Provider Configuration

April 19, 2026 · View on GitHub

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This document covers detailed configuration for each supported provider, advanced options, and platform-specific deployment guides.

Setting Provider Credentials

On Linux and macOS you can set environment variables manually before each time you run soba:

export NAME='VALUE'

or by defining in a startup file for your shell so they are automatically set and available when you need them. For example, if using the bash shell and running soba as your user, add the relevant export statements to:

/home/<your-user-id>/.bashrc

and run:

source /home/<your-user-id>/.bashrc

On Windows 10:

search for 'environment variables' and choose 'Edit environment variables for your account'
choose 'New...' under the top pane and enter the name/key and value for each of the settings

Credentials from files

You can provide credentials via files using the _FILE environment variable pattern. For example:

GITHUB_TOKEN_FILE=/run/secrets/my_github_token

If both the variable and _FILE version are set, the variable takes precedence.

Provider Reference

Provider	Environment Variable(s)	Generating token
Azure DevOps	AZURE_DEVOPS_USERNAME	instructions
	AZURE_DEVOPS_PAT
	AZURE_DEVOPS_ORGS
	AZURE_DEVOPS_BACKUPS
BitBucket (API tokens)	BITBUCKET_EMAIL	instructions
	BITBUCKET_API_TOKEN
	BITBUCKET_WORKSPACE	Optional — comma-separated list of workspaces (auto-discovered if unset)
BitBucket (OAuth2)	BITBUCKET_USER	instructions
	BITBUCKET_KEY
	BITBUCKET_SECRET
	BITBUCKET_WORKSPACE	Optional — comma-separated list of workspaces (auto-discovered if unset)
Gitea	GITEA_APIURL	instructions
	GITEA_TOKEN
GitHub	GITHUB_TOKEN	instructions
GitLab	GITLAB_TOKEN	instructions
	GITLAB_PROJECT_MIN_ACCESS_LEVEL	instructions
Sourcehut	SOURCEHUT_PAT	instructions
	SOURCEHUT_APIURL
	SOURCEHUT_BACKUPS
	SOURCEHUT_BACKUP_LFS

Azure DevOps

Returning organisations' repositories

An organisation must be specified using environment variable AZURE_DEVOPS_ORGS in order for soba to discover the projects and their repos. Note: Only a single organisation is currently supported.

Repo/Bundle comparison method

Environment variable: AZURE_DEVOPS_COMPARE

See explanation below

Value
clone (default)	Clone the remote and compare latest bundle
refs	Compare refs without downloading (available since soba 1.1.4)

BitBucket

Workspace selection

Bitbucket requires repositories to be listed per workspace. By default, soba will auto-discover all workspaces the authenticated user is a member of and back up repositories from each.

To limit backups to specific workspaces, set BITBUCKET_WORKSPACE to a comma-separated list:

export BITBUCKET_WORKSPACE=my-workspace
# or multiple:
export BITBUCKET_WORKSPACE=workspace-a,workspace-b

Repo/Bundle comparison method

Environment variable: BITBUCKET_COMPARE

See explanation below

Value
clone (default)	Clone the remote and compare latest bundle
refs	Compare refs without downloading (available since soba 1.1.4)

Custom endpoints

To use Bitbucket Server or another custom endpoint, set BITBUCKET_APIURL with the API URL.

API token scopes

When using API tokens as your auth method, only the following scopes are required:

read:project:bitbucket
read:repository:bitbucket
read:workspace:bitbucket (required to list/view workspaces)

Gitea

Generating a token

Official documentation

The value for GITEA_APIURL needs to be in the format: https://[domain]/api/v1, where domain is something like gitea.example.com.

GITEA_TOKEN is the secret you need to generate using the API (see official documentation above), or via the web GUI:

Login to Gitea
Select your user icon in the top right-hand corner and choose Settings from the dropdown
Select Applications
Enter a Token Name, e.g. "soba backups"
Select Public only or All depending on use-case
Expand the Select permissions menu
Select read:organization and read:repository
Click on Generate Token and the value will appear at the top of the page

Returning organisations' repositories

Repositories in Gitea organisations are not backed up by default. To back these up, specify a comma separated list of organisations in the environment variable: GITEA_ORGS. To include "all" organisations, set to *.

Repo/Bundle comparison method

Environment variable: GITEA_COMPARE

See explanation below

Value
clone (default)	Clone the remote and compare latest bundle
refs	Compare refs without downloading (available since soba 1.1.4)

GitHub

Returning organisations' repositories

Repositories in GitHub organisations are not backed up by default. To back these up, specify a comma separated list of organisations in the environment variable: GITHUB_ORGS.

Skipping user repository backups

By default, all users' repositories will be backed up, even when specifying organisations. To skip user repositories set environment variable: GITHUB_SKIP_USER_REPOS to true.

Limit user repo backups to those owned by the user

By default, all repositories a user is affiliated with, e.g. a collaborator on, are included for backup. To limit these to only those owned by the user, set environment variable: GITHUB_LIMIT_USER_OWNED to true.

Repo/Bundle comparison method

Environment variable: GITHUB_COMPARE

See explanation below

Value
clone (default)	Clone the remote and compare latest bundle
refs	Compare refs without downloading (available since soba 1.1.4)

Adjust GitHub API behaviour

Environment variables:

GITHUB_CALL_SIZE - number of repositories returned per API call (default 100)
GITHUB_WORKER_DELAY - delay in milliseconds between API workers starting (default 500)

Custom endpoints

To use GitHub Enterprise or other API endpoints, set GITHUB_APIURL.

GitLab

Filtering projects by access level

By default, every project a user has at least Reporter access to will be returned. Set GITLAB_PROJECT_MIN_ACCESS_LEVEL to override this with the number matching the desired access level:

Access Level	Value
Guest	10
Reporter	20
Developer	30
Maintainer	40
Owner	50

See GitLab documentation for details.

Repo/Bundle comparison method

Environment variable: GITLAB_COMPARE

See explanation below

Value
clone (default)	Clone the remote and compare latest bundle
refs	Compare refs without downloading (available since soba 1.1.4)

Custom endpoints

To use a self-hosted GitLab instance, set GITLAB_APIURL with the API URL.

Sourcehut

Repo/Bundle comparison method

Environment variable: SOURCEHUT_COMPARE

See explanation below

Value
clone (default)	Clone the remote and compare latest bundle
refs	Compare refs without downloading

Custom endpoints

To use a custom Sourcehut instance, set SOURCEHUT_APIURL with the API URL.

Comparing Remote Repository with Local Backup

By default, each repository will be cloned, bundled, and that bundle compared with the latest local bundle to check if it should be kept or discarded. When processing many large repositories, this can be a lengthy process.

Alternatively, you can compare the Git refs of the latest local bundle with the remote repository without having to clone. This is carried out using native commands git bundle list-heads <bundle file> and git ls-remote <remote repository>.

This process is far quicker than cloning but should only be used if the following is understood: Comparing refs means comparing the tips of, and not the entire history of, the repository. This post on Stack Overflow goes into additional detail.

Logging

Persistence

Messages are written to stdout and can be persisted by directing to a file, e.g. soba > soba.log

Logging to /var/log/soba

Create a user called soba: sudo adduser soba Create a log directory: sudo mkdir /var/log/soba Set user permissions: sudo chown soba /var/log/soba && sudo chmod 700 /var/log/soba Switch to soba user: sudo su - soba Run soba and direct output: soba > /var/log/soba/soba.log

Rotation

Logrotate is a utility that comes with most Linux distributions and removes and/or compresses messages older than a certain number of hours or days.

This example assumes you persist the log file to /var/log/soba/soba.log. Create a file in /etc/logrotate.d/soba with the following content:

/var/log/soba/soba.log {
  rotate 7      # remove backups older than seven days
  daily         # process log file each day
  compress      # compress the backup
  copytruncate  # don't delete the file after backup, but instead truncate
}

Each day, this will copy the latest logs to a new file that is then compressed. The existing log file is then truncated. Any backups older than seven days are then removed.

Log level

Set SOBA_LOG to a number to control verbosity. Higher values increase output.

Keep running after reboot

In case the computer is rebooted or the process ends for another reason, you can ensure it automatically restarts with a simple script and cron job.

Script

For example:

#!/bin/bash -e
export GIT_BACKUP_DIR=/backup-dir
export GITHUB_TOKEN=xxxxxxx   # avoid hard-coding if possible
export GITHUB_BACKUPS=7
export GIT_BACKUP_INTERVAL=12
export GITHUB_COMPARE=refs
/usr/local/bin/soba

Cron job

Ensure the user running soba has an entry in /etc/cron.allow.

Run crontab -e

Add the following (assuming you have a user called soba with a script to run it called backup in their home directory): * * * * * /usr/bin/flock -n /tmp/soba.lockfile /home/soba/backup >> /var/log/soba/soba.log 2>&1

A useful tool for testing cron jobs is crontab guru.

Run on Synology NAS

The following was tested on DS916+

Create a directory on your NAS for backing up Git repositories to
Install Docker from the Synology Package Center
Open Docker and select 'Image'
Select 'Add' from the top menu and choose 'Add From URL'
In 'Repository URL' enter 'jonhadfield/soba', leave other options as default and click 'Add'
When it asks to 'Choose Tag' accept the default 'latest' by pressing 'Select'
Select image 'jonhadfield/soba:latest' from the list and click 'Launch' from the top menu
Set 'Container Name' to 'soba' and select 'Advanced Settings'
Check 'Enable auto-restart'
Under 'Volume' select 'Add folder' and choose the directory created in step 1. Set the 'Mount Path' to '/backup'
Under 'Network' check 'Use the same network as Docker Host'
Under 'Environment' click '+' to add the common configuration:
- variable GIT_BACKUP_DIR Value /backup
- variable GIT_BACKUP_INTERVAL Value (hours between backups)
Also under 'Environment' click '+' to add the relevant provider specific configuration:
- variable AZURE_DEVOPS_USERNAME Value
- variable AZURE_DEVOPS_PAT Value
- variable AZURE_DEVOPS_ORGS Value
- variable AZURE_DEVOPS_BACKUPS Value (Number of backups to keep for each repo)
- variable BITBUCKET_USER Value
- variable BITBUCKET_KEY Value
- variable BITBUCKET_SECRET Value
- variable BITBUCKET_WORKSPACE Value (Optional - comma separated list of workspaces)
- variable BITBUCKET_BACKUPS Value (Number of backups to keep for each repo)
- variable GITEA_APIURL Value
- variable GITEA_TOKEN Value
- variable GITEA_ORGS Value
- variable GITEA_BACKUPS Value
- variable GITHUB_TOKEN Value
- variable GITHUB_ORGS Value (Optional - comma separated list of organisations)
- variable GITHUB_SKIP_USER_REPOS Value (Optional - defaults to false)
- variable GITHUB_LIMIT_USER_OWNED Value (Optional - defaults to false)
- variable GITHUB_BACKUPS Value (Number of backups to keep for each repo)
- variable GITLAB_TOKEN Value
- variable GITLAB_BACKUPS Value (Number of backups to keep for each repo)
- variable GITLAB_PROJECT_MIN_ACCESS_LEVEL Value (Optional - scope of repos to backup)
- variable SOURCEHUT_PAT Value
- variable SOURCEHUT_APIURL Value (Optional)
- variable SOURCEHUT_BACKUPS Value (Number of backups to keep for each repo)
- variable SOURCEHUT_BACKUP_LFS Value (y/yes to also back up LFS objects)
Click 'Apply'
Leave settings as default and select 'Next'
Check 'Run this container after the wizard is finished' and click 'Apply'

The container should launch in a few seconds. You can view progress by choosing 'Container' in the left-hand menu, select 'soba', choose 'details' and then click on 'Log'.

Setting the request timeout

By default, soba will wait up to ten minutes for a response to complete. This could be anything from an API call to discover repositories to a clone of a large repository. If you have a slow connection or very large repositories, you may want to increase this. To do so, set the environment variable GIT_REQUEST_TIMEOUT to the number of seconds you wish to wait. For example, to wait up to ten minutes:

export GIT_REQUEST_TIMEOUT=600