restic-mcp

An MCP server for managing restic backups. Lets AI assistants list snapshots, browse backed-up files, create backups, apply retention policies, and more — all through the Model Context Protocol.

Tools

Read-only

Write

Requirements

• Python 3.10+

• restic installed and in PATH

• uv (recommended) or pip

Installation

git clone https://github.com/mohsenil85/restic-mcp.git
cd restic-mcp
uv sync

Configuration

The server reads repository credentials from environment variables:

Every tool also accepts an optional repo parameter to override RESTIC_REPOSITORY per-call.

Usage

Claude Code

Add to ~/.claude.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "restic": {
      "command": "uv",
      "args": ["--directory", "/path/to/restic-mcp", "run", "restic-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "RESTIC_REPOSITORY": "/path/to/your/repo",
        "RESTIC_PASSWORD_COMMAND": "pass show restic"
      }
    }
  }
}

Claude Desktop

Add to ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json (macOS) or %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json (Windows):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "restic": {
      "command": "uv",
      "args": ["--directory", "/path/to/restic-mcp", "run", "restic-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "RESTIC_REPOSITORY": "/path/to/your/repo",
        "RESTIC_PASSWORD": "your-password"
      }
    }
  }
}

MCP Inspector

Test the server interactively:

RESTIC_REPOSITORY=/path/to/repo RESTIC_PASSWORD=test uv run mcp dev src/restic_mcp/server.py

Architecture

MCP Client (Claude, Cursor, etc.)
    │
    │  stdio (JSON-RPC)
    ▼
restic-mcp server (FastMCP)
    │
    │  subprocess (async)
    ▼
restic CLI  ──►  repository (local, S3, B2, SFTP, ...)

The server is a thin async wrapper around the restic CLI. It calls restic with --json where supported for structured output, falling back to text parsing otherwise. No direct repository access — all operations go through the official restic binary.

License

MIT