Metadata Backups

Cloudback archives not only the whole git repository but GitHub-specific metadata as well. The list of metadata we are able to backup is not complete and is limited by the GitHub API.

Important things to know:

  • We don’t backup your GitHub Account
  • We don’t backup your GitHub Organization
  • The resulting backup should never be considered as a complete all-embracing one
GitHub repository backup metadata information

What is included in a backup?

Here is the list of repository’s data in a backup archive:

Metadata is stored as a JSON file per data type in the same format we download it from GitHub. If you want us to add any additional metadata into a backup, please, let us know or just create a feature request and we will consider implementing it.

Metadata that is not included due to GitHub API restrictions

We can’t backup or restore this data because of GitHub limitations. Please let us know if there is a mistake or API is changed - we will fix it as soon as possible.

  • Deploy Keys: Not accessible by GitHub Apps integration API yet
  • Autolinks: Not accessible by GitHub Apps integration API yet
  • Environments: There is no API to get environment variable value
  • Encrypted secrets: There is no API to get an encrypted value
  • Forks: There is no API
  • Watchers: There is no API
  • Stargazers: There is no API
  • Commit Statuses: There is an API, but it doesn’t allow to explore all statuses for a whole repository
  • Deployments: There is no API to restore completed deployments
  • Pull Requests without commits: due to an API restriction: validation is failing with a message No commits between feature-branch and main-branch
  • Pull Requests from forks: a source branch is located in the fork of the old repository. But a new repository is created during a restore process. There is no API the allows us to create a pull-request from an old repository fork into a newly created repository
  • Discussions: There is no API to restore discussion categories
  • ProjectV2: There is no API to restore views and columns

Learn more