Praetor Backup, Update, And Restore

Praetor separates app code from company state:

• ~/.praetor/praetor: app source and scripts. This can be updated.
• ~/.praetor/data: private state, including settings, owner auth, memory, agents, missions, sessions, and connector state.
• ~/praetor-workspace: visible company files, including Wiki, Projects, Missions, Decisions, and artifacts.

Updating the app should not recreate the company. Use the operator CLI so Praetor can back up first and verify the app after restart.

Safe update

Installed users should run:

~/.praetor/praetor/scripts/praetor.sh update

The update command:

1. checks Docker, Git, state, and workspace access

2. creates a pre-update backup archive

3. fetches the configured branch

4. rebuilds and restarts the Docker app

5. waits for /health

6. prints the kept state/workspace paths and backup archive

Advanced options:

~/.praetor/praetor/scripts/praetor.sh update --no-backup
~/.praetor/praetor/scripts/praetor.sh update --skip-health

Avoid those options for normal use. They are intended for development and recovery situations.

Create a backup

Installed users:

~/.praetor/praetor/scripts/praetor.sh backup

From a repo checkout:

bash scripts/backup_praetor.sh

This writes a timestamped archive under:

• ~/.praetor/praetor/backups/ for a normal install
• backups/ when run directly from a repo checkout

Restore

Installed users:

~/.praetor/praetor/scripts/praetor.sh stop
~/.praetor/praetor/scripts/praetor.sh restore /path/to/praetor-backup-YYYYMMDD-HHMMSS.tar.gz
~/.praetor/praetor/scripts/praetor.sh restart

The restore command replaces the backed-up state, workspace, config, and bridge logs with the archive contents.

Manual repo-checkout restore:

1. stop Praetor

2. run the restore script against the archive

3. restart Praetor

bash scripts/restore_praetor.sh backups/praetor-backup-YYYYMMDD-HHMMSS.tar.gz .

Notes

• praetor.sh update already creates a backup before updating.
• Back up manually before major runtime, connector, or workspace permission changes.
• Copy important backup archives off the machine if the company data matters.
• Verify restore occasionally on a separate copy of the workspace.
• Never use praetor.sh uninstall --purge unless you intentionally want to remove the local company state and workspace.