Backups

The desktop app backs itself up. Every 30 minutes while you're working, and again when you quit, Pendraic writes a complete snapshot of your library to disk: manuscripts, story and world indexes, the knowledge ledger, settings, and media. If nothing changed, no backup is taken.

What a backup contains

Each backup is one file ending in .pendraic-backup, stored in your Pendraic data folder (you can point it somewhere else, like a synced drive, in Settings). It holds the entire database, your media files, and the schema information needed to rebuild everything exactly. Because it's a plain file on disk, Time Machine and other backup tools pick it up too.

Retention

Pendraic keeps the newest 25 backups plus one per day for the last 30 days, and prunes the rest. Both knobs are adjustable in Settings, along with the schedule. A backup of a typical library takes well under a second, so there's no reason to turn it off.

Restoring

Settings shows your backup history. Pick one, confirm, and Pendraic restarts into the state from that backup. Your current data isn't thrown away: it's set aside on disk first, so even a restore you regret is recoverable.

For a single scene you edited into a corner, you usually don't need a full restore. Scene version history is the lighter tool: see the Manuscript section.