Backup, restore and erasure

Owners manage archives in Data (/app/data). An archive contains sensitive event input and workflow details. Keep it private and retain a new archive after erasing a run.

Download a backup

Select Download archive under Export your data. The archive includes flows, runs, approvals, delivery attempts and the import journal. It excludes owners, sign-in sessions, agent and trigger credentials, and private configuration. It does not back up the source app or destination app.

For larger archives, stop Crank and export from the checkout root:

rer dev --stop
rer export --output exports/crank.rer
chmod 600 exports/crank.rer

The browser download supports archives up to 8 MiB; use the command when it asks you to. Keep archive files outside public or shared folders.

Restore into an empty installation

Restore requires an empty destination for product data; it does not merge into an existing workspace. Restored flows are drafts. Restoration sends no events, and each flow needs owner review and activation before accepting new ones.

For a small archive, sign in as the owner of a fresh installation. In Data, paste the archive text under Restore into an empty installation, type RESTORE, and select Restore archive. The form is for small archives only; use the command if it refuses the size.

For a larger archive, use a separate empty checkout with the app stopped:

rer install
rer import --input exports/crank.rer --yes
rer setup --owner-email you@example.com
rer dev

Supply your own owner email. The archive must be a regular private file; use chmod 600 on it before import. Set up the destination's owner and private configuration separately, including the permitted destination origin and any destination credential. Invite people and issue agent and trigger credentials again; restored history does not recreate their sign-in access.

Review the restored flow destinations and run history before activating flows or deliberately replaying any eligible failed run. Restore preserves history; it does not undo an effect that already happened at a destination.

Erase a run

1. In Flows, select Pause flow for the run's flow. Its status becomes draft.
2. Open the run from Runs. It must be succeeded, failed or rejected; pending and running runs cannot be erased.
3. Under Erase this run, select Erase run and its data.

Erasure removes the run's input, approval and attempt records from Crank. It does not delete the source app's records or reverse an existing destination effect. Crank retains a value-free deletion record, the run identity and an opaque event digest to block restoration and readmission of the erased event.

Erasure invalidates local transfer snapshots and fences older archives on this installation. A downloaded archive is a separate copy: erasing a run cannot remove data from files you already downloaded. Handle those copies according to your own data retention requirements.

Recover an older backup after erasure

Make a new export after erasure. When restoring an older backup into a different empty installation, provide that newer post-erasure archive as the deletion journal:

rer import --input exports/old.rer --journal exports/latest.rer --yes

The newer archive must come from the same source installation. It supplies later deletion records so recovery can respect those erasures. The browser restore form has no journal field; use the command for this recovery. Without the newer journal, a fresh installation cannot know about deletions made after the old backup. Keep the latest post-erasure archive with your recovery materials.

See Get started, Flows and runs, Access and Move in from n8n.