Backup payloads and native history storage

Understand archives, history packs and local indexes so you can preserve dependencies and migrate restorable data.

The1.9 immutable per-config History Repository is logical authority. Archives are physical payloads; filenames no longer fully encode identity, ancestry or restorability.

Local repository

<app-data>/history/<encoded ConfigId>/
├─ repository.json
├─ packs/<first-two>/<PackId>.frpack
├─ index/
├─ local-state/
├─ transactions/
└─ quarantine/

GUID ConfigIds use normalized separator-free encoding; other IDs use stable hashes. packs hold shared facts; index is disposable projection; local-state holds device Workspace/Replica Catalog and is not shared history.

Representation/Replica locators identify payloads in config destinations/controlled storage; migrated archives may retain old locations. Folder labels, renaming archives and old [Full/Smart/Overwrite] regexes do not establish native identity.

Model

Backup Run describes one invocation/results; Source Version is logical source state; Checkpoint is a config-wide state vector. Representation defines materialization and Replica a physical copy. Commit Packs publish shared facts atomically. Annotation updates comments/Pins/presentation without rewriting facts.

Maintenance and transfer

Index rebuild reads packs and cannot recreate lost bytes. Archive filenames cannot reconstruct missing branch facts. Old1.8 history is read only during migration; metadata.json is not native authority.

Transfer config, facts and payloads separately. .frhistory contains packs without backup bytes; see migration. Never edit packs or empty transactions manually.

Protection

Pins, branch tips, Workspace and safety points protect materialization dependencies. Comments or presentation hiding are not equivalent retention guarantees. Logical versions can exist while bytes are missing; assess recovery before cleanup.