Where your data lives
Everything your apps store is on your device. Obacht's servers know about your account, your devices and your web addresses, but never hold the photos, notes or databases inside your apps. Backups are your job.
On the device
On a Raspberry Pi or Linux PC the agent keeps everything under /var/lib/obacht/.
| What | Where |
|---|---|
| Data of one installed app | /var/lib/obacht/<template>/<instance>/ |
| The compose project of an app (bundles) | /var/lib/obacht/compose/<instanceID>/ |
| Certificates and web server state (Caddy) | /var/lib/obacht/caddy/ |
| The agent's own database, including app secrets | /var/lib/obacht/agent-v2.db |
On a Mac the apps run inside a small Linux VM, the hosting engine. Its disk is one file, docker-data.img, in ~/Library/Application Support/dev.obacht.macapp/, next to the agent's database, logs and Caddy state. The app data lives inside that image, not in a folder you can open in Finder. The image starts at 32 GiB and can be grown from the Mac app's Settings with Expand storage. It never shrinks.
The full path list for tinkerers is on Paths, logs and the installer.
On Obacht's servers
Obacht's servers run in Germany. They store what is needed to run your account and route traffic to your device:
- Your account: email, username, name, settings, the encrypted form of your device key (useless without your passphrase).
- Your devices: name, type, model, agent version, online status, and the telemetry the agent reports (CPU, memory, disk, temperature, IP addresses).
- Events: installs, changes, terminal sessions, alerts.
- Your web addresses and protected domains, and which device they point at.
- Support requests and template submissions.
You can download all of it from Settings → Your Data. The categories and what is left out are listed on Your data. What Obacht sees on the wire is covered on How Obacht connects your device.
Obacht's servers do not store app data, app logs or the content of your traffic. The Logs you see on an app page are read live from the device.
There are no backups
Obacht does not back up your device or your apps, and nothing on Obacht's servers can rebuild them. If the SD card dies, the data on it is gone. If you want a copy, make one yourself: copy /var/lib/obacht/<template>/<instance>/ to another disk, or use whatever export the app offers from the inside. The Files tab lets you download folders from your home directory as a zip, up to 500 MB, but app data under /var/lib/obacht/ is outside that scope.
Treat the device like the only copy, because it is. An SD card in a Raspberry Pi wears out. Plan a copy before you rely on an app.
What survives removing an app
Removing an app from the app page says it plainly: "its data will be removed, can't be undone". That is the default for everything the app wrote.
That includes bundle apps. Removing one deletes all of its volumes. Some templates mark volumes with x-obacht-data: true. The marker changes nothing today, those volumes are deleted too. If you want to keep anything, copy it before you remove the app.
Stopping an app, updating it or changing its settings keeps the data. Updating recreates the container around the same data folder.
What happens to the device when you delete things
- Remove an app: data gone, see above. The web address is released and can be claimed again.
- Remove a device from the dashboard: Obacht forgets the device, drops its install tokens, network access, telemetry and events, and releases all its web addresses. The device itself is not wiped. The apps on it keep running until you stop them, but nobody can manage them from the dashboard anymore.
- Delete your account: the same for every device at once, plus your protected domains, SSH keys and projects. Devices keep running what is on them but lose management. Released addresses can be claimed by anyone.
- Mac, "Sign out and remove this Mac": this one does wipe. The VM image with all app data is deleted and nothing is backed up. If you only want a break, use Pause instead.
Next: Your data for the export and the account deletion flow.