---
title: "Deploy Dump Keep"
description: "Encrypted PostgreSQL backups to Google Drive or S3. Runs on a cron."
category: "Automation"
url: https://railway.com/deploy/dump-keep
---

# Deploy Dump Keep

Encrypted PostgreSQL backups to Google Drive or S3. Runs on a cron.

**[Deploy Dump Keep on Railway](https://railway.com/template/dump-keep)**

- **Creator:** Medix Manager Projects
- **Category:** Automation

## Template content

### Dump Keep https://cdn-icons-png.flaticon.com/512/6713/6713079.png

- **Image:** ghcr.io/pecatatoshev/dump-keep:latest

## Documentation

# Deploy and Host

Encrypted PostgreSQL backups shipped to Google Drive or any S3-compatible storage. Runs as a cron, encrypts with age, retains by tier.

## About Hosting

Dump-Keep is a **one-shot CLI tool** — it starts, backs up all databases, uploads encrypted dumps, prunes old backups, and exits. It is not a long-running daemon. Railway's cron scheduler triggers it on schedule (default: nightly at 03:17 UTC).

Each invocation:
1. Connects to PostgreSQL, enumerates all non-template databases
2. Dumps globals and each database
3. Streams each dump through age encryption directly to storage — no unencrypted data touches disk
4. Prunes old backup folders based on tier retention
5. Sends notifications on failure (and weekly/monthly success heartbeats)
6. Exits

## Why Deploy

- **Encryption at source** — uses age in recipient mode; the service only holds the public key, so a leak of its environment cannot decrypt any backup
- **Two storage backends** — Google Shared Drive or any S3-compatible storage (AWS S3, MinIO, Backblaze B2, Cloudflare R2)
- **PostgreSQL 15–18** — dumps every non-template database, automatically picks up new ones
- **Tiered retention** — daily, weekly, and monthly folders with configurable retention, no duplicate copies
- **Streamed** — pg_dump → age encrypt → upload, without touching disk
- **Notifications** — Discord and/or Slack webhooks for failures and weekly/monthly heartbeats
- **Health checks** — optional healthchecks.io pinging for silent-failure detection
- **Configurable skip list** — skip specific databases via env var or file

## Common Use Cases

- **Nightly PostgreSQL backups** to S3 or Google Drive with automatic retention pruning
- **Multi-database instances** — backs up all databases automatically, skip specific ones if needed
- **Compliance** — encrypted backups where the backup service cannot decrypt the data
- **Managed Postgres** (Railway, RDS, Cloud SQL) — connect via connection string, no agent needed

## Dependencies for

- **PostgreSQL** — a PostgreSQL instance (15–18) accessible from the Railway service. If deploying on Railway, add a Railway Postgres service — `POSTGRES_URL` auto-connects to it via `${{Postgres.POSTGRES_URL}}`. The service needs superuser access for `pg_dumpall --globals-only` (roles and passwords).
- **Storage backend** — choose one: Google Shared Drive (requires service account JSON and Shared Drive ID) or S3-compatible storage (requires endpoint, bucket, region, and credentials). Works with AWS S3, MinIO, Backblaze B2, Cloudflare R2.
- **age key pair** — generate an age key pair before deploying (`age-keygen -o key.txt`). Set `AGE_RECIPIENT` to the printed public key (`age1...`). Store the private key offline — without it, backups are unreadable.

Source: https://github.com/pecataToshev/Dump-Keep

## Similar templates

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- [Evolution API with n8n](https://railway.com/deploy/evolution-api-with-n8n) — Automate WhatsApp workflows with Evolution API, n8n, and Postgres.
- [Postgres Backup](https://railway.com/deploy/postgres-s3-backups) — Cron-based PostgreSQL backup to bucket storage

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