---
title: Backup Wiki
type: runbook
status: active
created: 2026-07-22
updated: 2026-07-22
verified_on: 2026-07-22
last_tested: 2026-07-22
confidence: high
tags: [runbook, wiki, backup]
sources: []
---

# Backup Wiki

## Purpose
Create a durable backup of the wiki so recoverable copies exist before mutating changes.

## Symptoms that match this runbook
- Before a big restructuring, page rewrite, or history migration
- Weekly or scheduled backup reminder
- Suspected accidental deletion or corruption

## Prerequisites
- Wiki path: `/home/hermes/wiki`
- Git is available
- Backup destination is writable

## Procedure

### 1. Sanity-check repo state
```bash
cd /home/hermes/wiki && git status --short && git log --oneline -3
```

### 2. Commit any open changes first
```bash
cd /home/hermes/wiki
git add -A
git commit -m "backup-baseline: $(date +%Y-%m-%d)"
```

### 3. Export a timestamped copy outside the repo
```bash
BACKUP_DIR=/home/hermes/wiki-backups
mkdir -p "$BACKUP_DIR"
BACKUP="$BACKUP_DIR/wiki-$(date +%Y%m%d-%H%M%S).tar.gz"
tar -czf "$BACKUP" -C /home/hermes wiki
echo "Wrote $BACKUP"
```

### 4. Optional: push to a Git remote if configured
```bash
cd /home/hermes/wiki
git remote -v
git push --all
git push --tags
```
If no remote is configured, skip this step and rely on the tarball.

### 5. Rotate old backups if needed
Keep N most recent backups:
```bash
ls -1t "$BACKUP_DIR"/wiki-*.tar.gz | tail -n +6 | xargs -r rm
```

## Verification
- `git status --short` shows a clean tree
- Tarball exists and is non-empty:
```bash
stat "$BACKUP"
tar -tzf "$BACKUP" | head -20
```

## Rollback
- Restore from tarball:
```bash
BACKUP=$(ls -1t /home/hermes/wiki-backups/wiki-*.tar.gz | head -1)
rm -rf /home/hermes/wiki-restore
mkdir -p /home/hermes/wiki-restore
tar -xzf "$BACKUP" -C /home/hermes wiki-restore --strip-components=1
```
- Verify restored content before replacing live wiki

## Notes
- This runbook intentionally does not write secrets or token dumps into backups
- If you need a full Hermes config+data backup, use `hermes backup` in addition to this wiki-only backup

## Last tested
2026-07-22

## Related
- [[runbooks/update-hermes-safely]]
- [[current-state]]