Take a database backup
create_database_backup
Takes an archive of a site's database, a plain SQL dump of every table and row, so the data can be recovered by hand later.
Every table and row goes into one database.sql inside the zip that What is inside a database backup describes. It answers as soon as the archive is reserved, not when it is finished: the row comes back pending, and list_database_backups reports it ready once the export is done, or failed with the reason. The archive holds the database as it is when its export actually starts, which can be minutes after the call while other backups run.
Take it before a destructive migration, a bulk update, emptying a collection or dropping the whole database. The tool tells the client not to run that statement, clear_collection or clear_site_database until the row reads ready, and to tell you before going ahead if it reads failed.
It needs a paid workspace and spends one of the 10 manual database backups a site gets in any 24 hours, counted apart from storage backups. A backup that fails does not spend one, but deleting one does not hand its slot back, so the allowance only refills as each of those backups passes a day old. A manual backup is taken even when nothing changed since the last archive.
It is refused on a site that is not on the newer database (Database backups are only available for sites on the newer database!), on a site with no database yet (This site does not have a database to back up yet!) and while another backup of the same database is still running (A backup of this database is already running!), so read eligibility from list_database_backups first. On a database with no tables the row still comes back pending and then reads failed with Your database has no tables to back up!, and a database holding a full text search table fails outright with Your database has a full text search table, which cannot be backed up!
The database stops answering for a moment while the export runs, so a statement that fails as unavailable just then is worth trying once more. The tool tells the client never to call it a restore point: a database backup cannot be restored, and it cannot be downloaded through MCP at all, only in the editor. See Back up your database now.
Inputs
| Input | Type | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
projectId |
string | Yes | The site whose database should be backed up. |
name |
string | No | A short label saying what the archive is, for example Before the orders migration. When given, it must be 2 to 84 characters. |