Export & restore

adminium export-zip --out ./adminium-export.zip

Wrote /work/adminium-export.zip (48.2 KB, 12 entries).
connections: 3 · snapshots: 3 · overrides: 214 · pages: 41 · views: 12 · roles: 4

This is a server + config bundle. It is not your source code.

export-zip does not hand you a generated application. There is no src/ directory, no React components, no routes to deploy.

Adminium interprets configuration at runtime. It never emits an app — so there is no generated codebase in it to export, and this is by design rather than a limitation. What the zip carries is the configuration Adminium interprets, plus a pin to the adminium package version that interprets it.

If you are looking for “download my admin panel’s source and maintain it myself”: Adminium does not work that way, on purpose. What you get instead is portability — the bundle stands the same instance up anywhere Adminium runs.

What is in the bundle

	Contents
manifest.json	Format version, the adminium version that wrote it, config-envelope version, secrets policy
README.md	Says what this is, in its first heading
package.json	Pins the adminium version that wrote the bundle — the runtime is named, not copied
config/settings.json	Instance settings
config/roles.json, config/rolePermissions.json	RBAC
config/connections.json	Connection definitions
config/snapshots.json	Schema snapshots
config/overrides.json	Your field/label/type customizations
config/pages.json	Pages and dashboards
config/views.json	Saved views

What is not in it

• Source code. See above.
• The Adminium runtime itself. package.json pins the version; install that version separately — from source or Docker (npm publish is a release step that has not happened yet). The bundle carries a reference, not a copy.
• Your rows. No table data, ever. This is configuration.
• Your secrets — unless you ask. Default is omitted.

Secrets are omitted by default

An export is shareable by default. DSN passwords and provider API keys are left out, and the target re-enters them on import.

adminium export-zip --include-secrets --out ./full.zip

Wrote /work/full.zip (49.1 KB, 12 entries).
This bundle contains encrypted secrets — treat it as sensitive.

The manifest records which policy applied — omitted or encrypted — so a bundle can never be mistaken for something it is not.

--include-secrets is not “the secrets travel”

It means ciphertext travels. Those values are encrypted under a key derived from ADMINIUM_SECRET, so only an instance with the same ADMINIUM_SECRET can read them. Move the bundle to an instance with a different secret and the values are inert.

That makes --include-secrets useful for moving an instance you control, and useless as a way to hand someone else a working credential. Which is the correct behavior — but it also means the bundle is exactly as sensitive as your meta store, and should be handled that way.

Restoring

adminium import-zip --in adminium-export.zip

The bundle carries a manifest with the config-envelope version, so a bundle written by an older Adminium replays forward into a newer one. Resources are matched on natural keys rather than raw ids, so a re-import updates what is already there instead of duplicating it.

Trial it first — --dry-run validates the whole bundle and prints what would be written, without touching the database:

adminium import-zip --in adminium-export.zip --dry-run

If secrets were omitted, connections that are new to the target import without credentials and you re-enter them once. Connections the target already has keep the credentials they have.

→ import-zip reference

Export is not backup

Worth being blunt about, because the file extension invites the assumption:

	export-zip	A real backup
Connection config, pages, roles, views	Yes	Yes
Your database’s rows	No	Yes
The audit log	No	Yes
Jobs, sessions, run history	No	Yes
Point-in-time recovery	No	Yes

export-zip is for portability — moving an instance, replaying a configuration, putting your admin-panel config in source control, handing a colleague a reproducible setup.

For backup, back up the meta store with your database’s own tooling, and back up ADMINIUM_SECRET alongside it. See Self-hosting → Backups.

Exporting one connection

adminium export-zip --connection <id> --out ./one-connection.zip

Restricts the bundle to that connection’s configuration. Without it, the whole instance is exported.

Flags

Flag	Default
--connection, -c	the whole instance	Export only this connection
--out, -o	./adminium-export.zip	Destination path
--include-secrets	off	Include encrypted DSNs and provider keys
--data-dir	ADMINIUM_DATA_DIR	Data directory
--meta-url	ADMINIUM_META_URL	Meta store DSN

Full reference: adminium export-zip.