salesforce-backup-and-restore
Designing a backup and restore strategy for a Salesforce org — Salesforce Backup (the native paid product), the deprecated weekly Data Export Service, third-party tools (OwnBackup / Druva / Gearset / Spanning), and self-rolled Bulk API extracts. Covers RPO / RTO targeting, restore-of-a-single-record vs full-org restore, parent / child relationship rebuilding, and cost / coverage tradeoffs across vendors. NOT for sandbox refresh strategy (see devops/sandbox-strategy), NOT for metadata source-control / DevOps backups (see devops/sfdx-source-control).
Best use case
salesforce-backup-and-restore is best used when you need a repeatable AI agent workflow instead of a one-off prompt.
Designing a backup and restore strategy for a Salesforce org — Salesforce Backup (the native paid product), the deprecated weekly Data Export Service, third-party tools (OwnBackup / Druva / Gearset / Spanning), and self-rolled Bulk API extracts. Covers RPO / RTO targeting, restore-of-a-single-record vs full-org restore, parent / child relationship rebuilding, and cost / coverage tradeoffs across vendors. NOT for sandbox refresh strategy (see devops/sandbox-strategy), NOT for metadata source-control / DevOps backups (see devops/sfdx-source-control).
Teams using salesforce-backup-and-restore should expect a more consistent output, faster repeated execution, less prompt rewriting.
When to use this skill
- You want a reusable workflow that can be run more than once with consistent structure.
When not to use this skill
- You only need a quick one-off answer and do not need a reusable workflow.
- You cannot install or maintain the underlying files, dependencies, or repository context.
Installation
Claude Code / Cursor / Codex
Manual Installation
- Download SKILL.md from GitHub
- Place it in
.claude/skills/salesforce-backup-and-restore/SKILL.mdinside your project - Restart your AI agent — it will auto-discover the skill
How salesforce-backup-and-restore Compares
| Feature / Agent | salesforce-backup-and-restore | Standard Approach |
|---|---|---|
| Platform Support | Not specified | Limited / Varies |
| Context Awareness | High | Baseline |
| Installation Complexity | Unknown | N/A |
Frequently Asked Questions
What does this skill do?
Designing a backup and restore strategy for a Salesforce org — Salesforce Backup (the native paid product), the deprecated weekly Data Export Service, third-party tools (OwnBackup / Druva / Gearset / Spanning), and self-rolled Bulk API extracts. Covers RPO / RTO targeting, restore-of-a-single-record vs full-org restore, parent / child relationship rebuilding, and cost / coverage tradeoffs across vendors. NOT for sandbox refresh strategy (see devops/sandbox-strategy), NOT for metadata source-control / DevOps backups (see devops/sfdx-source-control).
Where can I find the source code?
You can find the source code on GitHub using the link provided at the top of the page.
SKILL.md Source
# Salesforce Backup and Restore Salesforce stores customer data on a multi-tenant platform with high durability — but durability is not the same as recoverability. The platform protects against hardware loss; it does not protect against the admin who runs Data Loader against the wrong filter, the integration that sets `Status__c = NULL` on 200,000 cases, or the Apex deploy that silently `delete`s a million rows. Recovering from those events is a data-management problem the customer owns. This skill helps you reach a backup-and-restore strategy that matches the business's RPO and RTO targets without overspending on coverage you don't need. The product landscape is messy. The legacy **Weekly Data Export Service** (Setup → Data Export) is being retired — Salesforce announced deprecation with replacement guidance pointing to Salesforce Backup. **Salesforce Backup** is the native paid product (formerly "Backup & Restore" / Salesforce Data Backup) and provides daily backups plus relationship-aware restore. **Third-party tools** (OwnBackup — acquired and rebranded as Own; Druva; Gearset; Spanning) compete on restore UX, sandbox seeding, anomaly detection, and cross-org compare. **Self-rolled** uses the Bulk API 2.0 to extract records on a schedule and stores them in S3 / Azure Blob / GCS — cheapest, but you own restore. The hard part isn't the backup. It's the restore. Restoring a single deleted Account from Recycle Bin is trivial (15-day window). Restoring a parent-child hierarchy of Accounts → Contacts → Opportunities → OpportunityLineItems → Quotes after a 30-day-old corruption — with referential integrity preserved — is a project. Most teams don't discover their backup strategy is inadequate until they need it. ## Recommended Workflow 1. **Establish the RPO and RTO with the business.** RPO is the maximum acceptable data loss window (e.g. 24 hours of changes). RTO is the maximum acceptable time-to-restored (e.g. 4 hours). These two numbers determine the entire strategy. 2. **Inventory the current state.** Is Salesforce Backup licensed? Is a third-party tool deployed? Is the Weekly Data Export still being used? When was the last successful backup verified by a real restore drill? 3. **Map the failure scenarios.** Single-record accidental delete (Recycle Bin handles 15 days). Mass update / mass delete by integration (Recycle Bin won't help past 15 days, and large hard-deletes skip Recycle Bin entirely). Ransomware / malicious actor (need point-in-time per-object restore). Org corruption / merger gone wrong (need full-org snapshot). 4. **Pick the tooling tier** based on the gap between current state and target. See the decision matrix in `references/examples.md` § 4. 5. **Define the restore runbook.** Who initiates, who approves, what's the priority order of objects (parents before children), how is referential integrity verified, how is the user-base notified. A backup tool without a runbook is dead weight. 6. **Run a restore drill.** Pick a non-critical custom object, delete some records in a sandbox, restore from backup, verify counts and relationships. Schedule this quarterly. If you have never restored from your backup, you do not have a backup. 7. **Document the residual risk.** Even with daily backups, there is a 24-hour RPO floor. Document where the gap is and which scenarios are not covered (e.g. configuration / metadata changes — those need source control, not data backup). ## What This Skill Does Not Cover | Topic | See instead | |---|---| | Sandbox refresh strategy | `devops/sandbox-strategy` | | Metadata source control and rollback | `devops/sfdx-source-control` | | Field history tracking and audit trail | `data/field-history-tracking` | | Big Objects archival | `data/big-objects-patterns` |
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