How to back up your Sanity dataset using CLI or plugins.

You're right that there's no UI option for backing up datasets—this is done through the Sanity CLI. Here's how to back up your entire dataset including assets:

Quick Backup Command

The simplest way to export your entire dataset is:

sanity dataset export production

This creates a production.tar.gz file in your current directory containing all your documents and assets.

You can also specify a custom filename and location:

sanity dataset export production ./backups/backup-2024-01-15.tar.gz

What Gets Included

The export includes:

• All your documents (published and draft versions)
• All assets (images, files, videos)
• Hidden documents used by Studio and plugins

Note: The export doesn't include your schema definition (that lives in your Studio code) or access control settings.

Export Formats

By default, you get a tar.gz archive with documents in NDJSON format plus assets in separate folders. If you only need documents without assets, you can export to NDJSON format instead.

Restoring from Backup

If you ever need to restore, use the import command:

sanity dataset import backup-2024-01-15.tar.gz production

Best Practices

Since Sanity doesn't provide built-in backup storage, you should:

• Store exports in cloud storage (AWS S3, Google Cloud Storage, etc.)
• Set up automated backups using GitHub Actions
• Always create a backup before running content migrations

For enterprise plans, there's also a managed Backup feature with retention policies and a Cloud Clone feature for server-side dataset copying without downloading locally.

Make sure you have the Sanity CLI installed (npm install -g @sanity/cli) and are authenticated (sanity login) before running export commands!