Backups and Reset

This page covers backups of a Rootsy computer, restoring one, and Reset. A backup is a copy of a computer’s disk at one moment, and you can restore the computer to any backup it holds. Reset is a separate tool. It rebuilds the computer’s system from scratch and keeps everything under /home, /root and /srv.

What a backup holds

A backup captures the computer’s disk: your files, installed packages, configuration and databases. It doesn’t include running processes, memory, /tmp, or Docker images, containers and volumes. Data kept in a Docker volume isn’t backed up, and a restore doesn’t roll it back. Keep databases you need backed up outside Docker, or dump them to a file under ~ before a backup.

Backups are stored with the computer they belong to. Deleting a computer deletes its backups too.

You manage backups in the workspace’s Backups window. There’s no command for them on the computer and no MCP tool, so an agent can’t create or restore one. An agent about to make a risky change should ask the person to create a backup first.

Automatic backups

Once a day, Rootsy backs up each computer that has been in use since its previous automatic backup. Making the backup doesn’t wake the computer. Checking it afterwards can. The awake time that backups, restores and Reset use isn’t charged to your Runtime Credits.

How many backups you keep

Each computer has its own limits, set by the account’s plan:

Plan	Backups kept for	Manual backups	Pins
Starter	30 days	20	10
Builder	14 days	10	3
Pro	30 days	20	10
Studio	30 days	20	10

During a trial, Starter’s limits apply. The Backups window’s help button shows your computer’s retention period and pins.

Retention removes every backup older than the plan’s period unless it’s pinned. That covers automatic backups, manual backups and return points. The manual limit counts manual backups that aren’t pinned.

When a plan ends, retention drops to 7 days and older unpinned backups are removed. Pinned backups stay. See Billing.

Create a backup

1. Open the Backups window and choose Create backup.
2. Add a note if you like (up to 200 characters), such as “Before upgrading dependencies”.
3. Choose Create backup.

You can create one backup a minute. At the manual limit, Rootsy offers to delete the oldest manual backup and save the new one in its place. Pinned backups and automatic ones aren’t touched.

Pin a backup

Retention never removes a pinned backup. Open a backup’s ⋯ menu and choose Pin backup. When all your pins are used, unpin another backup first.

Restore a backup

1. In the Backups window, open the backup’s ⋯ menu and choose Restore this backup.
2. Leave Save a return point first on unless you’re sure you won’t want the current state back. It saves the computer as it is now, and that restarts it.
3. Tick I understand this replaces the computer’s current state, then choose Restore backup.

A restore winds the computer’s disk back to the backup and overwrites anything changed since. The computer is offline for about 30 seconds while it restores, or about a minute with a return point. Anything that was running stops.

Return points appear in the list as “return point”. Rootsy keeps the newest 3 that can be restored and removes older ones unless you pin them. The retention period applies to them too.

You can start one restore every 5 minutes, and at most 10 in 24 hours. Each attempt counts, including ones that fail.

A backup marked “checked” was read back after a restart and verified, as far as time allowed. A backup that couldn’t be read back can’t be restored. If a backup hasn’t been checked yet, keep the return point on.

Schedules after a restore or Reset

Restoring a backup or resetting the computer pauses every schedule on it, because the endpoint a schedule calls may have changed or rolled back. Requests already sent and work already accepted aren’t canceled. Review each schedule’s endpoint, then resume it in the Scheduled tasks window or with rootsy schedules resume. See Scheduled tasks.

Reset

Reset puts the computer’s system back to its factory state. Use it when the computer is broken in a way you can’t fix from the terminal, for example when the platform’s own services won’t start. Open the workspace’s actions menu and choose Reset computer, or call the MCP tool reset_computer with confirm_reset: true.

Reset keeps everything in these directories:

Kept
/home	Your home directory /home/dev, including sites, uploads, projects, ~/CLAUDE.md and Claude Code’s sign-in
/root	The root user’s home
/srv	Data you keep there

Reset doesn’t touch Docker images, containers or volumes, and backups don’t contain them.

Everything else returns to factory state. That includes:

• packages installed with apt, and global npm installs
• your nginx configs in /etc/nginx/sites-iwmwn/
• databases installed with apt, such as PostgreSQL
• systemd services you added
• the contents of /tmp
• any other change outside the kept directories, except Docker’s data

Your apps go offline for a few minutes while the computer rebuilds. Reset needs the computer to be reachable. If it isn’t responding, the menu says “Reset needs a reachable computer — we’re working on this one.” Reset also pauses every schedule on the computer.

Reset doesn’t delete your backups. To undo a Reset, restore a backup taken before it.

Before you reset

Copy anything outside /home, /root and /srv that you want to keep. Your nginx configs are the usual one:

mkdir -p ~/reset-copy/nginx && cp /etc/nginx/sites-iwmwn/*.conf ~/reset-copy/nginx/

After the Reset, put them back and reload nginx:

sudo cp ~/reset-copy/nginx/*.conf /etc/nginx/sites-iwmwn/ && sudo nginx -t && sudo nginx -s reload

Then reinstall apt packages and re-enable any systemd services your apps need. If you keep a setup script in your home directory, that’s one command.