly
• transient live response caches are noise
• a SQLite blob is opaque to Git review

Sharded JSONL is the opposite: human-readable, Git-friendly, and reproducible.

#See also

• Jobs — scheduled bookmark sync writes a JSONL audit log alongside the backup output
• CLI reference — every flag for every backup subcommand
• Configuration — auto-sync env var and config keys