vaultik/README.md
2025-07-20 08:51:38 +02:00

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# vaultik
`vaultik` is a incremental backup daemon written in Go. It
encrypts data using an `age` public key and uploads each encrypted blob
directly to a remote S3-compatible object store. It requires no private
keys, secrets, or credentials stored on the backed-up system.
---
## what
`vaultik` walks a set of configured directories and builds a
content-addressable chunk map of changed files using deterministic chunking.
Each chunk is streamed into a blob packer. Blobs are compressed with `zstd`,
encrypted with `age`, and uploaded directly to remote storage under a
content-addressed S3 path.
No plaintext file contents ever hit disk. No private key is needed or stored
locally. All encrypted data is streaming-processed and immediately discarded
once uploaded. Metadata is encrypted and pushed with the same mechanism.
## why
Existing backup software fails under one or more of these conditions:
* Requires secrets (passwords, private keys) on the source system
* Depends on symmetric encryption unsuitable for zero-trust environments
* Stages temporary archives or repositories
* Writes plaintext metadata or plaintext file paths
`vaultik` addresses all of these by using:
* Public-key-only encryption (via `age`) requires no secrets (other than
bucket access key) on the source system
* Blob-level deduplication and batching
* Local state cache for incremental detection
* S3-native chunked upload interface
* Self-contained encrypted snapshot metadata
## how
1. **install**
```sh
go install git.eeqj.de/sneak/vaultik@latest
```
2. **generate keypair**
```sh
age-keygen -o agekey.txt
grep 'public key:' agekey.txt
```
3. **write config**
```yaml
source_dirs:
- /etc
- /home/user/data
exclude:
- '*.log'
- '*.tmp'
age_recipient: age1xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
s3:
endpoint: https://s3.example.com
bucket: vaultik-data
prefix: host1/
access_key_id: ...
secret_access_key: ...
region: us-east-1
backup_interval: 1h # only used in daemon mode, not for --cron mode
full_scan_interval: 24h # normally we use inotify to mark dirty, but
# every 24h we do a full stat() scan
min_time_between_run: 15m # again, only for daemon mode
index_path: /var/lib/vaultik/index.sqlite
chunk_size: 10MB
blob_size_limit: 10GB
index_prefix: index/
```
4. **run**
```sh
vaultik backup /etc/vaultik.yaml
```
```sh
vaultik backup /etc/vaultik.yaml --cron # silent unless error
```
```sh
vaultik backup /etc/vaultik.yaml --daemon # runs in background, uses inotify
```
---
## cli
```sh
vaultik backup /etc/vaultik.yaml
vaultik restore <bucket> <prefix> <snapshot_id> <target_dir>
vaultik prune <bucket> <prefix>
vaultik fetch <bucket> <prefix> <snapshot_id> <filepath> <target_fileordir>
```
* `VAULTIK_PRIVATE_KEY` must be available in environment for `restore` and `prune`
---
## does not
* Store any secrets on the backed-up machine
* Require mutable remote metadata
* Use tarballs, restic, rsync, or ssh
* Require a symmetric passphrase or password
* Trust the source system with anything
---
## does
* Incremental deduplicated backup
* Blob-packed chunk encryption
* Content-addressed immutable blobs
* Public-key encryption only
* SQLite-based local and snapshot metadata
* Fully stream-processed storage
---
## restore
`vaultik restore` downloads only the snapshot metadata and required blobs. It
never contacts the source system. All restore operations depend only on:
* `VAULTIK_PRIVATE_KEY`
* The bucket
The entire system is restore-only from object storage.
---
## prune
Run `vaultik prune` on a machine with the private key. It:
* Downloads the most recent snapshot
* Decrypts metadata
* Lists referenced blobs
* Deletes any blob in the bucket not referenced
This enables garbage collection from immutable storage.
---
## license
WTFPL — see LICENSE.
---
## author
sneak
[sneak@sneak.berlin](mailto:sneak@sneak.berlin)
[https://sneak.berlin](https://sneak.berlin)