Logging In to Plakar

Plakar works without an account by default. Logging in is optional but it unlocks additional features such as installing pre-built packages hosted on Plakar’s servers (so you don’t have to build them from source) and alerting service which can notify you by email on important issues like when a backup fail.

$ plakar login -github

$ plakar login -email myemail@domain.com

After logging in, enable alerting to send backup metadata to Plakar’s servers for reporting:

$ plakar service enable alerting

Enable email notifications:

$ plakar service set alerting report.email=true

Alerting sends non-sensitive metadata (backup status, timestamps, sizes) to power the reporting dashboard and email notifications. Your backup data never leaves your system.

For CI pipelines, remote servers, or automated jobs where interactive login isn’t possible, use token-based authentication.

On a machine where you can log in interactively:

$ plakar login
$ plakar token create

This outputs a token:

eyJhbGc......

On the non-interactive system, set the environment variable:

$ export PLAKAR_TOKEN=eyJhbGc......

Plakar automatically uses this token for authentication.

To save the token in the local configuration:

$ plakar login -env

This reads PLAKAR_TOKEN from the environment and stores it in Plakar’s configuration file.

Once logged in, you install pre-built integration packages hosted on Plakar’s servers:

$ plakar pkg add s3
$ plakar pkg add sftp
$ plakar pkg add rclone

Without logging in, you can still build these integrations from source.

Check if you’re logged in:

$ plakar login --status

This displays your login status.