Backups

Conveyor stores all of its state (projects, servers, deploy steps, deployment history, and all encrypted secrets) in a single SQLite database under $CONVEYOR_DATA_DIR (/data by default in the Docker image).

Back up the database with .backup, not a file copy

Use SQLite’s own .backup command rather than copying conveyor.db directly:

sqlite3 /data/conveyor.db ".backup /path/to/backup.db"

This is WAL-safe and produces a consistent snapshot even while Conveyor is running. A plain file copy of conveyor.db while the process is live can capture an inconsistent state: Conveyor runs SQLite in WAL mode, so some committed data lives in the accompanying -wal file until it’s checkpointed, and the .db file alone may be incomplete.

In Docker Compose:

docker compose exec conveyor sqlite3 /data/conveyor.db ".backup /data/backup.db"
docker compose cp conveyor:/data/backup.db ./backup.db

Back up the encryption key separately

Danger

CONVEYOR_ENCRYPTION_KEY must be backed up separately from the database, and kept just as safe. If the key is lost, every encrypted value in the database (SSH private keys, GitHub tokens, and .env file contents) is permanently unrecoverable, even from an intact database. There is no way to regenerate the key from the data.

A database backup without the matching encryption key won’t restore a working instance. You’d get back projects, servers, and deployment history, but every server would need its SSH key reconfigured and every .env re-entered from scratch.

What to back up

• The SQLite database (via .backup, as above).
• CONVEYOR_ENCRYPTION_KEY, wherever you store secrets (password manager, secrets vault, etc.), not next to the database backup.
• If using CONVEYOR_TLS_MODE=self-signed, the generated certificate under $CONVEYOR_DATA_DIR/tls is optional. Conveyor regenerates it on next boot if missing; backing it up just avoids a new browser warning after a restore.

Restore procedure

1. Stop Conveyor.
2. Replace $CONVEYOR_DATA_DIR/conveyor.db (and its -wal/-shm files, if present) with the backed-up database.
3. Set CONVEYOR_ENCRYPTION_KEY to the same key that was in use when the backup was taken, not a newly generated one.
4. Start Conveyor.

If the key doesn’t match the one used to encrypt the backed-up database, every decrypt operation for SSH keys, GitHub tokens, and .env content will fail.