backup

n8n-decanter backup create <workflow>                           # instance -> git
n8n-decanter backup restore <workflow> [<backup>]   # git -> a NEW workflow
n8n-decanter backup list <workflow>                             # retained backups (offline)

A git-native, redeployable disaster-recovery store for a workflow. Both n8n’s MCP server and its REST API only expose the current draft tip, and MCP’s read is sanitized (no credential refs, no pinData/staticData/ description) — so git is the only place a redeployable version history can live. backup captures the workflow’s full REST export into a committed backups/ folder and can redeploy it onto a rebuilt or fresh n8n. It’s a second version+recovery layer outside n8n, one that survives the instance being lost.

This is disaster recovery, not sync: restore creates a new workflow, it never reconciles an existing one. Workflow structure stays n8n’s to own (the daily loop is pull / push over MCP).

Uses the n8n public API key (N8N_API_KEY) — the full-fidelity workflow GET/POST is a surface MCP can’t serve. Without a key, create/restore fail with guidance (list is offline and needs none).

The store

workflows/order-sync/
  backups/
    2026-07-23T14-30-00Z.8dd14331.json     # each `backup create` appends one
    2026-07-24T09-15-00Z.2f3335b8.json

Each file is the full REST export (GET /workflows/:id) with:

• jsCode kept as a //@file: placeholder — the Code-node source is never duplicated; restore re-inlines it from the folder’s code/ files (.ts compiled).
• pinData + staticData stripped — runtime state, churny and semi-sensitive.
• credential refs + description kept — the “which credential” rebind hint for a restore onto another instance.

The filename is a filesystem-safe timestamp plus the short versionId; the full versionId lives inside.

backup create

Reads the current draft over REST and writes a new timestamped file. It

• skips when versionId is unchanged since the latest backup (no redundant identical copies), and
• rolling-prunes the working set to backupLimit (config, default 20; 0 keeps all — git still holds the full history regardless).

The file is a full export — it carries credential refs and any secrets embedded in node parameters — so it is not auto-committed. create prints a warning; review the file and git add it deliberately. (The store is not self-gitignored, unlike executions/ — committing it is the whole point.)

backup restore

Selects a backup — the latest by default, or the one named by the optional <backup> argument, or a chooser on a terminal — assembles the full JSON (structure + credential refs, each Code node’s jsCode re-inlined from its code/ file), runs it through the compliance guard, and REST-POSTs it as a new workflow:

• a new workflow id, but node ids are preserved (the REST GET → POST round-trip is lossless), and
• it lands unpublished — restore prints the credential-rebind hints (the refs point at the source instance; recreate/rebind them on the target) and the editor URL; publish is your next step.

The <backup> argument

A backup ref, resolved by shape the way a <workflow> ref is — no flag, and no need to say which kind you have. Paste either column backup list prints:

n8n-decanter backup restore order-sync                  # the latest (or the chooser, on a terminal)
n8n-decanter backup restore order-sync 2026-07-24       # the first backup from that day
n8n-decanter backup restore order-sync a1b2c3d4         # that exact version

A ref that matches nothing is an error — restore never quietly falls back to the latest.

backup list

Offline. Prints the retained backups — timestamp · versionId · node count. --json emits the same as a machine-readable array.

Not a backup of everything

backup captures one workflow’s structure + Code. It does not back up credentials themselves (only the refs), data tables, or execution history — recreate credentials on the target and rebind them after a restore.