lettuce backup and lettuce restore

The CLI side of Core concepts/12 Backups and version history — the same snapshot engine the app schedules from Settings → Backups, callable from scripts and cron.

Take a snapshot

lettuce backup ~/Notes                    # timestamped .zip, default backup folder
lettuce backup ~/Notes --out /Volumes/T7  # somewhere else (an external disk, a synced dir)
lettuce backup ~/Notes --keep 20          # prune to the newest 20 archives afterwards
lettuce backup ~/Notes --git              # also commit to the git history mirror

• Each run writes one Lettuce-<vault>-<timestamp>.zip — a full copy, not incremental, so any single archive restores on its own.

• --keep N applies retention in the same run; without it nothing is pruned.

• --git additionally records a commit in the vault’s git version-history mirror (if enabled), so the zip and the history stay in step.

• Exit code is non-zero on failure — safe to &&-chain in scripts and let cron surface errors.

Inspect what you have

lettuce backup log ~/Notes

Lists the existing snapshots for that vault, newest first, with sizes and dates.

Restore

lettuce restore ~/Backups/Lettuce-Notes-2026-07-15.zip --to ~/Notes-restored

Restore always expands into a new, empty folder — it never overwrites your current vault. Open the restored folder in Lettuce (or copy individual notes back) once you’ve confirmed it has what you need.

Related

• Core concepts/12 Backups and version history — the in-app schedule, retention, and git history

• CLI cookbook/00 Overview — every subcommand at a glance