Restic Workstation Backup

Design, implement, and operate encrypted restic backups for Linux home directories with encryption, deduplication, automated scheduling, and restore testing. Use when a user asks to back up ~/, set up daily/weekly/monthly backup jobs, harden backup security, troubleshoot restore/integrity issues, or roll out backup automation across multiple workstations.

Restic Home Backup

Deliver a production-ready, unattended restic backup workflow for a Linux home directory, covering encryption, deduplication, versioned retention, systemd scheduling, retry logic, durable logging, email alerting, and restore validation.

Skill contract

• Name: restic-home-backup
• Version: 2.0.0
• Problem solved: Reliable, encrypted, versioned backups of a Linux home directory. Supports SSH/SFTP remote repositories, DST-safe scheduling, transient-error retries, user-level installs (no root), one-time restore audit timers, and reusable multi-host rollout.
• Inputs:
  • Backup source user and path
  • Repository endpoint/transport (local, sftp, s3, b2, etc.)
  • Timezone (default America/Los_Angeles)
  • Retention policy (default: 14 daily / 8 weekly / 12 monthly)
  • Exclude patterns
  • Alert email
• Outputs:
  • Installed and initialized restic repository
  • Backup / prune / check / audit scripts under /usr/local/bin/
  • Structured log wrapper with start/end/elapsed/exit-code per job
  • systemd service+timer units (system-level or user-level)
  • One-time restore audit timer
  • Retry logic for transient failures (never retries auth/perm errors)
  • Validation evidence: snapshot listing, restore drill, integrity check
  • Controlled failure drills: wrong secret / unreachable repo / bad env file
  • Operator runbook (references/runbook.md)
  • Ops checklist (references/ops-checklist.md)
• Safety boundaries (must never violate):
  • Never print secrets or tokens in chat, log output, or scripts.
  • Never delete snapshots or repositories without explicit user confirmation.
  • Never weaken permissions on credential files (0600 minimum).
  • Never claim backup success without checking exit status and snapshot listing.
  • Default to PLAN-ONLY mode; require explicit --apply for system changes.
  • No snapshot deletion during initial engagement; use --dry-run-prune to preview.

Workflow

1) Collect backup contract

Minimum required:

• Source path (e.g., /home/alice)
• Repository (e.g., sftp:backupsvc@10.50.8.24:/srv/backups/home/devbox17)
• Retention policy
• Preferred schedule in local timezone

If any critical value is missing, ask targeted questions.

2) Show plan (no-change pass)

bash

bash scripts/bootstrap_restic_home.sh \
  --user alice \
  --repo "sftp:backupsvc@10.50.8.24:/srv/backups/home/devbox17"

This prints the complete plan: files, schedule, retention, secrets approach, retry logic, legacy cron archival, and dry-run prune preview. Zero changes made.

3) Apply system changes

bash

sudo bash scripts/bootstrap_restic_home.sh \
  --user alice \
  --repo "sftp:backupsvc@10.50.8.24:/srv/backups/home/devbox17" \
  --hostname devbox17 \
  --timezone "America/Los_Angeles" \
  --mail-to [e-mail] \
  --keep-daily 14 --keep-weekly 8 --keep-monthly 12 \
  --config-dir /etc/home-backup \
  --log-dir /var/log/home-backup \
  --apply \
  --init-repo \
  --enable-timers \
  --run-initial-backup \
  --archive-legacy-cron \
  --dry-run-prune

What this does (in order):

1. Creates /etc/home-backup/ (0700), generates password (0600, never printed)
2. Writes env file (0600) and excludes list
3. Creates log directory /var/log/home-backup/
4. Installs logging+retry wrapper (restic-home-log-run.sh)
5. Installs 4 operational scripts (backup, prune, check, audit-drill)
6. Writes 8 systemd units (4 service + 4 timer)
7. Archives and removes legacy root crontab entry
8. Enables timers and runs daemon-reload
9. Initializes repo (skips if already exists)
10. Starts first backup via systemd
11. Shows restic forget --dry-run output (no deletion)

4) User-level install (no root required — e.g., labvm3/bob)

bash

bash scripts/install_userlevel_restic.sh \
  --repo /mnt/offsite/backups/labvm3-home \
  --hostname labvm3 \
  --timezone "America/Los_Angeles" \
  --mail-to [e-mail] \
  --apply --init-repo --enable-timers --run-initial-backup

# Enable linger (one-time, requires sudo):
sudo loginctl enable-linger bob

# Manage:
systemctl --user list-timers 'restic-home-*'    # list
systemctl --user start restic-home-backup.service  # manual backup
bash scripts/install_userlevel_restic.sh --remove  # remove schedule

5) End-to-end validation

bash

sudo bash scripts/validate_restic_setup.sh

Runs:

• Snapshot listing
• Restore drill to /tmp/restore-drill (verifies .ssh/config, Documents/roadmap.md, .config/git/config)
• Cleanup of temp restore directory
• Repository integrity check
• Three failure drills: wrong secret / unreachable repo / unreadable env file (each prints the failing command and a one-line corrective action)

6) One-time restore audit timer

The bootstrap creates restic-home-audit.timer for a single scheduled restore drill. By default: 2026-04-17 17:00:00 America/Los_Angeles.

bash

# Inspect:
systemctl list-timers restic-home-audit.timer --no-pager

# Cancel:
systemctl disable --now restic-home-audit.timer

# Run now:
systemctl start restic-home-audit.service

7) Package and publish via ClawHub

bash

# Validate skill structure:
clawhub validate .

# Publish:
clawhub publish .

# Verify clean install (fresh environment, no secrets carried over):
mkdir /tmp/clawhub-verify && cd /tmp/clawhub-verify
clawhub install restic-home-backup
# Run plan-only to confirm scripts are present and executable:
bash restic-home-backup/scripts/bootstrap_restic_home.sh \
  --user testuser --repo sftp:test@localhost:/test

Files in this skill

text

scripts/
  bootstrap_restic_home.sh     System-level install (plan + apply)
  install_userlevel_restic.sh  User-level install for non-root hosts
  validate_restic_setup.sh     End-to-end validation + failure drills

references/
  runbook.md      Full operator runbook (13 sections)
  ops-checklist.md  Quick daily/weekly/monthly reference

Response style requirements

• Name exact file paths, service names, and commands.
• State what changed and how to verify it.
• Never print passwords or tokens.
• End multi-step tasks with an explicit completion status.
• Reference references/runbook.md for day-2 operational guidance.