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All app data lives in the Convex backend, which keeps it in two places: a database (Postgres, or SQLite for a pilot) and S3-compatible buckets. Back up both, plus your configuration.

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Exports

An export is the portable backup: it restores into any Convex backend, including one on a different database engine. Take one daily and before every upgrade, and copy it off the host.

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Database snapshots

On managed Postgres (RDS, Aurora, Cloud SQL), turn on automated snapshots and point-in-time recovery. Snapshots restore faster than an export, but only to the same kind of database. Do not read or edit the backend’s tables directly with SQL. Their format is internal to Convex and changes between versions. For reporting, use the read mirror described in Self-hosted Convex.

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Restore

  1. Stop the web app so nothing writes during the restore.
  2. Start a Convex backend: the existing one, or a new one bootstrapped from Self-hosted Convex.
  3. Import the export:
  4. Deploy the Convex functions from the same release tag the export came from.
  5. Start the web app and check sign-in, chats and files.
Test a restore into a separate backend at least once a quarter. A backup you have never restored is a guess.

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Secrets

Keep INSTANCE_SECRET, INTERNAL_API_SECRET, INTERNAL_SERVICE_AUTH_SECRET, the session secrets and API_KEY_HASH_SECRET in your secret manager. Losing INSTANCE_SECRET invalidates the backend’s admin keys; losing API_KEY_HASH_SECRET invalidates every API key.