State Management

Save, load, and manage LocalStack state for reproducible development environments and state snapshots.

Capabilities

• Export and import state locally to files
• Save and load state to/from Cloud Pods (remote storage)
• Share state across teams via Cloud Pods
• Enable persistent state across container restarts

Local Snapshots (state export/import)

Local snapshots allow you to export LocalStack state to files and import them back. This works without requiring a Pro subscription.

Export State

# Export current state to a local file
localstack state export my-state.zip

# Export to a specific path
localstack state export /path/to/backup/state.zip

Import State

# Import state from a local file
localstack state import my-state.zip

# Import from a specific path
localstack state import /path/to/backup/state.zip

Use Cases for Local Snapshots

• Backup/restore: Save state before destructive operations
• CI/CD pipelines: Commit state files to version control for reproducible tests
• Offline workflows: Work with state files without cloud connectivity
• Quick snapshots: Fast local save/restore during development

Cloud Pods (pod save/load)

Cloud Pods store state in LocalStack's cloud platform, enabling team collaboration and remote state management.

Prerequisites

Cloud Pods require a LocalStack Pro subscription and auth token:

export LOCALSTACK_AUTH_TOKEN=<your-token>

Save to Cloud Pod

# Save current state to a Cloud Pod
localstack pod save my-pod-name

# Save with a message
localstack pod save my-pod-name --message "Initial setup with S3 and DynamoDB"

Load from Cloud Pod

# Load state from a Cloud Pod
localstack pod load my-pod-name

# Load and merge with existing state
localstack pod load my-pod-name --merge

List Cloud Pods

# List all available Cloud Pods
localstack pod list

Delete Cloud Pods

# Delete a Cloud Pod
localstack pod delete my-pod-name

Inspect Cloud Pods

# View Cloud Pod details
localstack pod inspect my-pod-name

Use Cases for Cloud Pods

• Team collaboration: Share consistent development environments across team members
• Demo environments: Prepare and share demo-ready states
• Cross-machine development: Access the same state from different machines

Local Persistence

For automatic persistence across LocalStack restarts (without explicit export/import):

# Enable local persistence
PERSISTENCE=1 localstack start -d

# State is saved to .localstack/ directory
# Survives container restarts

Comparison

Feature	Local Snapshots (export/import)	Cloud Pods (save/load)
Storage	Local files	LocalStack cloud
Pro required	No	Yes
Team sharing	Manual file sharing	Built-in
Version control	Can commit files	Cloud-managed
Offline use	Yes	No

Best Practices

• Use state export/import for local development and CI/CD pipelines
• Use Cloud Pods for team collaboration and shared environments
• Use descriptive names that indicate the state contents
• Enable PERSISTENCE=1 for simple state retention across restarts