Restore branch to a historical state

Restores a branch to an earlier state in its own or another branch's history

POST /projects/{project_id}/branches/{branch_id}/restore

Restores a branch to an earlier state in its own or another branch's history by specifying an LSN or timestamp. Creates a new branch from the historical state.

Markdown for AI context

REST API - curl

curl "https://console.neon.tech/api/v2/projects/$PROJECT_ID/branches/$BRANCH_ID/restore" \
  -X POST \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $NEON_API_KEY"

Also available in

Bash

neon branches restore <id|name>

Tool: reset_from_parent

Reset a branch to its parent's current state, discarding all changes made on the branch. NEVER run autonomously; always ask the user first. Use preserveUnderName to preserve the current state under a new branch name before resetting.

projectId (string, required) The ID of the project containing the branch
branchIdOrName (string, required) The name or ID of the branch to reset from its parent
preserveUnderName (string, optional) Optional name to preserve the current state under a new branch before resetting

Console path: Projects → Backup & restore

Parameters

Project ID

project_id

string

The Neon project ID

Branch ID

branch_id

string

The branch ID

Request body

1 required Required: source_branch_id.

Source branch ID

source_branch_id

string

The branch_id of the restore source branch. If source_timestamp and source_lsn are omitted, the branch will be restored to head. If source_branch_id is equal to the branch's id, source_timestamp or source_lsn is required.

Source LSN

source_lsn

string

A Postgres LSN (for example, 0/1A2B3C4) on the source branch to restore from. Mutually exclusive with source_timestamp. Omit both to restore to head.

Source timestamp

source_timestamp

string

A point in time on the source branch to restore from, in RFC 3339 format. When omitted alongside source_lsn, the branch is restored to the latest available state of the source branch.

Preserve under name

preserve_under_name

string

Name under which to save the current branch state before restoring. Required when the branch has children or when source_branch_id equals the branch being restored; in those cases all existing child branches are moved to the newly created branch. If omitted and not required, the previous state is not preserved.

Response

200

Updated the specified branch

Depth

Errors

default

General error

This endpoint can return the standard Neon API error response.

Response fields

message Required. Human-readable error message.
code Required. Machine-readable error code.
request_id Optional. Request identifier for debugging. You can provide one with the X-Request-ID header.

Retry guidance

If no response is returned, the request may still have reached the server. This is why retry safety depends on the method and status code.

Idempotent methods (GET, HEAD, OPTIONS) are generally safe to retry after a network error or timeout. Non-idempotent methods (POST, PATCH, DELETE, PUT) can change state, so avoid automatic retries unless your workflow can tolerate duplicate effects.

Responses with 423 Locked or 503 Service Unavailable are safe to retry. 423 Locked means the resource is temporarily locked, usually because another operation is in progress.