Close the backup side of the loop: we had create/list/validate but
no restore, and no documented drill. A backup you've never restored
is not a backup. This lands the missing restore surface and the
procedure to exercise it before enabling any write-path automation
(auto-capture, automated ingestion, reinforcement sweeps).
Code — src/atocore/ops/backup.py:
- restore_runtime_backup(stamp, *, include_chroma, pre_restore_snapshot,
confirm_service_stopped) performs:
1. validate_backup() gate — refuse on any error
2. pre-restore safety snapshot of current state (reversibility anchor)
3. PRAGMA wal_checkpoint(TRUNCATE) on target db (flush + release
OS handles; Windows needs this after conn.backup() reads)
4. unlink stale -wal/-shm sidecars (tolerant to Windows lock races)
5. shutil.copy2 snapshot db over target
6. restore registry if snapshot captured one
7. restore Chroma tree if snapshot captured one and include_chroma
resolves to true (defaults to whether backup has Chroma)
8. PRAGMA integrity_check on restored db, report result
- Refuses without confirm_service_stopped=True to prevent hot-restore
into a running service (would corrupt SQLite state)
- Rewrote main() as argparse with 4 subcommands: create, list,
validate, restore. `python -m atocore.ops.backup restore STAMP
--confirm-service-stopped` is the drill CLI entry point, run via
`docker compose run --rm --entrypoint python atocore` so it reuses
the live service's volume mounts
Tests — tests/test_backup.py (6 new):
- test_restore_refuses_without_confirm_service_stopped
- test_restore_raises_on_invalid_backup
- test_restore_round_trip_reverses_post_backup_mutations
(canonical drill flow: seed -> backup -> mutate -> restore ->
mutation gone + baseline survived + pre-restore snapshot has
the mutation captured as rollback anchor)
- test_restore_round_trip_with_chroma
- test_restore_skips_pre_snapshot_when_requested
- test_restore_cleans_stale_wal_sidecars (asserts stale byte
markers do not survive, not file existence, since PRAGMA
integrity_check may legitimately recreate -wal)
Docs — docs/backup-restore-drill.md (new):
- What gets backed up (hot sqlite, cold chroma, registry JSON,
metadata.json) and what doesn't (.env, source content)
- What restore does, step by step, and why confirm_service_stopped
is a hard gate
- 8-step drill procedure: capture -> baseline -> mutate -> stop ->
restore -> start -> verify marker gone -> optional cleanup
- Correct endpoint bodies verified against routes.py:
POST /admin/backup with JSON body {"include_chroma": true}
POST /memory with memory_type/content/project/confidence
GET /memory?project=drill to list drill markers
POST /query with {"prompt": ..., "top_k": ...} (not "query")
- Failure modes: integrity_check fail, container won't start,
marker still present after restore, with remediation for each
- When to run: before new write-path automation, after backup.py
or schema changes, after infra bumps, monthly as standing check
225/225 tests passing (219 existing + 6 new restore).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Three small improvements that move the operational baseline forward
without changing the existing trust model.
1. Tunable retrieval ranking weights
- rank_project_match_boost, rank_query_token_step,
rank_query_token_cap, rank_path_high_signal_boost,
rank_path_low_signal_penalty are now Settings fields
- all overridable via ATOCORE_* env vars
- retriever no longer hard-codes 2.0 / 1.18 / 0.72 / 0.08 / 1.32
- lets ranking be tuned per environment as Wave 1 is exercised
without code changes
2. /projects/{name}/refresh status
- refresh_registered_project now returns an overall status field
("ingested", "partial", "nothing_to_ingest") plus roots_ingested
and roots_skipped counters
- ProjectRefreshResponse advertises the new fields so callers can
rely on them
- covers the case where every configured root is missing on disk
3. Chroma cold snapshot + admin backup endpoints
- create_runtime_backup now accepts include_chroma and writes a
cold directory copy of the chroma persistence path
- new list_runtime_backups() and validate_backup() helpers
- new endpoints:
- POST /admin/backup create snapshot (optional chroma)
- GET /admin/backup list snapshots
- GET /admin/backup/{stamp}/validate structural validation
- chroma snapshots are taken under exclusive_ingestion() so a refresh
or ingest cannot race with the cold copy
- backup metadata records what was actually included and how big
Tests:
- 8 new tests covering tunable weights, refresh status branches
(ingested / partial / nothing_to_ingest), chroma snapshot, list,
validate, and the API endpoints (including the lock-acquisition path)
- existing fake refresh stubs in test_api_storage.py updated for the
expanded ProjectRefreshResponse model
- full suite: 105 passing (was 97)
next-steps doc updated to reflect that the chroma snapshot + restore
validation gap from current-state.md is now closed in code; only the
operational retention policy remains.
