Alternative free-forever backup channels for GitHub code and metadata

Alternative free backup channels for GH protection repositories and their metadata (issues, PRs, wikis, releases) using Cloudflare R2, Backblaze B2, Hugging Face Datasets, and the native GitHub Migration API. Integrated into our overall disaster recovery options.

Alternative free-forever backup channels

Context

Our primary backup strategy is the 6-host active git mirror (using GitHub Actions to push code). However, git mirroring only copies the source code and git history. It does NOT backup repository metadata:

• Issues and comments
• Pull request conversations and code reviews
• Wiki pages (though these are git repos, they require separate cloning)
• Release binaries and attachments
• Milestones, labels, projects, and repository settings

This decision documents alternative, free-forever, automated methods to back up both repositories and their associated metadata.

1. Native GitHub Migration API (Full Export)

GitHub offers a native migration API that generates a single, downloadable .tar.gz archive containing the entire repository structure and metadata.

Capabilities

• Included: Repository source code, wiki, issues, pull requests, releases (including attachments), milestones, labels, projects, and settings.
• Cost: Completely free forever (native GitHub platform capability).

Automated Flow (GH Actions + Target Storage)

1. Trigger: A weekly GitHub Actions cron runs a script to start the migration:

   # Start migration for repository or organization
   curl -X POST -H "Authorization: token \${GH_PAT}" \
     -H "Accept: application/vnd.github+json" \
     "https://api.github.com/orgs/chirag127/migrations" \
     -d '{"repositories":["workspace"],"exclude_attachments":false}'

2. Poll: The workflow sleeps/polls the status endpoint until the migration state becomes exported.
3. Download: Downloads the archive using the returned download URL:

   curl -H "Authorization: token \${GH_PAT}" \
     -o backup.tar.gz \
     "https://api.github.com/orgs/chirag127/migrations/\${MIGRATION_ID}/archive"

4. Push to Storage: Stream/copy the archive to one of the free-forever storage layers below.

2. Cloudflare R2 (10 GB S3-Compatible Free Storage)

Cloudflare R2 provides a free-tier object storage bucket with zero egress fees, making it the perfect remote archive repository for backup bundles.

Limits

• Storage: 10 GB free forever per account.
• Egress: $0 (completely free data transfer out).
• Operations: 1,000,000 Class A (write) and 10,000,000 Class B (read) operations per month.

Automation via AWS CLI

Since R2 is S3-compatible, the pre-installed aws CLI on GitHub runners can copy backups directly:

- name: Upload to Cloudflare R2
  run: |
    aws s3 cp backup.tar.gz s3://oriz-backups/github-backup-\$(date +%F).tar.gz \
      --endpoint-url \${{ secrets.R2_ENDPOINT }}
  env:
    AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID: \${{ secrets.R2_ACCESS_KEY_ID }}
    AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY: \${{ secrets.R2_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY }}
    AWS_DEFAULT_REGION: auto

3. Backblaze B2 (10 GB Free Storage)

Backblaze B2 is an alternative object storage option offering a free-forever tier without requiring a credit card.

Limits

• Storage: 10 GB free forever.
• Egress: 1 GB/day free download.

Automation via Rclone or B2 CLI

You can use rclone (pre-installed on runner or run-time script) to sync backups:

rclone copy backup.tar.gz b2:oriz-backups-bucket/ -v

4. Hugging Face Datasets (Free Unlimited Archive Storage)

Hugging Face provides free, unlimited hosting for datasets. You can create a private dataset repository and use it as a storage target for code/metadata backup archives.

Limits

• Storage: Free, unlimited (individual files up to 50 GB; soft guidelines recommend keeping total repository under 10-50 GB, but there are no hard caps).
• Git LFS: Fully supported natively.

Automation via Hugging Face Hub CLI

- name: Push Backup to Hugging Face
  run: |
    pip install huggingface_hub --quiet
    huggingface-cli login --token \${{ secrets.HF_TOKEN }}
    # Upload archive file directly to a private dataset repository
    huggingface-cli upload chirag127/backups backup.tar.gz backup-\$(date +%F).tar.gz --repo-type=dataset

5. Open-Source Metadata Backup Tools (CLI)

For custom metadata extraction (saving issues/PRs as readable JSON rather than binary tarballs), the following CLI tools can be executed inside GitHub Actions:

1. github-backup (Python):
   • Command: github-backup --token \${GH_PAT} --output-directory ./backup --all --private-embed-key chirag127
   • Backs up repositories, wikis, issues, pull requests, milestones, labels, and releases.
2. gitbackup (Go):
   • Excellent for multi-platform clones.
3. rclone (Go):
   • For syncing local folders of downloaded metadata files to GDrive/OneDrive free tiers.

Cross-refs

• weekly everywhere plan ? [[decisions/ops/backup-everywhere-weekly]]
• 9-host mirror ? [[decisions/ops/mirror-to-9-popular-alternatives-2026-06-28]]
• No card on file rule ? [[rules/no-card-on-file]]

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