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Snapshots capture the full disk state of a running instance, letting you restore your environment later without re-installing dependencies or re-downloading models. You can also use snapshots to change the GPU type of an instance by taking a snapshot and re-creating with new specs.
Snapshots are currently in beta. Share feedback on Discord or email [email protected].

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Why Use Snapshots?

  • Save your environment – Capture installed packages, models, and configurations
  • Faster setup – Spin up new instances from a known-good state
  • Modify specs – Create a new instance with the same disk

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Create a Snapshot

To create a snapshot, use the interactive menu: 
tnr snapshot create
Or specify the instance and name directly: 
tnr snapshot create --instance-id 0 --name my-environment

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List Your Snapshots

View all your snapshots with their status, size, and creation date: 
tnr snapshot list
Once your snapshot is ready, it is safe to delete your existing instance. Status values:
  • READY – Snapshot is complete and can be used
  • CREATING – Snapshot is still being created
  • FAILED – Snapshot creation failed

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Restore from a Snapshot

When you create a new instance, your snapshots appear alongside templates in the selection menu: 
tnr create
In the interactive menu, look below the templates to see Custom Snapshots. Select one to create an instance with that saved state. The new instance’s disk size must be at least as large as the snapshot. The CLI enforces this automatically.
Restoring from a snapshot may take about 10 minutes per 100GB of data. The instance will show as “RESTORING” during this time.

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Delete a Snapshot

Remove snapshots you no longer need: 
# Interactive selection
tnr snapshot delete

# Delete by name
tnr snapshot delete my-environment
Deleting a snapshot is permanent and cannot be undone.

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Best Practices

  1. Name snapshots descriptively – Include the project, date, or purpose (e.g., llama-finetuned-jan2026)
  2. Snapshot before major changes – Create a snapshot before installing new packages or modifying your environment
  3. Clean up unused snapshots – Snapshots count toward your storage. Delete old ones you no longer need
  4. Keep snapshots small – Remove large temporary files before creating a snapshot to speed up creation and restoration

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Snapshots vs External Backups

Snapshots are great for quickly restoring your environment, but they’re tied to Thunder Compute. For long-term data preservation, also use:
  • GitHub for code and configuration
  • Local downloads for important outputs
  • Cloud storage (R2, Google Drive) for large files

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Need Help?

Questions about snapshots? Reach out on Discord or email [email protected].