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Data & Backups

This page explains where your data lives, what the data directory contains, and how to export, import, and back up your library.

The Data Directory​

All user data lives in one data directory, created on first run. Its exact location is shown in Settings → Data; you can point the server at another location with the NEOTA_DATA_DIR environment variable. The layout:

  • app.db — the SQLite database: characters, chats, messages, lorebooks, memory entries, personas, presets, and settings. It runs in WAL mode with foreign keys enabled and full-text search for characters, chats, and messages.
  • files/ — original user files: avatars, backgrounds, attachments, audio, and generated images. These are never derived data.
  • cache/ — regenerable data: thumbnails, tokenizer data, and plugin downloads. Clearing a cache never touches your originals.
  • backups/ — backup archives you create from the UI.
  • logs/ — redacted server logs.
  • plugins/ and themes/ — installed packages, each confined to its own directory.

What Is Stored​

Characters and their cards, chats with full message history and swipe variants, lorebooks, memory entries, personas, generation presets, connection profiles, themes, plugins, and your settings. API keys are stored locally in an encrypted key manager and are never written to logs, browser storage, or diagnostic exports.

Export and Import​

  • Character cards export as PNG or JSON, and chats export as archives you can keep or move to another machine. See Characters.
  • SillyTavern migration lives in Settings → Data: pick a full data backup ZIP, and the app first runs a read-only analysis that reports the objects, nested records, damage, size, and conflicts per category — characters, chats, personas, lorebooks, and presets. Nothing is written before you review the report and confirm. You then choose the categories and one explicit conflict policy (keep existing, create copies, safely merge, or replace from the archive). Secrets, plugins, themes, and unsupported categories are listed as skipped, and repeating the import never creates duplicates.

Backups​

Backups are created and restored entirely from the UI in Settings → Data:

  • Create a backup any time; creating one does not block reading your data.
  • The backup screen shows date, size, schema version, source, and state.
  • Restore asks for confirmation, creates a protective backup of the current state first, and tells you the app must restart afterwards.
  • Restore is only reported as successful after integrity is verified; if it fails, the app offers an automatic return to the protective copy.

Before any dangerous schema migration, the app creates a backup on its own. Combined with the WAL database, that means an upgrade or a restore always has a known-good fallback. See Upgrading.