Skip to content

Home

Jump to bottom
FlareXes edited this page Jun 17, 2026 · 2 revisions

Home

Welcome to the GitBack wiki.

GitBack is a backup utility for GitHub repositories and Gists. It discovers assets from GitHub, maintains local Git mirrors, and creates compressed snapshots for long-term storage.

The project is designed around a few simple principles:

  • Standard Git mirrors
  • Standard archive formats
  • Transparent operation
  • Easy recovery
  • No database
  • No daemon
  • No proprietary formats

Features

  • Backup public and private GitHub repositories
  • Backup GitHub Gists
  • Concurrent repository synchronization
  • Compressed snapshots (tar + zstd)
  • SHA256 checksum generation and verification
  • Structured JSON logging
  • Health reporting
  • Snapshot retention
  • Automatic runtime recovery

How It Works

GitBack follows a straightforward workflow:

GitHub
   │
   ▼
Discover
   │
   ▼
Sync Mirrors
   │
   ▼
Create Snapshot
   │
   ▼
Archive Storage

Discover

Retrieves repositories and Gists accessible to the configured GitHub account and stores an inventory locally.

Sync

Creates and updates local Git mirrors.

mirrors/
├── repositories/
└── gists/

Snapshot

Creates compressed archives containing backup data and state information.

snapshot.tar.zst
snapshot.tar.zst.sha256

Health

Provides visibility into:

  • Repository status
  • Gist status
  • Snapshot information
  • Storage usage
  • Backup recommendations

Quick Start

Initialize GitBack:

gitback init

Discover assets:

gitback discover

Create local mirrors:

gitback sync

Create a snapshot:

gitback snapshot

Check backup health:

gitback health

Directory Layout

~/.local/share/gitback/
├── mirrors/
│   ├── repositories/
│   └── gists/
├── snapshots/
└── state/

Recovery Philosophy

GitBack stores backups using standard Git repositories and standard archive formats.

If GitBack is unavailable in the future, backups remain accessible using standard tools such as:

  • git
  • tar
  • zstd
  • sha256sum

No GitBack-specific tooling is required to access backup data.

Next Steps

Clone this wiki locally