Impact Score: 5/10
PocketBase: v0.16.0 Release
Source available โ automated, not human-reviewed
Component: pocketbase ยท Channel: stable. Automated analysis, not a compatibility certification. How this works.
Analysis updated: 2026-11-01.
โก Executive Summary (TL;DR)
PocketBase v0.16.0. Source highlight: Added automated backups (_+ cron rotation_) APIs and UI for the `pb_data` directory.
Who Does This Impact? (Role-Based Analysis)
๐ป Software Engineers & Devs
Check the source notes against the package and APIs you use before upgrading.
๐ Product & Engineering Leads
Use the documented changes to assess relevance to your product; release frequency alone is not a quality measure.
โ๏ธ DevOps & Security
Verify the target version, runtime requirements and rollback procedure in the official documentation.
โจ New Features & Capabilities (6)
- Added automated backups (_+ cron rotation_) APIs and UI for the `pb_data` directory.
- Added option to limit the returned API fields using the `?fields` query parameter.
- Added new `./pocketbase update` command to selfupdate the prebuilt executable (with option to generate a backup of your `pb_data`).
- Added new `./pocketbase admin` console command:
- Added `apis.Serve(app, options)` helper to allow starting the API server programmatically.
- Added new `tools/archive` helper subpackage for managing archives (_currently works only with zip_).
๐ View Raw Release Notes (Original Developer Log)
- Added automated backups (_+ cron rotation_) APIs and UI for the `pb_data` directory.
The backups can be also initialized programmatically using `app.CreateBackup("backup.zip")`.
There is also experimental restore method - `app.RestoreBackup("backup.zip")` (_currently works only on UNIX systems as it relies on execve_).
The backups can be stored locally or in external S3 storage (_it has its own configuration, separate from the file uploads storage filesystem_).
- Added option to limit the returned API fields using the `?fields` query parameter.
The "fields picker" is applied for `SearchResult.Items` and every other JSON response. For example:
```js
// original: {"id": "RECORD_ID", "name": "abc", "description": "...something very big...", "items": ["id1", "id2"], "expand": {"items": [{"id": "id1", "name": "test1"}, {"id": "id2", "name": "test2"}]}}
// output: {"name": "abc", "expand": {"items": [{"name": "test1"}, {"name": "test2"}]}}
const result = await pb.collection("example").getOne("RECORD_ID", {
expand: "items",
fields: "name,expand.items.name",
})
```
- Added new `./pocketbase update` command to selfupdate the prebuilt executable (with option to generate a backup of your `pb_data`).
- Added new `./pocketbase admin` console command:
```sh
// creates new admin account
./pocketbase admin create [email protected] 123456890
// changes the password of an existing admin account
./pocketbase admin update [email protected] 0987654321
// deletes single admin account (if exists)
./pocketbase admin delete [email protected]
```
- Added `apis.Serve(app, options)` helper to allow starting the API server programmatically.
- Updated the schema fields Admin UI for "tidier" fields visualization.
- Updated the logs "real" user IP to check for `Fly-Client-IP` header and changed the `X-Forward-For` header to use the first non-empty leftmost-ish IP as it the closest to the "real IP".
- Added new `tools/archive` helper subpackage for managing archives (_currently works only with zip_).
- Added new `tools/cron` helper subpackage for scheduling task using cron-like syntax (_this eventually may get exported in the future in a separate repo_).
- Added new `Filesystem.List(prefix)` helper to retrieve a flat list with all files under the provided prefix.
- Added new `App.NewBackupsFilesystem()` helper to create a dedicated filesystem abstraction for managing app data backups.
- Added new `App.OnTerminate()` hook (_executed right before app termination, eg. on `SIGTERM` signal_).
- Added `meta.isNew` to the OAuth2 auth JSON response to indicate a newly OAuth2 created PocketBase user.
- Added `accept` file field attribute with the field MIME types ([#2466](https://github.com/pocketbase/pocketbase/pull/2466); thanks @Nikhil1920).
- Added support for multiple files sort in the Admin UI ([#2445](https://github.com/pocketbase/pocketbase/issues/2445)).
- Added support for multiple relations sort in the Admin UI.