Sandbox lifecycle

Added in 0.6.0, the db subcommand suite lets you iterate on a sandbox without rebuilding it from scratch. Three commands cover the common cycle: throw away the DB, snapshot it, restore a snapshot.

When to use which

Reset is ~3-5 min. A full create is ~6 min. The savings come from skipping the CDN download + Panda extraction.

db reset

Drops the sandbox DB and re-runs the CLI installer + module install + theme activation against the files already on disk. No CDN download, no Panda re-extract, no Easy Builder re-deploy.

ps-lando db reset
ps-lando db reset -y       # skip the confirm prompt

What it does

1. Confirm prompt (skip with -y).
2. Re-extract install/ from the cached PS zip (PS deletes that dir post-install for security).
3. Drop the sandbox DB.
4. Re-run the PrestaShop CLI installer with the same params from .ps-lando.json (admin email/password, language, country, timezone, domain).
5. Re-install modules respecting the persisted module_selection (the same --skip-* / --only flags you used originally).
6. Re-activate the Panda theme.
7. Re-delete install/ to mirror the original behaviour.

What it doesn't do

• Doesn't re-download PS.
• Doesn't re-extract Panda or Easy Builder.
• Doesn't re-run init-scripts/ or post-scripts/ automatically — run ps-lando hooks run-all after if you want to re-seed.
• Doesn't touch files in themes/ or modules/.

db dump

Produces a gzipped MySQL dump of the sandbox DB.

# Default: <project>-<YYYY-MM-DD-HHMM>.sql.gz in cwd.
ps-lando db dump

# Custom path.
ps-lando db dump backups/before-migration.sql.gz

# Bundle DB + img/ + themes/<active>/ overrides.
ps-lando db dump --with-files

--with-files bundle

Switches the output to a .tar.gz that contains:

• dump.sql — same as the .sql.gz content.
• img/ — product / category images uploaded via the BO.
• themes/<active>/ — your theme overrides (typically the child theme).

modules/ is intentionally excluded — module state is restorable from the SQL alone via install-modules. Including module sources would bloat the bundle for no added recoverability.

Real-world bundle size for a sandbox with 10 demo products + 3 orders: 27 MB total (1.3 MB SQL + 25 MB img + tiny themes overrides).

db restore

Auto-detects the format by extension:

• .sql.gz → DB only.
• .tar.gz / .tgz → DB + files.

ps-lando db restore my-shop-2026-04-25-1430.sql.gz
ps-lando db restore backup-with-files.tar.gz -y   # skip confirm

Confirmation prompt is on by default since restore overwrites the live DB. Pass -y to skip — you almost certainly want to keep the prompt unless scripting.

Round-trip dump → reset → restore in real PS 9.1.0 was validated at 6.6 s for the restore step alone. The streaming pipeline (no temp files) makes this fast even for 100 MB+ dumps.

Confirmation prompts

Both db reset and db restore prompt before executing because they overwrite live data. Pass -y to skip in scripts.

ps-lando db reset -y
ps-lando db restore backup.sql.gz -y

db dump doesn't prompt — it only creates a new file.

Doctor

The fourth lifecycle command, ps-lando doctor, is a diagnostic checklist: Lando running, DB accessible, modules active, theme correct, front + BO HTTP responsive, hooks dirs present, recent errors in the logs. With --fix, it can auto-recover anything fixable.

It deserves its own page — see Doctor.

Typical workflows

Iterating on a recipe

# Edit init-scripts/10-my-recipe.sh
ps-lando db reset -y                 # ~3-5 min
ps-lando hooks run my-recipe         # re-run just my recipe

Sharing a known-good state

ps-lando db dump --with-files
# → my-shop-2026-04-25-1430.tar.gz

# Send to colleague. They run:
cd their-shop
ps-lando db restore my-shop-2026-04-25-1430.tar.gz

Recovering from a broken state

ps-lando doctor              # diagnose
ps-lando doctor --fix        # auto-recover
# If still broken:
ps-lando db reset -y         # nuclear option short of `destroy`

Next steps