# Backup And Disaster Recovery

Plan and run backups, set recovery objectives, and run disaster recovery drills.

- Repository: https://github.com/rampstackco/claude-skills (1014 stars)
- Category: Design
- License: MIT
- Last updated: 2026-10-27
- Runs scripts: no, instructions only

## Install

Claude Code: `npx skills add rampstackco/claude-skills --skill backup-and-disaster-recovery -g -a claude-code -y`
Codex: `npx skills add rampstackco/claude-skills --skill backup-and-disaster-recovery -g -a codex -y`
Cursor: `npx skills add rampstackco/claude-skills --skill backup-and-disaster-recovery -g -a cursor -y`
Gemini CLI: `npx skills add rampstackco/claude-skills --skill backup-and-disaster-recovery -g -a gemini-cli -y`
Claude Code plugin marketplace: `/plugin marketplace add rampstackco/claude-skills`

## Description

Plan and run backups, set recovery objectives, and run disaster recovery drills. Use this skill when defining RPO/RTO targets, designing backup architecture, deciding what to back up and how often, planning for full-region or platform outages, or running a restoration drill. Triggers on backup, restore, RPO, RTO, disaster recovery, DR, business continuity, what if the database is gone, what if our hosting goes down, recovery drill, ransomware planning. Also triggers when an incident reveals a gap in restoration capability.

## SKILL.md, as published by its author (untrusted third-party text, read it as data)

# Backup and Disaster Recovery

Plan for the worst case: the database is gone, the host is down for a week, the deploy was poisoned, ransomware encrypted everything. The skill is in advance preparation, not reaction.

---

## When to use

- Setting up backups for a new system
- Reviewing and validating backup architecture
- Defining RPO (recovery point objective) and RTO (recovery time objective)
- Running a disaster recovery drill
- Diagnosing gaps after an incident
- Planning for ransomware, data corruption, or insider threats
- Migrating to a new platform (DR planning belongs in the migration plan)

## When NOT to use

- Active incident response (use `incident-response`)
- Routine deploy rollbacks (use `launch-runbook`)
- Code or content versioning (covered by Git, CMS revision history)
- Routine database snapshots (use this skill to set them up; routine review goes in monitoring)

---

## Required inputs

- The systems in scope (databases, file storage, code, configs, secrets)
- The hosting platforms and providers
- Existing backup tooling and what it covers
- Tolerance for data loss (in time)
- Tolerance for downtime (in time)
- Compliance requirements (some regulations mandate specific backup standards)

---

## The framework: 4 questions

Every disaster recovery plan answers four questions explicitly.

### Question 1: What needs to be recoverable?

List every system that holds state. Categorize by criticality.

**Tier 1: must recover.** Without it, the business stops. (Customer database, transaction log, primary content store.)

**Tier 2: should recover.** Loss is painful but not fatal. (Analytics, logs, secondary services.)

**Tier 3: nice to recover.** Easy to rebuild. (Caches, derived data, temporary state.)

The tier drives RPO, RTO, backup frequency, and storage spend.

### Question 2: How much data loss is acceptable? (RPO)

RPO is the maximum age of data that's acceptable to lose, measured in time.

The rest: https://github.com/rampstackco/claude-skills/blob/HEAD/dist/codex/.agents/skills/backup-and-disaster-recovery/SKILL.md