Skip to content
rev0by cpc.studioDocs

Back up and restore the board

Everything the board knows lives in one folder, so a backup is one copy. This page shows what is in it, how to back it up and restore it, how to free the space old workspaces take, and how to move tickets to another board or another machine.

Where the data lives

Section titled “Where the data lives”

The source install, the binary and the desktop app keep everything the board writes in ~/.rev0 (Docker keeps it in the container’s volume). REV0_DATA_ROOT moves the whole tree.

PathWhat it holds
rev0.db (with rev0.db-wal and rev0.db-shm)The database: every board, ticket, comment, plan, setting and the agents’ timelines.
.envEnvironment variables the board loads at start, such as REV0_AUTH_TOKEN.
uploads/Files you attached and artifacts agents uploaded.
scratch/One folder per ticket that runs with no repository.
background_jobs/Background tasks’ state and their logs.
plugins/Checkouts of external plugins.
skills/The index of skills the board installs for every agent engine.
extensions/Browser extensions for tickets’ computers, such as a password manager.
computers/Each ticket’s browser profile.
runner-stalls.logDiagnostics written when something holds up the runner for everyone.

Git worktrees are not in here: each sits next to its repository, in a <repo>.agent_worktrees folder. Your repositories hold the agents’ branches and commits, so back them up as you already do.

The older, narrower overrides REV0_DB, REV0_SCRATCH_ROOT, REV0_PLUGIN_CACHE and REV0_BGJOBS_DIR still work. All of them are listed in Configuration.

Make a backup

Section titled “Make a backup”

  1. Stop the board: Quit rev0 in the desktop app, or Ctrl+C in the terminal that runs it.

  2. Copy the whole root as one unit:

    Terminal window
    cp -a "${REV0_DATA_ROOT:-$HOME/.rev0}" "$HOME/rev0-backup"

  3. Start the board again.

Result: ~/rev0-backup is a complete, consistent copy. Copying while the board runs can catch the database halfway through a write, so stop it first.

Restore a backup

Section titled “Restore a backup”
  1. Stop the board.
  2. Move the current root aside, for example mv ~/.rev0 ~/.rev0-old.
  3. Copy the backup back to the same path: cp -a ~/rev0-backup ~/.rev0.
  4. Start the board.

Result: the board is back to where it was when you took the backup. Restore the whole root, never only the database: its tickets refer to uploads and workspaces in the rest of the tree.

Free space

Section titled “Free space”

Scratch folders and worktrees stay on disk after their tickets finish, so you can go back to them. To delete the ones you no longer need:

  1. Open Settings > Advanced > Storage. It lists every scratch folder and worktree across all boards, with its ticket, kind, size and path.
  2. Tick the rows marked Ready to clean. The others say why they are kept: an agent may still use it, uncommitted files need preserving, or its branch is not fully merged.
  3. Click Clean selected, then confirm.

Result: the selected folders are deleted, and the space is free. The tickets, their branches and your database are untouched. On a merged ticket, Clean workspace in its Git integration does the same for one ticket.

To keep the database from growing, set Agent transcript retention (days) in Settings > Workspace > Board: agents’ raw transcripts on finished tickets are deleted once they are that old, while comments, plans and history stay.

Move tickets between boards or machines

Section titled “Move tickets between boards or machines”

To move a ticket to another board on the same machine, open it, click … (Ticket actions) and pick a board under Move to workspace. Its whole tree moves with it. See Organize the board.

To move a ticket to another machine, export it from one board and import it into the other. There is no button for this yet, so use the API:

  1. Export the ticket and all its subtickets as JSON:

    Terminal window
    curl -H "Authorization: Bearer $REV0_AUTH_TOKEN" \
      http://127.0.0.1:8000/tickets/42/export > ticket-42.json

  2. On the other machine, import it into a board, here the board with id 1 (GET /boards lists the ids):

    Terminal window
    curl -H "Authorization: Bearer $REV0_AUTH_TOKEN" -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
      -d "{\"data\": $(cat ticket-42.json), \"board_id\": 1}" \
      http://127.0.0.1:8000/tickets/import

Result: the ticket tree is recreated with new ids, with its description, plan, comments, tags and artifact list. Branches, worktrees, agent sessions and permission requests do not travel: the tree arrives ready to run again, not mid run. Drop the Authorization header on a board with no token.

To move a whole board to a new machine, make a backup and restore it there.

Section titled “Related”