Backups of GitHub you can actually restore.

Your repositories, history, issues and pull requests — backed up automatically, independently and recoverably, into storage you control.

A read-only GitHub App: Branchark can never change your code.
Archives land in your own S3, R2 or B2 bucket, mirrors in GitLab.
Restore with tar, git and sha256sum. No Branchark needed.

acme/payments-api

Example

Today, 02:00 Running

Exporting pull request reviews

Started 6 minutes ago
Yesterday Complete

48 refs, 1,204 issues, 386 pull requests

Verified in 2 buckets
Monday Complete

47 refs, 1,198 issues, 384 pull requests

Verified in 2 buckets
Sunday Partial

Archive verified

GitLab mirror rejected a force-push
Saturday Complete

47 refs, 1,190 issues

Verified in 2 buckets
Friday Failed

Bucket credentials rejected

Owner notified, fixed the same day

An illustrative repository. Every run is a layer you can dig back to; failures stay visible instead of being overwritten by the next success.

One file per recovery point. No proprietary format.

Each snapshot is a plain tar archive: a verified Git bundle with every branch, tag and pull request ref, Git LFS objects, and GitHub metadata as gzipped JSON Lines — exactly as the API returned it, with original IDs, authors and timestamps.

Verified after upload
Branchark downloads what it stored and compares SHA-256 checksums before calling a backup complete.
Every destination on its own
One bucket failing never hides behind another succeeding. You see each copy’s state.
On your schedule
Daily or weekly, in your time zone, safe across daylight-saving changes.

Inside one snapshot archive

branchark-acme-payments-api-20261021T020000Z/
├── manifest.json            schema, source ids, components, checksums
├── checksums.sha256         for sha256sum -c
├── RESTORE.md               instructions for this snapshot
├── git/
│   ├── repository.bundle    all branches, tags, refs/pull/*
│   └── refs.txt
├── lfs/objects/…            Git LFS content
└── metadata/
    ├── repository.json
    ├── issues.jsonl.gz
    ├── issue_comments.jsonl.gz
    ├── pull_requests.jsonl.gz
    ├── pull_request_reviews.jsonl.gz
    ├── pull_request_review_comments.jsonl.gz
    ├── labels.jsonl.gz
    ├── milestones.jsonl.gz
    └── releases.jsonl.gz

Recover without us.

If GitHub locks an account, a repository is deleted, or you simply leave, your archives still work. Standard tools restore the full history; the bundled guide explains the rest.

Restore a snapshot (replace SNAPSHOT with the downloaded file name)

tar -xf SNAPSHOT.tar && cd branchark-acme-payments-api-*
sha256sum -c checksums.sha256
git clone --mirror git/repository.bundle payments-api.git
cd payments-api.git
git push https://git.example.com/acme/payments-api.git \
  'refs/heads/*:refs/heads/*' 'refs/tags/*:refs/tags/*'

What a backup can and cannot give back.

Preserved

Complete Git history of every branch, tag and pull request ref
Issues, comments, pull requests, reviews, labels, milestones and releases with original IDs and timestamps
Git LFS objects and release assets, when enabled

Not recreated automatically

Issues imported elsewhere get new numbers, authors and dates — the archive keeps the originals
Reactions, project boards, discussions, Actions and repository settings are not exported
A GitLab mirror holds Git history only; it is not a substitute for an archive

Start with one repository.

Install the read-only GitHub App, add a bucket, and take your first verified snapshot in a few minutes.