Repositories and snapshots
Restic stores your backups in a repository and records each backup run as a snapshot. Understanding these two terms makes every other restic task easier.
What a repository is
A repository is the location where restic keeps all backup data. It can be a local directory, an external drive, or cloud storage. Restic encrypts everything in the repository with your password.
You choose the repository when you run a command, by using the --repo flag or the RESTIC_REPOSITORY environment variable.
What a snapshot is
A snapshot is the state of your files at the moment a backup ran. Each snapshot has a short ID, a time, a host name and the paths it covers.
Restic stores a snapshot as a small record that points to the stored data. You can restore any snapshot completely, even though restic saves only changed data.
Why the password matters
If you lose the repository password, you cannot recover the data. Restic cannot reset it. Store the password in a password manager.