Backup projection and convergence evidence

Evidence-first

Headless Sync can project a vault to a backup host, but Sync is not itself a complete backup or convergence receipt.

Required controls

• Create a recoverable source backup before setup, mode changes, unlink, continuous operation, or recovery.
• Inventory source and destination paths before and after.
• Record provider-native status from both sides.
• Read a canary on a second device by exact path and compare bytes/content and SHA-256.
• Check conflicts, deletions, and unexpected files.
• Retain independent versioned storage outside the live synchronized directory.
• Name retention, restore, evidence, and rollback owners.

Read-only discovery

After an approved interactive session, use ob sync-list-remote, ob sync-list-local, and ob sync-status to inventory configuration. These commands do not prove that every file converged.

Canary receipt

A passing receipt contains:

1. approved account alias and remote vault identity without secrets;
2. source and destination exact paths;
3. source and destination status timestamps;
4. canary size, content hash, and second-device readback;
5. conflict, deletion, and unexpected-file results;
6. backup locator and rollback owner.

Recovery boundary

The official Headless pages document no history, exact-version read, or restore command. Route exact-version recovery through the recoverable backup, documented desktop Sync/File Recovery, or a separately verified provider workflow. Never invent an ob restore command, and never copy a live writable SQLite database.

Source: Headless Sync, retrieved 2026-08-29 EDT.