graft: Backups Done Right

graft is a Git backup/versioning utility based on Git submodules

Have you ever wished you could back up your nginx/sites-available folder and do it simple and quick? Tinker with your configs without breaking everything in process? Store and version your configs on a Git platform? graft is here to help!

Here's how it's done:

0. Create and configure your Access Token (here for GitHub)

1. Initialize the repository:

graft init git@github.com:user/backup-repo.git

2. Put your token in .config/graft.toml:

3. Add any directory you desire as a blob:

...even if it's root owned!

4. Watch your blobs appear in the repo config:

5. Sync your configs...

6. Clone the main repo on a new machine...

7. Restore your configuration!

graft is distributed as a single Go binary, but you can also build it yourself: make install.

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Commands

Command	Description
graft init <remote>	Initialise main repo and config
graft this <name> [--sudo] [--public]	Start tracking current directory as blob
graft here [name]	Clone existing blob into current directory
graft apply [--force] [name]	Restore blob(s) to paths from config
graft push [name]	Commit and push blob(s)
graft pull [--force] [name]	Pull updates for blob(s)
graft remove <name>	Remove blob from tracking
graft switch <name>	Switch active repo
graft repo add <remote>	Clone and register a remote graft repo
graft repo remove <name>	Remove a repo from config
graft repo list	List all registered repos

Multiple repos

graft supports multiple repos — useful for testing someone else's dotfiles without touching your own.

# register and clone a remote graft repo
graft repo add git@github.com:user/their-dotfiles.git

# see what's registered
graft repo list

# switch to it
graft switch their-dotfiles

# restore their blobs
graft apply --force

# switch back
graft switch master
graft apply

Active repo is shown in all command output: [master] push summary:.

Default visibility for new blobs is set during graft init and stored in graft.toml as public = false. Override per-blob with --public.

Blob flags

Flags are set in graft.toml after the path:

[blobs]
nvim    = "~/.config/nvim"
waybar  = "/etc/xdg/waybar sudo immutable"

Flag	Description
sudo	Directory is root-owned; graft uses sudo for mkdir-ing/chown-ing
immutable	Path cannot be reassigned via graft here

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Disclaimer

graft is a Git wrapper. It doesn't encrypt, modify or filter any of your data. Treat the remote as fully trusted — graft assumes it always is.