Restore a data directory

Restore a prior backup directory into the local data directory so operator state on this host matches the archive.

peren restore copies --input into PEREN_DATA_DIR (or ./data when that variable is unset). It restores that host’s data directory contents. It does not perform cell-by-cell replication across nodes.

Prerequisites

a validated fleet config path;
a backup directory produced by Back up a data directory;
the node process stopped if it would write the same data directory during restore.

Procedure

Required flags:

config path (positional);
--input — backup directory to copy from.

Optional:

--force — delete the existing data directory before writing the restore.

peren restore peren.toml --input ./backup-2026-03-01 --force

Representative output:

restored ./backup-2026-03-01 to ./data files=12

Verification

Run one of these prove-it checks after restore:

peren status peren.toml

Or start the node and send a request that exercises the restored service state. Matching status or response content proves the data directory contents are usable on this host.

Failure

Result	Cause	Next action
restore destination already exists	data directory present and `--force` omitted	stop writers, pass `--force`, or clear the directory only when you accept replacing it
backup source does not exist / input is not a directory	`--input` missing or not a directory	point `--input` at a backup directory from `peren backup`