Admin CLI

The hindsight-admin CLI provides administrative commands for managing your Hindsight deployment, including database migrations, backup, and restore operations.

Installation

The admin CLI is included with the hindsight-api package:

pip install hindsight-api
# or
uv add hindsight-api

Commands

run-db-migration

Run database migrations to the latest version. This is useful when you want to run migrations separately from API startup (e.g., in CI/CD pipelines or before deploying a new version).

hindsight-admin run-db-migration [OPTIONS]

Options:

Option	Description	Default
--schema, -s	Database schema to run migrations on	public

Examples:

# Run migrations on the default public schema
hindsight-admin run-db-migration

# Run migrations on a specific tenant schema
hindsight-admin run-db-migration --schema tenant_acme

Disabling Auto-Migrations

To disable automatic migrations on API startup, set HINDSIGHT_API_RUN_MIGRATIONS_ON_STARTUP=false. This is useful when you want to run migrations as a separate step in your deployment pipeline.

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backup

Create a backup of all Hindsight data to a zip file.

hindsight-admin backup OUTPUT [OPTIONS]

Arguments:

Argument	Description
OUTPUT	Output file path (will add .zip extension if not present)

Options:

Option	Description	Default
--schema, -s	Database schema to backup	public

Examples:

# Backup to a file
hindsight-admin backup /backups/hindsight-2024-01-15.zip

# Backup a specific tenant schema
hindsight-admin backup /backups/tenant-acme.zip --schema tenant_acme

The backup includes:

• Memory banks and their configuration
• Documents and chunks
• Entities and their relationships
• Memory units (facts, experiences, opinions, observations)
• Entity cooccurrences and memory links

Consistency

Backups are created within a database transaction with REPEATABLE READ isolation, ensuring a consistent snapshot across all tables.

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restore

Restore data from a backup file. Warning: This deletes all existing data in the target schema.

hindsight-admin restore INPUT [OPTIONS]

Arguments:

Argument	Description
INPUT	Input backup file (.zip)

Options:

Option	Description	Default
--schema, -s	Database schema to restore to	public
--yes, -y	Skip confirmation prompt	false

Examples:

# Restore with confirmation prompt
hindsight-admin restore /backups/hindsight-2024-01-15.zip

# Restore without confirmation (for scripts)
hindsight-admin restore /backups/hindsight-2024-01-15.zip --yes

# Restore to a specific tenant schema
hindsight-admin restore /backups/tenant-acme.zip --schema tenant_acme --yes

Data Loss

Restore will delete all existing data in the target schema before importing the backup. Always verify you have a recent backup before performing a restore.

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decommission-worker

Release all tasks owned by a worker, resetting them from "processing" back to "pending" status so they can be picked up by other workers.

hindsight-admin decommission-worker WORKER_ID [OPTIONS]

Arguments:

Argument	Description
WORKER_ID	ID of the worker to decommission

Options:

Option	Description	Default
--schema, -s	Database schema	public

Examples:

# Before scaling down - release tasks from workers being removed
hindsight-admin decommission-worker hindsight-worker-4
hindsight-admin decommission-worker hindsight-worker-3

# Release tasks from a crashed worker
hindsight-admin decommission-worker worker-2

# For a specific tenant schema
hindsight-admin decommission-worker worker-1 --schema tenant_acme

When to Use:

• Scaling down: Before removing worker replicas in Kubernetes
• Graceful removal: When taking a worker offline for maintenance
• Crash recovery: If a worker crashed while processing tasks
• Stuck worker: When a worker is unresponsive

Finding Worker IDs

Worker IDs default to the hostname. In Kubernetes StatefulSets, this is the pod name (e.g., hindsight-worker-0). You can also set a custom ID with HINDSIGHT_API_WORKER_ID or --worker-id.

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Environment Variables

The admin CLI uses the same environment variables as the API service. The most important one is:

Variable	Description	Default
HINDSIGHT_API_DATABASE_URL	PostgreSQL connection string	pg0 (embedded)

Example:

# Use a specific database
export HINDSIGHT_API_DATABASE_URL=postgresql://user:pass@localhost:5432/hindsight
hindsight-admin backup /backups/mybackup.zip