# Export and snapshots

> Export Firestore, Auth and Storage in the official format, while running or at the stop, take snapshots of kept data, and move data to the official emulator.

An export is a folder of your data in the official emulator's format. Use
one to make a seed, to keep a snapshot of data you work on, or to take your
data to the official emulator and back. Firenook exports Firestore, Auth and
Storage.

## Export while the emulators run

`emulators:export` asks the running suite to write its data to a folder:

```console
$ npx firenook emulators:export ./exports/before-migration
Found running emulator hub for project demo-shop at http://127.0.0.1:4400; exporting firestore, auth, storage to ~/demo-shop/exports/before-migration
Export complete: ~/demo-shop/exports/before-migration
```

It needs a running suite, as the official command does. With the emulators
stopped, it says so:

```text
Firenook: Did not find a running emulator hub for project demo-shop (tried http://127.0.0.1:4400): ECONNREFUSED. Start it with firenook emulators:start.
```

The command finds the suite by its project id, through the same hub file the
official CLI uses. When two suites run with one project id, such as two Git
worktrees, it reaches the one started from the folder you run it in.
Elsewhere it asks for `--hub-port`; see
[troubleshooting](https://firenook.dev/docs/help/troubleshooting#a-command-reaches-the-wrong-emulators).

| Option | What it does |
| --- | --- |
| `--only firestore,auth,storage` | Exports only the services you name |
| `--force` | Writes into a folder that holds other files |
| `--json` | Prints the result as one JSON line |
| `-P`, `--project ID` | The project, when you are not in its folder |
| `--hub-port PORT` | The suite whose hub listens on this port, and no other |

The destination may not be the project folder, the current folder or a
parent of either. A folder that holds files but no
`firebase-export-metadata.json` needs `--force`:

```text
Firenook: ~/demo-shop/notempty is not empty and holds no firebase-export-metadata.json; re-run with --force to overwrite its contents
```

A folder that already holds an export is written over without `--force`.

## Export at the stop

`--export-on-exit` writes an export when you stop Firenook:

```sh
npx firenook emulators:start --import ./data --export-on-exit ./data
```

Without a folder, it writes back into the `--import` folder, as in the
official CLI, so `--import ./data --export-on-exit` keeps `./data` up to
date. Without `--import`, name the folder:

```text
Firenook: --export-on-exit requires --import or an explicit destination
```

The stop takes as long as the export, and the terminal says where it went:

```text
     19:47:00    ✓ stopped          90 ms  exported to snapshot
```

## Snapshots of kept data

Data kept with `--keep-data` is a working store, not an export. To take a
copy you can load anywhere, use any of these while the emulators run:

- Press `e` in the terminal. The snapshot goes to
  `.firenook/exports/<date>-<time>`:

  ```text
       19:46:58    ✓ exported         25 ms  .firenook/exports/2026-10-22-194658
  ```

- Run `npx firenook emulators:export ./snapshots/today` from another
  terminal.

- In the console, the Overview's Data card downloads a snapshot as a zip of
  an export, or saves it to a folder on your machine.

To write a snapshot at every stop, add `--export-on-exit` with a folder:

```sh
npx firenook emulators:start --keep-data --export-on-exit ./snapshot
```

With a seed, the folder must be another one: Firenook refuses to export
into the seed it keeps data from
([seeds and imports](https://firenook.dev/docs/data/seeds#exports-next-to-a-seed)).

To go back to a snapshot later, import it into a new state folder:

```sh
npx firenook emulators:start --import ./snapshot --state-dir ./.firenook/from-snapshot --resume-state
```

## Move data to the official emulator and back

Firenook reads and writes the official export format. A Firenook export of
2,105 documents, one user and one file loaded in the official emulator
(firebase-tools 13.4.0), and that emulator's export loaded back into
Firenook with the same counts.

1. With Firenook running, export: `npx firenook emulators:export ./export`.
   Or stop it with `--export-on-exit ./export` set.

2. Stop Firenook with `q` or Ctrl-C, and wait for it to exit.

3. Start the official emulator on the export:

   ```sh
   firebase emulators:start --import ./export --export-on-exit ./export
   ```

4. To come back, stop the official emulator, then start Firenook on its
   export: `npx firenook emulators:start --import ./export --keep-data`.

Never run both at once on the same ports, and never point the official
emulator at Firenook's `.firenook/` folder: each needs its own working data.

## Next

Check how much disk your kept data takes with [inspect and
compact](https://firenook.dev/docs/data/inspect).