{% extends "admin/dbs/wiki/_layout.html" %} {% block wiki %}
The DBS manager is a separate application in the same package. Run it on your own machine with:
django_dbs run
If the shell says django_dbs is not recognized, pip put the script in a
folder that is not on your PATH. Run python -m dbs.manager run
instead, or install with pipx install django-dbs.
It opens in your browser and looks after many servers over SSH: it takes and pulls their
backups, keeps their .env versions and folder archives, and can restore a
project onto a new server when the old one goes down.
Everything the manager's interface does is also a command, on the same data and the same audit trail:
django_dbs server add web --host app.example.com --user deploy --ssh-password
django_dbs backup take --all
django_dbs backup list --server web
server add shows the host key fingerprint to confirm, finds this project and
the Python that has django-dbs, and checks the server. Actions the interface protects with
your password ask for it in the terminal too. django_dbs AREA VERB --help lists
the rest: server, backup, plan,
activity, env, files and redeploy.
django_dbs mcp lets Claude add servers, take and verify backups, set up plans
and rehearse restores (claude mcp add dbs -- django_dbs mcp). It never reveals a
secret, never takes your account password, and cannot restore for real, remove or delete
anything.
django_dbs server add. Without one, the
manager searches the server for the project once it can sign in, and
Browse the server lets you pick its folder from the server's own folders.~/.ssh/authorized_keys for the user
that owns this project.If this project runs in a Docker Compose service, choose In a Docker Compose
service under Where the project runs and name the service, or pass
--runtime compose --compose-service backend to server add. The
manager then runs every manage.py command inside that service with
docker compose exec, from the project folder, and copies backups in and out with
docker compose cp. The SSH user must be able to run docker compose
and the service must be running, with django-dbs installed in its image.
This project never contacts the manager and keeps nothing about it. A backup the manager
asks for is written to DBS_BACKUP_DIR and recorded in the
audit trail like any other
backup.