---
title: Atomic Deployments
description: Wrap every deploy and update in a backup, a 3-second health probe, and an automatic rollback when a container crashes.
---

Sencho wraps every protected deploy in a four-step safety net: it copies the current `compose.yaml` and `.env` to a writable backup directory, runs the requested compose action, waits 3 seconds for the new containers to settle, then checks them for a non-zero exit code. If any container has crashed, Sencho restores the backed-up files and re-deploys automatically.

The same backup also powers the **Rollback** action in the stack editor, so you can roll a stack back to its last good configuration on demand. To see in advance whether that rollback would actually help, and to watch container health for longer than the 3-second probe, see [Health-Gated Updates](/features/health-gated-updates).

## How it works

1. **Backup.** Before the action runs, Sencho copies `compose.yaml` (or `compose.yml` / `docker-compose.yaml` / `docker-compose.yml`) and `.env`, if present, into the backup directory. The deploy progress modal streams `=== Backup created for atomic deployment ===` once the copy completes, before any `docker compose` output.
2. **Run the action.** Sencho executes the requested compose action: `up -d` for a deploy, or a pull-then-`up -d` recreate for an update.
3. **Health probe.** Sencho waits 3 seconds, then lists every container with the `com.docker.compose.project=<stack>` label and checks each one for a non-zero exit code. Any container that has exited with a non-zero status counts as a crash.
4. **Auto-rollback on failure.** When a crash is detected, Sencho streams `=== Deployment failed - restoring previous compose and env files ===`, restores the backed-up files, and re-runs `docker compose up -d` with the restored configuration. On success it streams `=== Restored previous compose and env files ===`. Restoring the files reverts the compose and `.env` configuration; an image referenced by a moving tag (such as `latest`) is not reverted, because the local tag still resolves to the newly pulled digest. The original deploy error is preserved and reported as the deploy result, so a failed-then-rolled-back deploy still registers as a failure in the deploy progress modal.

If the rollback itself fails (for example, the re-deploy step cannot pull a previously available image, or the file restore is blocked by filesystem permissions), Sencho streams `=== Rollback failed - manual intervention may be required ===`. The backup files remain at `<DATA_DIR>/backups/<stack>/` so you can copy them back manually.

## Which operations are protected

Atomic deployments wrap:

- **Deploy** and **Update** from the stack editor's action bar.
- **App Store** installs of a new stack.
- **Webhook** triggers for deploy and pull actions.
- **Image auto-updates** triggered by an auto-update policy.

A scheduled image-update task uses the same atomic wrapper as a manual update, so a recurring update still takes a backup and rolls back automatically when a container crashes. Scheduled lifecycle actions (start, stop, restart) change no stack configuration and run `docker compose` directly without a backup.

## Manual rollback

The stack editor's action bar carries a **More actions** overflow menu (the three-dot icon next to **Update**). Open it and you'll see **Rollback** at the top, with the timestamp of the most recent backup rendered beneath the label. Selecting it restores the backed-up files and re-runs `docker compose up -d` non-atomically, to avoid nesting a rollback inside another atomic wrapper and overwriting the good backup with the broken state from the just-failed deploy.

<Frame>
  <img src="/images/atomic-deployments/rollback-menu.png" alt="Stack editor action bar with the More actions overflow menu open, showing the Rollback entry at the top with the backup timestamp rendered beneath the label, followed by Scan config and Delete entries" />
</Frame>

The menu entry is hidden when no backup exists for the stack, for example on a freshly created stack that has never been deployed. The endpoint additionally requires the `stack:deploy` permission, so a user without it will see the menu entry but receive a permission error if they invoke it.

## Where backups are stored

Backups live under `<DATA_DIR>/backups/<stack>/`, in the same writable volume Sencho uses for its database and other persisted state. They are intentionally kept outside the user's compose folder, so the operation works even when a container has chowned its bind-mounted stack directory to root.

Each backup is a flat copy of the compose file Sencho found, plus `.env` if it exists, plus a `.timestamp` marker that records when the backup was taken. There is one backup slot per stack: every protected deploy or update overwrites the previous backup, so the **Rollback** menu always reverts to the configuration that was on disk immediately before the most recent run.

A restore is a faithful revert, not an overlay. Sencho replaces the compose file and `.env` with the backed-up copies and removes any compose variant or `.env` that was added after the backup was taken, so the stack returns to exactly the file set it had before the run. For example, if a deploy switched the stack from `compose.yaml` to `docker-compose.yml` or introduced a new `.env`, a rollback undoes both. Files Sencho does not manage are left untouched.

## Troubleshooting

<AccordionGroup>
  <Accordion title="The Rollback option is not in the More actions menu">
    Sencho hides the entry whenever a rollback is not possible. The most common reason is that the stack has never been deployed, so no backup file exists yet. Run **Deploy** or **Update** once and the entry will appear.

    A user without the `stack:deploy` permission will still see the menu entry; the rejection comes from the backend with a permission error after they click. Ask an admin to grant `stack:deploy` through **Settings · Roles & Access** if that happens.
  </Accordion>
  <Accordion title="The deploy succeeded but a service crashed seconds later">
    The health probe is a 3-second window after `docker compose up -d` returns. Crashes that happen after that window are out of scope for atomic rollback by design, because Sencho cannot tell whether a late exit is a real failure or a normal restart. The [health gate](/features/health-gated-updates) covers exactly this period: it observes the stack for a configurable window after the update, records a verdict on the stack timeline, and offers a manual rollback when containers do not stay healthy. For ongoing health beyond that, use **Auto-Heal Policies** to restart unhealthy containers automatically and **Alert Rules** to page you when a container exits unexpectedly.
  </Accordion>
  <Accordion title="The deploy progress modal showed 'Rollback failed - manual intervention may be required'">
    This message means the auto-rollback attempted to restore the backup and re-deploy, but the restore step or the re-deploy itself errored out. The backup files are still at `<DATA_DIR>/backups/<stack>/`. To recover:

    1. Copy `compose.yaml` (or the variant Sencho backed up) and `.env` from `<DATA_DIR>/backups/<stack>/` back into the stack directory.
    2. Open the stack in the editor and click **Deploy** to re-run with the restored configuration.

    The most common causes are filesystem permissions on the stack directory and a missing image in a private registry that the original deploy could not pull.
  </Accordion>
  <Accordion title="Rollback ran but the stack still has the broken configuration">
    Sencho keeps a single backup per stack. If you ran two atomic deploys back to back, the second deploy overwrote the first backup with the broken configuration before it failed. **Rollback** then restores that broken configuration, because as far as Sencho is concerned it is the most recent known state.

    To recover, edit the compose file or `.env` directly in the editor, fix the bad change, and click **Deploy**. The next protected deploy will write a fresh backup of the now-good configuration.
  </Accordion>
</AccordionGroup>
