Backup & Restore

This guide explains how to back up and restore project governance/runtime state managed by s2s.

What is included

s2s backup stores:

• Full project-local .s2s/ workspace
• Root compatibility shims for chat clients:
  • AGENTS.md
  • CODEX.md
  • CLAUDE.md

Global backup location

Backups are stored globally (outside app repo) with project isolation:

~/.s2s/backups/projects/<project-hash>/<snapshot-id>/
  manifest.json
  s2s/
  root/

• <project-hash>: deterministic hash from absolute app root path
• <snapshot-id>: ISO-like timestamp id

Commands

Create backup (current project context):

s2s backup

Create backup for explicit project alias/path:

s2s backup my-project

Restore latest snapshot:

s2s restore --latest

Restore specific snapshot:

s2s restore --snapshot=<snapshot-id>

Restore specific project:

s2s restore my-project --latest

Safety behavior on restore

Before writing restored files, s2s restore always creates an automatic pre-restore safety backup.

This means every restore operation can be rolled back via another restore operation.

How to inspect available snapshots

Use your shell to list snapshots for a project:

ls ~/.s2s/backups/projects
ls ~/.s2s/backups/projects/<project-hash>

Tip: s2s backup output prints the snapshot id and project backup directory.

Recommended usage policy

1. Create a backup before major config edits (s2s config edit).
2. Create a backup before stage transitions with risky runtime changes.
3. Keep backup/restore operations in your delivery checklist.
4. Note that s2s also creates automatic pre-policy snapshots when guardrail discrepancy decisions are applied in init/config.