Snapshots
Take point-in-time images of a box's disk by hand or on a schedule, restore them into new boxes, and fork a running box.
On this page8
What a snapshot captures
A snapshot is the box's whole disk at one instant, taken without pausing the box.
- Crash-consistent. It holds what had reached the disk, as after a power loss, not what was still in memory (an editor buffer, a database's unflushed page). Save or flush first if a moment matters.
- Block level, incremental. Each stores only what changed since the one before (a new box's first, only what the box itself wrote), so frequent snapshots of a quiet box are cheap.
- Independent of the box. Deleting the box does not delete its snapshots, and restoring one never changes the box it came from.
- Not on infinite storage. A box with infinite storage has no disk holding its files, so it cannot be snapshotted or forked (
422 storage_backend_unsupported). Deleting one still keeps its files for the 7-day undo window (Data retention).
Kinds
The box's Snapshots tab and prized snapshot ls show each snapshot's kind:
| Kind | Who takes it | Counts toward the limit | Goes away |
|---|---|---|---|
| manual | You, from the dashboard or prized snapshot create | yes | When you delete it |
| fork copy | prized fork or the Fork button | no | By itself, once the new box is running |
| automatic | The schedule you set on a box | no | By itself, past the box's keep count or after keep x interval |
Fork copies are hidden by default (prized snapshot ls --kind fork lists them) and can never be restored.
Take a snapshot
prized snapshot create mango --name pre-upgrade
prized snapshot lsThe command returns at once; the snapshot shows creating until the disk copy completes, then available: a minute or two on a quiet box, longer the more was written since the last one. One per box at a time; a second request is refused with snapshot_in_progress. In the dashboard: the Snapshots page, or the Snapshot action on the box page.
Restore into a new box
prized snapshot restore pre-upgrade --name mango-2Restore never rolls a box back in place: it creates a new box from the snapshot, in the snapshot's size and region, with the source box's login user. --tier picks any size whose disk holds the snapshot; a smaller disk is refused with the numbers. A restore is a create, so the box limit and a new box's balance rules apply.
Fork a box
prized fork mango --name mango-2 --waitA fork is a snapshot and a restore in one call, while the source keeps running. The new box keeps the source's size, region, login user, and auto-pause setting; --tier picks another size whose disk holds the copy. The Fork action on the box page does the same.
- Minutes, not seconds. The new box waits for the disk copy, then launches and boots;
--waitprints each step, or watch the box page. - A copy that stops is a failure; a slow one is not. The new box waits as long as the copy keeps moving: the first copy of a large, busy disk can take over an hour. No progress for 30 minutes, or not done after 8 hours, marks the new box failed with the reason (delete it; the source is untouched, and the failed box costs nothing). To make forks of a big box quick, take a manual snapshot first: the fork then copies only what changed after it.
- The copy is temporary: it deletes itself once the new box is running (or has failed for good).
--keep-snapshotkeeps it as a manual snapshot, which counts toward the limit. - A fork is a create: if the box limit or the balance rules refuse it, nothing is created.
Automatic snapshots
prized box auto-snapshot mango --every 6h --keep 5
prized box auto-snapshot mango --every offA schedule snapshots the box's disk whenever the newest automatic snapshot is older than the interval; the box page's Snapshots tab has the same control.
- When they run. While the box is running or paused; a box in deep sleep is skipped until it has a disk again, and a manual snapshot in flight defers the scheduled one.
- Retention. At most
keepper box, each expiring after keep x interval (every 6 hours keeping 5 is a 30 hour window). Switching the schedule off stops new ones; those already taken still expire, except one a new box is still launching from. - Outside the limit, but like any snapshot they need a funded balance or an active plan. Names are
auto-<box>-<yyyymmdd-hhmmss>, in UTC.
Limits
Every cap, the 20-snapshot count included, is on Limits.
CLI
Every command takes --json and prints one object.
| Command | What it does |
|---|---|
prized snapshot create <box> [--name N] [--description D] | Snapshot the box's disk now |
prized snapshot ls [--box B] [--kind K] | List snapshots, newest first; --kind fork shows transient fork copies |
prized snapshot restore <id|name> [--name NEWBOX] [--tier T] | A new box from a snapshot; --tier is any size whose disk holds it |
prized snapshot delete <id|name> [-y] | Delete a snapshot (asks first) |
prized fork <box> [--name] [--tier] [--keep-snapshot] [--wait] | A new box from a copy of the box's disk |
prized box auto-snapshot <box> --every 6h|off [--keep N] | Set or clear the box's snapshot schedule |
Exit codes follow the CLI contract: a busy box, a taken name, or the box limit is CONFLICT (6); an unknown box or snapshot, a size that cannot hold the disk, and the snapshot limit are CHECK_FAILED (5). Every route, body, and refusal code is on the API reference.