Configuration reference

Sentinel reads a single YAML file, passed with --config. This page lists every key the parser recognises, grouped by the block it belongs to. Keys not listed here do not exist.

Loading happens in a fixed order: parse YAML → apply defaults → resolve named storages → resolve *_env overrides and secrets files → interpolate ${VAR} references. Validation runs afterwards. Anything that fails in that sequence fails at configuration-load time, never partway through a running backup.

n/a in the Default column means the field has no default: it is left at the Go zero value ("", 0, false, or an empty collection) and nothing downstream substitutes a value.

Top-level keys

Key	Type	Required	Default	Description
version	string	Yes	n/a	Schema version. Must be exactly 1.0; any other value is rejected.
defaults	mapping	No	n/a	Values inherited by every backup job. See defaults.
databases	mapping	Yes	n/a	Backup job definitions keyed by job name. At least one job is required. See databases.
restores	mapping	No	n/a	Restore job definitions keyed by job name. See restores.
restore	mapping	No	n/a	Shared runtime settings for restore execution. See restore.
storages	mapping	No	n/a	Named, reusable storage definitions referenced by storage.name. See storage blocks.
max_concurrent_backups	int	No	3	Global backup concurrency limit. Must be between 1 and 100.
max_concurrent_restores	int	No	1	Concurrency limit for restore run --all. Must be between 1 and 100; parallelism is opt-in.
scheduler	mapping	No	n/a	Scheduler concurrency, timeout, and lock settings. See scheduler.
integrity	mapping	No	n/a	Repository-wide integrity settings. See integrity.
log_format	string	No	json	Log output format: json or text.
history_db_path	string	No	~/.sentinel/history.db	Path to the SQLite execution-history database. Supports ${VAR} interpolation.
encryption_key_env	string	No	n/a	Name of the environment variable holding the base64 master key for artifact encryption. Encryption is enabled only when this or encryption_key_file is set.
encryption_key_file	string	No	n/a	Path to a file containing the base64 master key. Supports ${VAR} interpolation.
secrets_key_env	string	No	n/a	Name of the environment variable holding the key that decrypts an encrypted secrets file. Falls back to encryption_key_env when unset.
secrets_key_file	string	No	n/a	Path to a file containing the base64 secrets-file key. Falls back to encryption_key_file when unset.

Added in v1.4.0

secrets_key_env and secrets_key_file were introduced in Sentinel v1.4.0 alongside at-rest encryption of secrets files.

defaults

Every key here supplies a fallback for the matching key on a backup job. Inheritance is block-level: a job that declares its own retention block does not merge with defaults.retention, it replaces it.

Key	Type	Required	Default	Description
schedule	string	No	n/a	5-field cron expression applied to jobs with no schedule of their own.
storage	mapping	No	n/a	Storage backend applied to jobs that declare neither storage.type nor storage.name. See storage blocks.
retention	mapping	No	n/a	Retention policy applied to jobs with no effective retention rule. See retention.
compression	mapping	No	n/a	Pipeline compression applied to jobs with no compression block. See compression.
notifications	list	No	n/a	Notification channels applied to jobs with no notifications list. See notifications.

databases

Each entry under databases is a backup job; the map key is the job name. The name __integrity_check is reserved and rejected.

Job identity and connection

Key	Type	Required	Default	Description
type	string	Yes	n/a	One of postgres, mysql, mariadb, mongodb.
enabled	bool	No	true	Whether the scheduler runs this job.
host	string	Conditional	n/a	Server hostname. Required (or host_env) for postgres, mysql, mariadb. Not used by mongodb, which connects via uri. Supports ${VAR} interpolation.
host_env	string	No	n/a	Name of an environment variable holding the host. When set, its value overwrites host; the variable must be set at config-load time or loading fails.
port	int	No	n/a	Server port. For mysql/mariadb, filled from defaults_file when left unset.
username	string	Conditional	n/a	Login user. Required (or username_env) for postgres, mysql, mariadb. Supports ${VAR} interpolation.
username_env	string	No	n/a	Name of an environment variable holding the username. Overwrites username; the variable must be set at config-load time or loading fails.
password_env	string	Conditional	n/a	Name of an environment variable holding the password. Required for postgres, mysql, and mariadb unless a password is resolved from defaults_file. Passwords are never written inline.
defaults_file	string	No	n/a	Path to a MySQL/MariaDB option file. Its [client] section seeds host, user, password, and port for both the dump subprocess and Sentinel's own preflight and discovery. Explicit fields always win. mysql/mariadb only: rejected on any other type.
defaults_file_env	string	No	n/a	Name of an environment variable holding the path for defaults_file. Overwrites defaults_file; the variable must be set at config-load time or loading fails.
uri	string	Conditional	n/a	MongoDB connection URI. Required (or uri_env) for mongodb. Supports ${VAR} interpolation.
uri_env	string	No	n/a	Name of an environment variable holding the MongoDB URI. Overwrites uri; the variable must be set at config-load time or loading fails.
mongo_secrets_file	string	No	n/a	Path to a Sentinel-native secrets file supplying a MongoDB password, URI, and/or TLS key passphrase. mongodb only: rejected on any other type. See secrets files.
mongo_secrets_file_env	string	No	n/a	Name of an environment variable holding the path for mongo_secrets_file. Overwrites it; the variable must be set at config-load time or loading fails.
tls	mapping	No	n/a	TLS settings for the database connection. Omitting it logs a tls_not_configured warning. See tls.

Added in v1.4.0

defaults_file, mongo_secrets_file, defaults_file_env, and mongo_secrets_file_env were introduced in Sentinel v1.4.0.

Database selection

Key	Type	Required	Default	Description
database	string	Yes	n/a	Database name, or * for auto-discovery. Supports ${VAR} interpolation.
exclude	list of string	No	n/a	Database names to skip. Only meaningful with database: "*".
strategy	string	No	individual when database: "*"	Auto-discovery strategy: individual (one artifact per database) or single (one artifact for all).

Output and storage

Key	Type	Required	Default	Description
output	string	No	SENTINEL_<timestamp> plus the engine extension	Artifact filename. Supports ${VAR} interpolation.
storage	mapping	Conditional	inherits defaults.storage	Storage backend for this job. An effective storage.type is required after inheritance. See storage blocks.
database_options	mapping	No	n/a	Engine-specific dump options. See database_options.
compression	mapping	No	inherits defaults.compression	Pipeline compression. See compression.
verify_after_upload	bool	No	inherits integrity.verify_after_upload	Re-download the artifact from its storage backend after write and re-hash it against the manifest, failing the backup on mismatch.

Added in v1.3.0

verify_after_upload and the compression block were introduced in Sentinel v1.3.0.

Incremental and point-in-time recovery

Key	Type	Required	Default	Description
pitr_enabled	bool	No	false	Capture PITR-related metadata for this job.
wal_archive_prefix	string	No	n/a	Location from which archived WAL segments can be retrieved. PostgreSQL-oriented.
incremental_metadata_enabled	bool	No	false	Capture lineage metadata for future incremental restores.
incremental_backup	mapping	No	n/a	Chain policy and engine pre-checks. See incremental_backup.
mysql	mapping	No	n/a	MySQL/MariaDB engine options. See mysql on a backup job.

Scheduling, retention, and notifications

Key	Type	Required	Default	Description
schedule	string	No	inherits defaults.schedule	5-field cron expression. Rejected if unparseable or whitespace-only.
retention	mapping	No	inherits defaults.retention	Retention policy for this job's artifacts. See retention.
notifications	list	No	inherits defaults.notifications	Notification channels for this job. See notifications.

database_options

A free-form mapping whose allowed keys depend on type. An unrecognised key for the job's engine is a validation error.

PostgreSQL

Key	Type	Required	Default	Description
pg_out_format	string	No	n/a	pg_dump output format: p, c, t, or d.
compress	int	No	n/a	pg_dump compression level, 0–9. Engine-native compression.
pg_compression_algo	string	No	n/a	gzip, lz4, zstd, or none. Engine-native compression.
pg_compression_level	int	No	n/a	Compression level, 1–9. Engine-native compression.

MySQL and MariaDB

Key	Type	Required	Default	Description
single_transaction	bool	No	n/a	Adds --single-transaction to the dump.
routines	bool	No	n/a	Adds --routines.
triggers	bool	No	n/a	Adds --triggers.
events	bool	No	n/a	Adds --events.

MongoDB

Key	Type	Required	Default	Description
gzip	bool	No	n/a	mongodump --gzip. Engine-native compression.
oplog	bool	No	n/a	Adds --oplog.
archive	bool	No	n/a	Adds --archive.

Double compression is rejected

Pipeline compression.enabled: true may not coexist with engine-native compression; PostgreSQL compress / pg_compression_algo / pg_compression_level, or MongoDB gzip. Configuration validation fails rather than compressing twice.

Storage blocks

The same set of keys is used by storages.<name>, defaults.storage, and databases.<name>.storage. A job may reference a named storage with name and override individual fields on top of it.

Key	Type	Required	Default	Description
type	string	Conditional	n/a	local, s3, gcs, google-drive, or azure. Required on the effective storage of every backup job.
name	string	No	n/a	Reference to a key in the top-level storages map. An unknown reference fails config load.
local_path	string	No	n/a	Filesystem directory for local storage. Supports ${VAR} interpolation.
s3_bucket	string	Conditional	n/a	Bucket name. Required for s3. Supports ${VAR} interpolation.
s3_bucket_endpoint	string	No	n/a	Custom endpoint for S3-compatible services. Supports ${VAR} interpolation.
s3_region	string	No	n/a	Bucket region. Supports ${VAR} interpolation.
s3_access_key_id	string	No	n/a	Inline access key ID. Logs a plaintext_password_detected warning; prefer s3_access_key_id_env.
s3_access_key_id_env	string	No	n/a	Name of an environment variable holding the access key ID. Overwrites s3_access_key_id; the variable must be set at config-load time or loading fails.
s3_secret_access_key	string	No	n/a	Inline secret access key. Logs a plaintext_password_detected warning; prefer s3_secret_access_key_env.
s3_secret_access_key_env	string	No	n/a	Name of an environment variable holding the secret access key. Overwrites the inline field; the variable must be set at config-load time or loading fails.
gcs_bucket	string	Conditional	n/a	Bucket name. Required for gcs. Supports ${VAR} interpolation.
gcs_project_id	string	No	n/a	Google Cloud project ID. Supports ${VAR} interpolation.
gcs_credentials_file	string	No	n/a	Path to a service-account JSON file. Supports ${VAR} interpolation.
gdrive_folder_id	string	Conditional	n/a	Target folder ID. Required for google-drive. Supports ${VAR} interpolation.
gdrive_sa_file	string	Conditional	n/a	Path to a service-account JSON file. Required for google-drive. Supports ${VAR} interpolation.
azure_storage_account	string	Conditional	n/a	Storage account name. Required for azure. Supports ${VAR} interpolation.
azure_storage_account_env	string	No	n/a	Name of an environment variable holding the account name. Overwrites the inline field; the variable must be set at config-load time or loading fails.
azure_storage_key	string	No	n/a	Inline account key. Logs a plaintext_password_detected warning; prefer azure_storage_key_env.
azure_storage_key_env	string	No	n/a	Name of an environment variable holding the account key. Overwrites the inline field; the variable must be set at config-load time or loading fails.
azure_container	string	Conditional	n/a	Blob container name. Required for azure. Supports ${VAR} interpolation.

retention

Used by defaults.retention and databases.<name>.retention. A backup is kept if any rule keeps it.

Key	Type	Required	Default	Description
keep_last	int	No	n/a	Keep the N most recent backups.
keep_days	int	No	n/a	Keep backups from the last N days.
dry_run	bool	No	false	Preview deletions without executing them. Requires at least one of keep_last, keep_days, or gfs.
gfs	mapping	No	n/a	Grandfather-Father-Son calendar-tier rules. See below.

retention.gfs

Each tier keeps the newest backup of each of the N most-recent occupied calendar buckets, computed in UTC. Empty periods are skipped, not backfilled. All values must be greater than or equal to 0.

Key	Type	Required	Default	Description
keep_daily	int	No	n/a	Keep the newest backup of each of the last N calendar days.
keep_weekly	int	No	n/a	Keep the newest backup of each of the last N ISO weeks (Monday–Sunday).
keep_monthly	int	No	n/a	Keep the newest backup of each of the last N calendar months.
keep_yearly	int	No	n/a	Keep the newest backup of each of the last N calendar years.

Added in v1.3.0

The retention.gfs block was introduced in Sentinel v1.3.0.

compression

Engine-agnostic streaming compression inserted between the dump and the hash/encrypt steps. Used by defaults.compression and databases.<name>.compression.

Key	Type	Required	Default	Description
enabled	bool	No	false	Turn pipeline compression on.
algorithm	string	No	zstd when enabled	gzip, zstd, or none. enabled: true with none is a validation error.
level	int	No	6 for gzip, 3 for zstd	Codec level: 1–9 for gzip, 1–19 for zstd.

tls

Per-job TLS settings for the database connection. Applies to all four engines.

Key	Type	Required	Default	Description
enabled	bool	No	false	Whether TLS settings are applied. The rest of the block is validated only when this is true.
mode	string	No	prefer	require, verify-ca, verify-full, or prefer.
ca_cert	string	Conditional	n/a	Path to the CA certificate. Required when mode is verify-ca or verify-full.
client_cert	string	Conditional	n/a	Path to the client certificate for mutual TLS. Must be set together with client_key.
client_key	string	Conditional	n/a	Path to the client private key. Must be set together with client_cert.
client_key_password_env	string	No	n/a	Name of an environment variable holding the passphrase for an encrypted client_key. Requires client_key to be set. Takes precedence over a passphrase supplied by mongo_secrets_file.

notifications

A list of channels. Used by defaults.notifications, databases.<name>.notifications, and restores.<name>.notifications.

Key	Type	Required	Default	Description
type	string	Yes	n/a	slack, discord, webhook, or email.
enabled	bool	No	true	Whether this channel is dispatched to.
events	list of string	Yes	n/a	At least one of success, failure, warning.
webhook_url_env	string	Conditional	n/a	Name of an environment variable holding the webhook URL. Required for slack, discord, and webhook; the variable must be set at config-load time or loading fails.
timeout_seconds	int	No	10 for slack/discord/webhook	HTTP timeout. Must be between 1 and 60.
smtp_host	string	Conditional	n/a	SMTP server hostname. Required for email. Supports ${VAR} interpolation.
smtp_port	int	No	n/a	SMTP server port. Must be between 1 and 65535.
smtp_username_env	string	No	n/a	Name of an environment variable holding the SMTP username.
smtp_password_env	string	Conditional	n/a	Name of an environment variable holding the SMTP password. Required for email; the variable must be set at config-load time or loading fails.
from_address_env	string	Conditional	n/a	Name of an environment variable holding the sender address. Required for email; the variable must be set at config-load time or loading fails.
to_addresses	list of string	Conditional	n/a	Recipient addresses. Required for email. Supports ${VAR} interpolation.
use_tls	bool	No	true for email	Use TLS for the SMTP connection.

incremental_backup

Per-job chain policy and engine pre-checks.

Key	Type	Required	Default	Description
enabled	bool	No	false	Enable chain-based incremental backups. Supported for postgres, mysql, mariadb, and mongodb; any other type is a validation error.
max_chain_depth	int	No	6	Depth at which the chain resets by producing a new full backup. Must be greater than or equal to 0.
wal_summary_check	bool	No	false	Verify PostgreSQL wal_summary=on before an incremental backup. postgres only.
binlog_check	bool	No	false	Verify MySQL/MariaDB log_bin=ON before an incremental backup. mysql/mariadb only.
oplog_window_warn_hours	int	No	n/a	Warn when the MongoDB oplog window falls below this many hours. Must be greater than or equal to 0. mongodb only.

mysql on a backup job

Key	Type	Required	Default	Description
binlog_path	string	Conditional	n/a	Local or mounted path to the binary logs, readable by Sentinel. Required when incremental_backup.enabled is true for mysql/mariadb. mysql/mariadb only.

scheduler

Key	Type	Required	Default	Description
max_concurrent_backups	int	No	the top-level max_concurrent_backups	Scheduler-side backup concurrency limit.
max_concurrent_restores	int	No	1	Scheduler-side restore concurrency limit.
job_timeout_minutes	int	No	180	Per-job timeout in minutes.
stale_lock_threshold	int	No	60	Age in minutes after which a lock held by a dead process is treated as stale.
lock_dir	string	No	/var/run/sentinel	Directory for per-job lock files.

integrity

Key	Type	Required	Default	Description
algorithm	string	No	sha256	Hash algorithm for integrity verification. Only sha256 is accepted.
verify_after_upload	bool	No	false	Default for backup jobs: re-download and re-hash each artifact after upload. Overridden per job by verify_after_upload.
scheduled_check	mapping	No	n/a	Cron-driven repository integrity sweep. See below.

integrity.scheduled_check

When enabled, the scheduler registers a reserved __integrity_check job that runs the same sweep as backup verify --all.

Key	Type	Required	Default	Description
enabled	bool	No	false	Turn the scheduled sweep on.
cron	string	Conditional	n/a	5-field cron expression. Required when enabled is true.
since	string	No	n/a	Recency window restricting the sweep to newer backups. Accepts an integer with a d or w suffix (30d, 4w) or any Go duration (720h). Empty means all backups.
notify_on	string	No	failure	failure, always, or never.
job	string	No	n/a	Restrict the sweep to a single named backup job.

Added in v1.3.0

integrity.scheduled_check and integrity.verify_after_upload were introduced in Sentinel v1.3.0.

restore

Shared runtime settings for restore execution. Both keys supply defaults for every restore job.

Key	Type	Required	Default	Description
staging_dir	string	No	/tmp/sentinel	Base directory for staged restore artifacts. Supports ${VAR} interpolation.
keep_file	bool	No	false	Retain staged artifacts after execution, for debugging.

restores

Each entry under restores is a restore job; the map key is the job name. Restore jobs default to disabled: unlike backup jobs, they must be enabled explicitly. The name __integrity_check is reserved and rejected.

Restore job identity and connection

Key	Type	Required	Default	Description
enabled	bool	No	false	Whether the scheduler runs this job.
type	string	Yes	n/a	One of postgres, mysql, mariadb, mongodb.
host	string	Conditional	n/a	Target hostname. Required (or host_env) for postgres, mysql, mariadb. Supports ${VAR} interpolation.
host_env	string	No	n/a	Name of an environment variable holding the host. Overwrites host; the variable must be set at config-load time or loading fails.
port	int	No	n/a	Target port.
username	string	Conditional	n/a	Login user. Required (or username_env) for postgres, mysql, mariadb. Supports ${VAR} interpolation.
username_env	string	No	n/a	Name of an environment variable holding the username. Overwrites username; the variable must be set at config-load time or loading fails.
password_env	string	No	n/a	Name of an environment variable holding the password. Resolved at restore time; an unset variable fails the restore.
uri	string	Conditional	n/a	MongoDB connection URI. Required (or uri_env) for mongodb. Supports ${VAR} interpolation.
uri_env	string	No	n/a	Name of an environment variable holding the MongoDB URI. Overwrites uri; the variable must be set at config-load time or loading fails.
database	string	Conditional	n/a	Database to restore into. Required for postgres, mysql, mariadb. Supports ${VAR} interpolation.

Restore source and scheduling

Key	Type	Required	Default	Description
backup_source	mapping	Yes	n/a	Where the artifact is read from. See backup_source.
schedule	string	Conditional	n/a	5-field cron expression. Required when the job is enabled.
timeout_seconds	int	No	n/a	Maximum duration for the restore. Must be non-negative.
staging_dir	string	No	inherits restore.staging_dir	Staging directory override for this job. Must be non-empty after inheritance.
keep_file	bool	No	inherits restore.keep_file	Retain the staged artifact after the restore attempt.
notifications	list	No	n/a	Notification channels for restore results. See notifications.
retention	mapping	No	n/a	Retention for restore backup files. See restore retention.

Restore mode and targets

Key	Type	Required	Default	Description
restore_mode	string	No	full	full, pitr, or incremental.
pitr_timestamp	string	Conditional	n/a	RFC3339 timestamp with timezone. Required when restore_mode: pitr; rejected in other modes. postgres only: pitr mode is rejected for other engines.
pitr_target_timeline	string	No	n/a	Recovery timeline for PITR. Valid only when restore_mode: pitr.
incremental_from_backup	string	Conditional	n/a	Baseline backup for incremental planning. Required when restore_mode: incremental; rejected in other modes.
confirm_full_fallback	bool	No	false	Authorise falling back to a full restore. Valid only when restore_mode: incremental.
mysql	mapping	No	n/a	Binlog replay selectors. See restore engine blocks.
mongodb	mapping	No	n/a	Oplog replay options. See restore engine blocks.

Restore behaviour

Key	Type	Required	Default	Description
restore_options	mapping	No	n/a	Engine restore flags. See restore_options.
verify_after_restore	bool	No	false	Run post-restore verification.
conflict_strategy	string	No	error	What to do when data already exists: ignore, replace, or error.
allow_cascade	bool	No	false	Permit DROP ... CASCADE during a replace. postgres only: and required when conflict_strategy: replace on postgres.

Destructive

conflict_strategy: replace overwrites the target database, and on PostgreSQL allow_cascade: true additionally removes dependent objects. Confirm the artifact is sound with sentinel backup verify <id> before enabling either.

backup_source

Where a restore job reads its artifact from.

Key	Type	Required	Default	Description
type	string	Yes	n/a	local, s3, or gcs. Any other value is rejected. Supports ${VAR} interpolation.
backup_path	string	Yes	n/a	Object path or filename. Supports ${VAR} interpolation.
use_latest_match	bool	No	false	When backup_path is a pattern such as *.sql, select the most recent match.
local_path	string	Conditional	n/a	Filesystem directory. Required when type: local. Supports ${VAR} interpolation.
s3_bucket	string	Conditional	n/a	Bucket name. Required when type: s3. Supports ${VAR} interpolation.
s3_bucket_endpoint	string	No	n/a	Custom endpoint for S3-compatible services. Supports ${VAR} interpolation.
s3_region	string	No	n/a	Bucket region. Supports ${VAR} interpolation.
s3_access_key_id	string	No	n/a	Inline access key ID. Prefer s3_access_key_id_env.
s3_access_key_id_env	string	No	n/a	Name of an environment variable holding the access key ID. Overwrites the inline field; the variable must be set at config-load time or loading fails.
s3_secret_access_key	string	No	n/a	Inline secret access key. Prefer s3_secret_access_key_env.
s3_secret_access_key_env	string	No	n/a	Name of an environment variable holding the secret access key. Overwrites the inline field; the variable must be set at config-load time or loading fails.
gcs_bucket	string	Conditional	n/a	Bucket name. Required when type: gcs. Supports ${VAR} interpolation.
gcs_project_id	string	No	n/a	Google Cloud project ID. Supports ${VAR} interpolation.
gcs_credentials_file	string	No	n/a	Path to a service-account JSON file. Supports ${VAR} interpolation.
gdrive_folder_id	string	No	n/a	Google Drive folder ID. Parsed and interpolated, but type: google-drive is not an accepted restore source today.
gdrive_sa_file	string	No	n/a	Path to a Google Drive service-account JSON file. Same restriction as gdrive_folder_id.
azure_storage_account	string	No	n/a	Azure storage account name. Parsed and interpolated, but type: azure is not an accepted restore source today.
azure_storage_account_env	string	No	n/a	Name of an environment variable holding the account name. Overwrites the inline field; the variable must be set at config-load time or loading fails.
azure_storage_key	string	No	n/a	Inline Azure account key. Prefer azure_storage_key_env.
azure_storage_key_env	string	No	n/a	Name of an environment variable holding the account key. Overwrites the inline field; the variable must be set at config-load time or loading fails.
azure_container	string	No	n/a	Azure blob container. Same restriction as azure_storage_account.

restore_options

A free-form mapping. These are the keys the restore argument builder acts on; unrecognised keys are ignored rather than rejected.

Key	Type	Required	Default	Description
clean	bool	No	n/a	Adds --clean.
if_exists	bool	No	n/a	Adds --if-exists.
no_owner	bool	No	n/a	Adds --no-owner.
no_privileges	bool	No	n/a	Adds --no-privileges.
gzip	bool	No	n/a	Adds --gzip. mongodb only in the additional-args path.
archive	bool	No	n/a	Restore from an archive file. mongodb only.
additional_args	string	No	n/a	Extra arguments, shell-quoted. Must be a string, and must parse at config-load time.

Restore retention

Used by restores.<name>.retention.

Key	Type	Required	Default	Description
keep_last	int	No	n/a	Keep the last N restore backup files. 0 means no limit. Must be non-negative.
keep_days	int	No	n/a	Keep restore backup files from the last N days. 0 means no limit. Must be non-negative.
dry_run	bool	No	false	Preview deletions without removing files.

Restore engine blocks

mysql on a restore job

Both selectors are mutually exclusive, and both are mysql/mariadb only.

Key	Type	Required	Default	Description
binlog_target_time	string	No	n/a	RFC3339 timestamp with timezone at which binlog replay stops.
binlog_target_position	mapping	No	n/a	Explicit binlog stop position. Requires both sub-keys below.

The binlog_target_position mapping:

Key	Type	Required	Default	Description
file	string	Yes	n/a	Binary log filename. Must be non-empty.
pos	int	Yes	n/a	Position within the file. Must be greater than 0.

mongodb on a restore job

Key	Type	Required	Default	Description
oplog_target_timestamp	string	No	n/a	RFC3339 timestamp with timezone at which oplog replay stops. mongodb only.

Secrets files

A secrets file is a separate file referenced from a backup job, not a block inside the main configuration. Both kinds may be stored encrypted; encryption is auto-detected from the file's content and the file is decrypted in memory using secrets_key_env / secrets_key_file, falling back to encryption_key_env / encryption_key_file. A plaintext file that is group- or world-readable produces a permission warning.

MySQL and MariaDB defaults_file

A standard option file. Only the [client] section is read; no tool-specific sections, no !include or !includedir directives. It can supply host, user, password, and port, each used only when the corresponding job field is left unset.

MongoDB mongo_secrets_file

A Sentinel-native YAML file. All three keys are optional.

Key	Type	Required	Default	Description
uri	string	No	n/a	Full connection URI. Used only when the job sets neither uri nor uri_env.
password	string	No	n/a	Password composed into the job's URI userinfo. Fails config load if the URI already carries a password, or if no username can be resolved.
ssl_pem_key_password	string	No	n/a	Passphrase for an encrypted TLS client key. Used only when tls.client_key_password_env is unset.

Added in v1.4.0

Both secrets-file mechanisms, their *_env path indirection, and at-rest encryption were introduced in Sentinel v1.4.0.

Environment variables and interpolation

Sentinel resolves external values in two distinct ways.

The *_env family; host_env, username_env, password_env, uri_env, defaults_file_env, mongo_secrets_file_env, webhook_url_env, smtp_username_env, smtp_password_env, from_address_env, client_key_password_env, s3_access_key_id_env, s3_secret_access_key_env, azure_storage_account_env, azure_storage_key_env, plus the top-level encryption_key_env and secrets_key_env. Each names an environment variable, never a value. The variable name must match ^[A-Z_][A-Z0-9_]*$. When the field is set, the resolved value overwrites its inline counterpart, and an unset or empty variable fails configuration load with an error naming the job and the variable; never a silent fallback.

${VAR} interpolation: a subset of string fields (paths, hostnames, bucket names, usernames, URIs, output names, SMTP hosts, recipient addresses) expand ${VAR} references inline. The same name pattern applies, and an unset variable is likewise a load-time error.

Not part of the loaded schema

Three structures carry YAML tags in the source but are not reachable from the top-level configuration that Sentinel parses, so their keys have no effect in a configuration file:

Structure	Keys	Status
AzureConfig / AzureAuthConfig	account_name, container, tier, auth.type, auth.connection_string, auth.connection_string_env, auth.sas_token, auth.sas_token_env	Not referenced by any parsed block. Configure Azure through the azure_* keys in a storage block.
RestoreDefaults	restore_defaults and its sub-keys	Defined on a RestoreConfiguration type that the loader never parses. Set the equivalent fields directly on each restore job.

A complete example

version: "1.0"

log_format: json
history_db_path: ~/.sentinel/history.db
max_concurrent_backups: 3
max_concurrent_restores: 1

encryption_key_env: SENTINEL_MASTER_KEY
secrets_key_env: SENTINEL_SECRETS_KEY

scheduler:
  job_timeout_minutes: 180
  stale_lock_threshold: 60
  lock_dir: /var/run/sentinel

integrity:
  algorithm: sha256
  verify_after_upload: true
  scheduled_check:
    enabled: true
    cron: "30 4 * * 0"
    since: 30d
    notify_on: failure

storages:
  primary-s3:
    type: s3
    s3_bucket: example-backups
    s3_region: eu-west-3
    s3_access_key_id_env: AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID
    s3_secret_access_key_env: AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY

defaults:
  schedule: "0 2 * * *"
  storage:
    name: primary-s3
  retention:
    keep_last: 14
    gfs:
      keep_daily: 7
      keep_weekly: 4
      keep_monthly: 12
  compression:
    enabled: true
    algorithm: zstd
    level: 3
  notifications:
    - type: slack
      webhook_url_env: SLACK_WEBHOOK_URL
      events: [failure, warning]

databases:
  app-postgres:
    type: postgres
    host: pg.internal.example
    port: 5432
    username: sentinel
    password_env: PG_BACKUP_PASSWORD
    database: appdb
    tls:
      enabled: true
      mode: verify-full
      ca_cert: /etc/sentinel/certs/pg-ca.pem
    pitr_enabled: true
    wal_archive_prefix: s3://example-backups/wal/app-postgres
    incremental_backup:
      enabled: true
      max_chain_depth: 6
      wal_summary_check: true
    database_options:
      pg_out_format: c

  reporting-mysql:
    type: mysql
    defaults_file_env: MYSQL_DEFAULTS_FILE
    database: "*"
    strategy: individual
    exclude: [information_schema, performance_schema]
    schedule: "0 3 * * *"
    mysql:
      binlog_path: /var/lib/mysql
    incremental_backup:
      enabled: true
      binlog_check: true

  events-mongo:
    type: mongodb
    uri_env: MONGO_URI
    mongo_secrets_file: /etc/sentinel/mongo-secrets.enc.yaml
    database: events
    database_options:
      oplog: true
    storage:
      type: local
      local_path: /var/backups/sentinel

restore:
  staging_dir: /var/tmp/sentinel-restore
  keep_file: false

restores:
  weekly-restore-test:
    enabled: true
    type: postgres
    host: pg-verify.internal.example
    port: 5432
    username: sentinel
    password_env: PG_RESTORE_PASSWORD
    database: appdb_verify
    schedule: "0 5 * * 6"
    restore_mode: full
    conflict_strategy: error
    verify_after_restore: true
    timeout_seconds: 3600
    backup_source:
      type: s3
      s3_bucket: example-backups
      s3_region: eu-west-3
      s3_access_key_id_env: AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID
      s3_secret_access_key_env: AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY
      backup_path: "app-postgres/*.dump"
      use_latest_match: true
    restore_options:
      no_owner: true
      no_privileges: true
    retention:
      keep_last: 4

Related

• Backup concepts: what a backup job does with these keys.
• Restore concepts: how a restore job plans and stages an artifact.
• Schedule concepts: how cron expressions and concurrency limits interact.
• sentinel backup command reference
• sentinel restore command reference
• sentinel schedule command reference

{/* sources: internal/config/types.go, internal/config/restore_types.go, internal/config/loader.go, internal/config/validator.go, internal/config/env.go, internal/config/since.go, internal/config/marshal.go, internal/config/defaults_file_resolve.go, internal/config/mongo_secrets_file.go, internal/config/secrets_file_crypto.go, internal/adapters/storage/validation.go, internal/ports/tls.go, internal/domain/backup/validator.go, release-notes.md */}