Quick start - snapr

Install snapr, write a minimal config, and run your first backup. For a containerized setup, see Docker.

Install snapr

Three ways to get a snapr binary on your machine.

# Pre-built binaries for Linux and macOS.
# Pick the right asset for your OS/architecture from the releases page,
# then extract it into a directory on your PATH.
curl -L -o snapr.tar.gz \
  https://github.com/maximseshuk/snapr/releases/latest/download/snapr_linux_amd64.tar.gz
tar -xzf snapr.tar.gz
sudo mv snapr /usr/local/bin/

snapr --help

# Requires Go 1.25+. The binary lands in $(go env GOPATH)/bin —
# make sure that directory is on your PATH.
go install github.com/maximseshuk/snapr/cmd/snapr@latest

# Or pin a specific version:
go install github.com/maximseshuk/snapr/cmd/snapr@v1.0.0

# Requires Go 1.25+ and pnpm (used to build the embedded web UI).
git clone https://github.com/maximseshuk/snapr.git
cd snapr
pnpm install
pnpm run build
./bin/snapr --help

Available release archives:

snapr_linux_amd64.tar.gz
snapr_linux_arm64.tar.gz
snapr_darwin_amd64.tar.gz
snapr_darwin_arm64.tar.gz

Create a minimal config

Save the following as snapr.yaml in the current directory.

snapr.yaml

server:
  address: '0.0.0.0:8080'
  auth:
    enabled: true
    username: admin
    password: env:SNAPR_ADMIN_PASSWORD

jobs:
  - name: nightly-files
    schedule: '0 2 * * *'
    compression: tar.gz
    sources:
      - type: local
        path: /var/data
    storages:
      - name: local-disk
        type: local
        path: /var/backups
    retention:
      last: 7

This backs up /var/data to /var/backups every day at 02:00 and keeps the last 7 archives.

Start snapr

SNAPR_ADMIN_PASSWORD=changeme snapr -config ./snapr.yaml

snapr will:

start the HTTP server on :8080
load the config and validate it
register the nightly-files cron entry

Open the UI

Browse to http://localhost:8080 and log in with admin / changeme.From the dashboard you can:

see job state and history
trigger a job manually with Run now
stream live logs
download archived backups

Trigger a manual run

Click Run now on nightly-files. The first run also confirms that paths and permissions are correct without waiting until 02:00.

Where to go next

Docker

Run snapr in a container with docker run or Docker Compose.

Configuration

The full YAML reference.

Jobs

Schedules, retention, and hook scripts.

API reference

The JSON HTTP API for scripting and integrations.

​Where to go next

Docker

Configuration

Jobs

API reference

Where to go next