pgProof

A backup is a hypothesis. A restore is proof.

pgproof dumps your Postgres database, restores the dump into a disposable local cluster, and verifies the result: table and row counts against a manifest captured at dump time, foreign-key constraints, sequences, extensions, RLS policies, and your own probe queries. Then it destroys the evidence and tells you the truth.

$ npx pgproof drill "postgresql://user:pass@host:5432/mydb"

✓ DRILL PASSED — postgresql://user:***@host:5432/mydb
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
  server        Postgres 15.1
  tools         v15 · /Applications/Postgres.app/Contents/Versions/15/bin
  tables        12 · 1,184,302 rows
  rls policies  17
  extensions    plpgsql, pgcrypto
  sha256        9f2c…e1a7
  timings       dump 2140 ms · restore 940 ms · verify 380 ms

Works with Supabase (use the Session Pooler string), Neon (use the direct, non-pooled string), Railway, Render, RDS, and self-hosted Postgres 13–17.

Why

Every restore disaster starts with months of dumps that "worked". Truncated uploads, missing extensions, version mismatches and silently-empty tables all look identical in a bucket listing. The only proof is a restore — so pgproof does one, every time, in seconds, without Docker and without touching your source database beyond a read.

Install

npm install -g pgproof     # or: npx pgproof …

Requires Node ≥ 20 and local Postgres client/server binaries at a version ≥ your database's major (Postgres.app, Homebrew, or apt postgresql-N all work; auto-discovered, or point PGPROOF_PG_BIN at a bin directory).

Usage

# full drill: dump + restore + verify
pgproof drill "$DATABASE_URL"

# keep the (verified) dump — this is your backup now
pgproof drill "$DATABASE_URL" --keep --out backups/today.dump

# verify a RECENT backup file against the live database's manifest
pgproof drill "$DATABASE_URL" --file backups/today.dump

# verify an OLD ARCHIVE with no live source (or one that changed since):
# restores it, validates constraints, runs probes, reports what it contains
pgproof verify backups/2026-07-01.dump --probe "SELECT count(*) > 0 FROM clients"

# domain probes: prove the data is not just present but sane
pgproof drill "$DATABASE_URL" \
  --probe "SELECT count(*) > 0 FROM users" \
  --probe "SELECT max(created_at) > now() - interval '7 days' FROM orders"

# machine-readable, for CI
pgproof drill "$DATABASE_URL" --json

Exit codes: 0 drill passed · 1 drill failed · 2 could not run.

What the drill checks

1. Restore completes with --exit-on-error in a throwaway cluster built with version-matched tools (never older than the source).
2. Manifest match: every table present, exact row counts equal, no unexpected tables, sequences and extensions present, RLS policy count not lower.
3. Constraints: zero pg_constraint rows left unvalidated.
4. Your probes: each query must return a truthy first column.
5. sha256 of the dump, so a truncated upload can never impersonate a verified backup.

Hosted: drills on every backup, while you sleep

pgproof proves one backup when you run it. pgproof.com runs the schedule for you: encrypted storage, a drill on every backup, immediate alerts on failure, and a weekly proof report — for Supabase, Neon, Railway, Render and self-hosted (agent mode: your credentials never leave your box). Free for one project.

License

AGPL-3.0-only. The CLI is free forever; if you offer it as a service, your service must be open too.