Snapshots

Norn automatically creates PostgreSQL database snapshots during deploys and supports manual listing and restoration.

Automatic Snapshots

During the snapshot step of the deploy pipeline, Norn runs pg_dump on the app's database (from infrastructure.postgres.database). This happens before migrations run, providing a safety net for schema changes.

Snapshots are only created for apps that declare postgres infrastructure:

infrastructure:
  postgres:
    database: myapp

Listing Snapshots

CLI

norn snapshots myapp

Displays a table of available snapshots with timestamps and sizes.

API

curl http://localhost:8800/api/apps/myapp/snapshots

Restoring a Snapshot

CLI

norn snapshots myapp restore 2025-01-15T14:30:00

API

curl -X POST http://localhost:8800/api/apps/myapp/snapshots/2025-01-15T14:30:00/restore

WARNING

Restoring a snapshot replaces the current database contents. Make sure to snapshot the current state first if you need to preserve it.

Storage

Snapshots are stored via the S3-compatible storage backend. Configure with:

Variable	Description
NORN_S3_ENDPOINT	S3-compatible endpoint URL
NORN_S3_ACCESS_KEY	Access key
NORN_S3_SECRET_KEY	Secret key
NORN_S3_REGION	Region (default: auto)
NORN_S3_USE_SSL	Use SSL (default: true)

If S3 is not configured, the snapshot step is skipped.