// the find
borgmatic-collective/borgmatic
Simple, configuration-driven backup software for servers and workstations
borgmatic is a YAML-configured wrapper around BorgBackup that handles the full backup lifecycle: create, prune, check, and restore. It targets sysadmins running Linux servers who want scheduled backups without writing shell scripts. If you're already sold on Borg's deduplication and encryption, borgmatic removes the glue work.
The integration surface is genuinely impressive — database dumps (PostgreSQL, MySQL, MariaDB, MongoDB, SQLite) happen pre-backup so you get consistent snapshots without a separate dump script. The monitoring hook system (healthchecks.io, ntfy, Loki, PagerDuty, and a dozen others) means you can wire backup status into whatever alerting stack you already have. The credential system supports systemd credentials, KeePassXC, Docker/Podman secrets, and file-based secrets, which covers most production environments without hardcoding passwords. The new `browse` action with a terminal UI for exploring archives is a thoughtful addition that makes the otherwise painful 'I need to find one file from three weeks ago' task much less annoying.
It's GitHub-mirrored from a Forgejo instance, which means issue tracking, PRs, and CI all live elsewhere — the GitHub repo is essentially read-only, which trips up contributors who find it through search. The config schema is large enough that generating a valid config from scratch requires either reading extensive docs or running `borgmatic config generate` and editing the result; there's no interactive setup wizard. Snapshot support for Btrfs, LVM, and ZFS was added relatively recently and the end-to-end tests use fakes rather than real subsystems, so edge cases in snapshot ordering or LVM thin pools are more likely to surface in production than in CI. The TUI browse feature pulls in a Textual dependency that's notably heavier than the rest of the stack — a surprise if you're installing on a minimal server.