Schedule backups in local time instead of UTC (0.66.0)

Schedule times were UTC, so a nightly 03:00 backup had to be entered as
01:00 or 02:00 depending on the season, and moved by an hour twice a year.

Each schedule now has an IANA time zone, preset in the form to the
browser's (e.g. Europe/Berlin), and its hour/minute/weekday are wall-clock
time there. compute_next_run builds each candidate day from its date in
that zone rather than adding 24 hours, so the time stays put across
daylight saving changes; a time skipped by the spring change runs an hour
later that day. next_run is still stored as naive UTC.

- Existing schedules default to UTC and keep their run times until edited.
- The API validates the zone and hour/minute/weekday ranges (400) instead
  of silently wrapping them.
- tzdata is a dependency: the slim base image has no system tz database.

Tests cover Berlin winter and summer time, both 2026 change days, the
skipped hour, a weekly run across the UTC date line, hourly at a +5:30
offset, the UTC fallback and the API checks.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

README.md

@@ -644,8 +644,12 @@ it is what your saved destination credentials are encrypted with.
 ### Phase 7 — Scheduled backups
 
 - **Recurring backups**: schedule stacks to back up to a destination **hourly,
-  daily, or weekly** (UTC) under **Settings → Scheduled backups**. A background
+  daily, or weekly** under **Settings → Scheduled backups**. A background
   scheduler runs due jobs every minute and records last/next run + status.
+- **Local time** (0.66.0): each schedule has a time zone, preset to the
+  browser's (e.g. `Europe/Berlin`), and its time is wall-clock time there — a
+  03:00 backup stays at 03:00 across daylight saving changes. Schedules made
+  before were in UTC and stay so until edited.
 - **Several stacks per schedule** (0.65.0): tick any number of stacks, or
   *All stacks* to include stacks added later without editing the schedule. They
   are backed up one after another, each to its own file with its own retention

backend/models/backup_schedule.py

@@ -30,9 +30,12 @@ class BackupSchedule(SQLModel, table=True):
     all_stacks: bool = False
     destination_id: int
     frequency: str = "daily"  # one of FREQUENCIES
-    hour: int = 3  # UTC, used for daily/weekly
+    hour: int = 3  # wall-clock time in ``timezone``, used for daily/weekly
     minute: int = 0
     weekday: int = 0  # 0=Mon .. 6=Sun, used for weekly
+    #: IANA zone the time is in ("Europe/Berlin"). Schedules from before
+    #: 0.66.0 were UTC and stay so until edited.
+    timezone: str = "UTC"
     include_volumes: bool = True
     stop_first: bool = True
     keep: int = 7  # retention: keep newest N for this stack on the dest (0 = all)
@@ -88,6 +91,7 @@ class ScheduleCreate(SQLModel):
     hour: int = 3
     minute: int = 0
     weekday: int = 0
+    timezone: str = "UTC"
     include_volumes: bool = True
     stop_first: bool = True
     keep: int = 7
@@ -102,6 +106,7 @@ class ScheduleUpdate(SQLModel):
     hour: Optional[int] = None
     minute: Optional[int] = None
     weekday: Optional[int] = None
+    timezone: Optional[str] = None
     include_volumes: Optional[bool] = None
     stop_first: Optional[bool] = None
     keep: Optional[int] = None
@@ -120,6 +125,7 @@ class ScheduleRead(SQLModel):
     hour: int
     minute: int
     weekday: int
+    timezone: str
     include_volumes: bool
     stop_first: bool
     keep: int

backend/requirements.txt

@@ -15,3 +15,5 @@ httpx==0.28.1
 PyYAML==6.0.2
 paramiko==3.5.0
 boto3==1.35.99
+# Time zones for backup schedules: the slim base image has no system tz database.
+tzdata==2026.4

backend/routers/schedules.py

@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@
 from __future__ import annotations
 
 import asyncio
+from zoneinfo import ZoneInfo, ZoneInfoNotFoundError
 
 from fastapi import APIRouter, Depends, HTTPException, Request
 from sqlmodel import Session, select
@@ -45,6 +46,7 @@ def _to_read(session: Session, s: BackupSchedule) -> ScheduleRead:
         hour=s.hour,
         minute=s.minute,
         weekday=s.weekday,
+        timezone=s.timezone or "UTC",
         include_volumes=s.include_volumes,
         stop_first=s.stop_first,
         keep=s.keep,
@@ -68,6 +70,14 @@ def _get_or_404(session: Session, schedule_id: int) -> BackupSchedule:
 def _validate(session: Session, schedule: BackupSchedule) -> None:
     if schedule.frequency not in FREQUENCIES:
         raise HTTPException(status_code=400, detail=f"Unknown frequency '{schedule.frequency}'")
+    if not (0 <= schedule.hour <= 23 and 0 <= schedule.minute <= 59 and 0 <= schedule.weekday <= 6):
+        raise HTTPException(status_code=400, detail="Hour must be 0-23, minute 0-59, weekday 0-6")
+    try:
+        ZoneInfo(schedule.timezone or "UTC")
+    except (ZoneInfoNotFoundError, ValueError) as exc:
+        raise HTTPException(
+            status_code=400, detail=f"Unknown time zone '{schedule.timezone}'"
+        ) from exc
     if not session.get(BackupDestination, schedule.destination_id):
         raise HTTPException(status_code=404, detail=f"Destination {schedule.destination_id} not found")
     if schedule.all_stacks:
@@ -101,7 +111,7 @@ def create_schedule(
     set_stacks(s, body.stack_ids or ([body.stack_id] if body.stack_id else []))
     _validate(session, s)
     s.next_run = schedule_service.compute_next_run(
-        s.frequency, s.hour, s.minute, s.weekday, schedule_service._now()
+        s.frequency, s.hour, s.minute, s.weekday, schedule_service._now(), s.timezone
     )
     session.add(s)
     session.commit()
@@ -130,9 +140,9 @@ def update_schedule(
         set_stacks(s, stack_ids)
     _validate(session, s)
     # Recompute next run when timing fields change.
-    if {"frequency", "hour", "minute", "weekday"} & set(data) or s.next_run is None:
+    if {"frequency", "hour", "minute", "weekday", "timezone"} & set(data) or s.next_run is None:
         s.next_run = schedule_service.compute_next_run(
-            s.frequency, s.hour, s.minute, s.weekday, schedule_service._now()
+            s.frequency, s.hour, s.minute, s.weekday, schedule_service._now(), s.timezone
         )
     session.add(s)
     session.commit()

backend/services/schedule_service.py

@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@ import json
 import logging
 import os
 from datetime import datetime, timedelta, timezone
+from zoneinfo import ZoneInfo, ZoneInfoNotFoundError
 
 from sqlmodel import Session, select
 
@@ -55,28 +56,57 @@ def _now() -> datetime:
     return datetime.now(timezone.utc).replace(tzinfo=None)
 
 
+def zone(name: str | None) -> ZoneInfo:
+    """The schedule's time zone; UTC for an empty or unknown name."""
+    try:
+        return ZoneInfo(name or "UTC")
+    except (ZoneInfoNotFoundError, ValueError):
+        return ZoneInfo("UTC")
+
+
 def compute_next_run(
-    frequency: str, hour: int, minute: int, weekday: int, after: datetime
+    frequency: str,
+    hour: int,
+    minute: int,
+    weekday: int,
+    after: datetime,
+    tz: str | None = "UTC",
 ) -> datetime:
-    """Next run strictly after ``after`` (naive UTC)."""
+    """Next run strictly after ``after`` (naive UTC), returned as naive UTC.
+
+    ``hour``/``minute``/``weekday`` are wall-clock time in ``tz``, so a 03:00
+    backup stays at 03:00 across daylight saving changes. Each candidate day is
+    built from its own date rather than by adding 24 hours, which is what keeps
+    it on the wall clock. A time that does not exist on the day clocks go
+    forward (02:30) runs an hour later that day.
+    """
+    zi = zone(tz)
+    after_utc = after.replace(tzinfo=timezone.utc)
+    local = after_utc.astimezone(zi)
+
+    def utc(dt: datetime) -> datetime:
+        return dt.astimezone(timezone.utc).replace(tzinfo=None)
+
     if frequency == "hourly":
-        nxt = after.replace(minute=minute % 60, second=0, microsecond=0)
+        cand = local.replace(minute=minute % 60, second=0, microsecond=0)
-        if nxt <= after:
+        # Step in UTC: an hour is an hour, whatever the wall clock does.
+        nxt = cand.astimezone(timezone.utc)
+        while nxt <= after_utc:
             nxt += timedelta(hours=1)
-        return nxt
+        return nxt.replace(tzinfo=None)
 
-    base = after.replace(hour=hour % 24, minute=minute % 60, second=0, microsecond=0)
+    def at(day) -> datetime:
+        return datetime(day.year, day.month, day.day, hour % 24, minute % 60, tzinfo=zi)
+
+    day = local.date()
     if frequency == "weekly":
-        days_ahead = (weekday - base.weekday()) % 7
+        day += timedelta(days=(weekday - day.weekday()) % 7)
-        cand = base + timedelta(days=days_ahead)
+        step = timedelta(days=7)
-        if cand <= after:
+    else:  # daily (default)
-            cand += timedelta(days=7)
+        step = timedelta(days=1)
-        return cand
+    while at(day).astimezone(timezone.utc) <= after_utc:
-
+        day += step
-    # daily (default)
+    return utc(at(day))
-    if base <= after:
-        base += timedelta(days=1)
-    return base
 
 
 def _prune(dest: BackupDestination, stack_id: str, keep: int) -> int:
@@ -216,7 +246,8 @@ async def run_schedule(session: Session, schedule: BackupSchedule) -> dict:
         )
         schedule.last_run = now
         schedule.next_run = compute_next_run(
-            schedule.frequency, schedule.hour, schedule.minute, schedule.weekday, now
+            schedule.frequency, schedule.hour, schedule.minute, schedule.weekday, now,
+            schedule.timezone,
         )
         session.add(schedule)
         session.commit()
@@ -241,7 +272,9 @@ async def run_due() -> None:
         due = []
         for s in schedules:
             if s.next_run is None:
-                s.next_run = compute_next_run(s.frequency, s.hour, s.minute, s.weekday, now)
+                s.next_run = compute_next_run(
+                    s.frequency, s.hour, s.minute, s.weekday, now, s.timezone
+                )
                 session.add(s)
             elif s.next_run <= now:
                 due.append(s)

backend/tests/test_backup_schedules.py

@@ -309,3 +309,76 @@ def test_stack_status_is_stored_as_json(monkeypatch, db):
     run(env.svc.run_schedule(env.session, schedule))
     stored = json.loads(schedule.stack_status)
     assert stored[env.ids["a"]]["status"] == "ok" and "at" in stored[env.ids["a"]]
+
+
+# --------------------------------------------------------------------------- #
+# Local time
+# --------------------------------------------------------------------------- #
+
+
+def _next(freq, hour, minute, weekday, after, tz):
+    from datetime import datetime
+
+    from services import schedule_service
+
+    return schedule_service.compute_next_run(
+        freq, hour, minute, weekday, datetime.fromisoformat(after), tz
+    ).isoformat()
+
+
+def test_daily_time_is_wall_clock_time_in_the_schedule_zone():
+    # 03:00 in Berlin is 02:00 UTC in winter...
+    assert _next("daily", 3, 0, 0, "2026-01-10T12:00", "Europe/Berlin") == "2026-01-11T02:00:00"
+    # ...and 01:00 UTC in summer.
+    assert _next("daily", 3, 0, 0, "2026-07-10T12:00", "Europe/Berlin") == "2026-07-11T01:00:00"
+
+
+def test_daily_time_stays_put_across_daylight_saving_changes():
+    # Clocks go forward on 29 March 2026 and back on 25 October 2026.
+    assert _next("daily", 3, 0, 0, "2026-03-28T02:00", "Europe/Berlin") == "2026-03-29T01:00:00"
+    assert _next("daily", 3, 0, 0, "2026-03-29T01:00", "Europe/Berlin") == "2026-03-30T01:00:00"
+    assert _next("daily", 3, 0, 0, "2026-10-24T01:00", "Europe/Berlin") == "2026-10-25T02:00:00"
+
+
+def test_a_time_skipped_by_the_clock_change_runs_an_hour_later():
+    # 02:30 does not exist on 29 March in Berlin; it runs at 03:30 local.
+    assert _next("daily", 2, 30, 0, "2026-03-28T12:00", "Europe/Berlin") == "2026-03-29T01:30:00"
+
+
+def test_weekly_is_on_the_local_weekday():
+    # Sunday 00:30 in Berlin is still Saturday in UTC.
+    assert _next("weekly", 0, 30, 6, "2026-01-05T12:00", "Europe/Berlin") == "2026-01-10T23:30:00"
+
+
+def test_hourly_minute_is_local_minute():
+    # India is UTC+5:30, so :00 local is :30 UTC.
+    assert _next("hourly", 0, 0, 0, "2026-01-10T12:00", "Asia/Kolkata") == "2026-01-10T12:30:00"
+    assert _next("hourly", 0, 15, 0, "2026-01-10T12:00", "UTC") == "2026-01-10T12:15:00"
+
+
+def test_utc_is_the_default_and_unknown_zones_fall_back_to_it():
+    assert _next("daily", 3, 0, 0, "2026-01-10T12:00", None) == "2026-01-11T03:00:00"
+    assert _next("daily", 3, 0, 0, "2026-01-10T12:00", "Mars/Olympus") == "2026-01-11T03:00:00"
+
+
+def test_api_keeps_the_zone_and_refuses_bad_values(api_env):
+    env, client = api_env
+    r = client.post("/api/backups/schedules", json={
+        "stack_ids": [env.ids["a"]], "destination_id": env.dest.id,
+        "hour": 3, "minute": 0, "timezone": "Europe/Berlin",
+    })
+    assert r.status_code == 201
+    body = r.json()
+    assert body["timezone"] == "Europe/Berlin"
+    from datetime import datetime
+    from zoneinfo import ZoneInfo
+
+    local = datetime.fromisoformat(body["next_run"]).replace(tzinfo=ZoneInfo("UTC")).astimezone(
+        ZoneInfo("Europe/Berlin")
+    )
+    assert (local.hour, local.minute) == (3, 0)
+
+    r = client.put(f"/api/backups/schedules/{body['id']}", json={"timezone": "Mars/Olympus"})
+    assert r.status_code == 400
+    r = client.put(f"/api/backups/schedules/{body['id']}", json={"hour": 24})
+    assert r.status_code == 400

backend/version.py

@@ -1,3 +1,3 @@
 """Single source of truth for the StackPilot release version."""
 
-APP_VERSION = "0.65.0"
+APP_VERSION = "0.66.0"

frontend/package.json

@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 {
   "name": "stackpilot-frontend",
   "private": true,
-  "version": "0.65.0",
+  "version": "0.66.0",
   "type": "module",
   "scripts": {
     "dev": "vite",

frontend/src/api/schedules.ts

@@ -12,6 +12,8 @@ export interface BackupSchedule {
   hour: number;
   minute: number;
   weekday: number;
+  /** IANA zone the time is in, e.g. "Europe/Berlin". */
+  timezone: string;
   include_volumes: boolean;
   stop_first: boolean;
   keep: number;
@@ -34,6 +36,7 @@ export interface ScheduleInput {
   hour: number;
   minute: number;
   weekday: number;
+  timezone: string;
   include_volumes: boolean;
   stop_first: boolean;
   keep: number;

frontend/src/pages/Settings.tsx

@@ -77,8 +77,23 @@ export function Settings() {
 
 const WEEKDAYS = ["Mon", "Tue", "Wed", "Thu", "Fri", "Sat", "Sun"];
 
+/** The browser's zone: what "local time" means to whoever sets the schedule. */
+const BROWSER_TZ = Intl.DateTimeFormat().resolvedOptions().timeZone || "UTC";
+
+/** Every zone the browser knows (ES2022), or a short fallback list. */
+const TIME_ZONES: string[] = (() => {
+  const all = (
+    Intl as unknown as { supportedValuesOf?: (key: string) => string[] }
+  ).supportedValuesOf?.("timeZone");
+  const zones = all?.length
+    ? all
+    : ["Europe/Berlin", "Europe/Vienna", "Europe/Zurich", "Europe/London", "America/New_York"];
+  return Array.from(new Set(["UTC", BROWSER_TZ, ...zones]));
+})();
+
 function describeSchedule(s: BackupSchedule): string {
-  const t = `${String(s.hour).padStart(2, "0")}:${String(s.minute).padStart(2, "0")} UTC`;
+  const tz = s.timezone || "UTC";
+  const t = `${String(s.hour).padStart(2, "0")}:${String(s.minute).padStart(2, "0")} ${tz}`;
   if (s.frequency === "hourly") return `Hourly at :${String(s.minute).padStart(2, "0")}`;
   if (s.frequency === "weekly") return `Weekly · ${WEEKDAYS[s.weekday] ?? "?"} ${t}`;
   return `Daily · ${t}`;
@@ -312,6 +327,8 @@ function ScheduleForm({
     hour: schedule?.hour ?? 3,
     minute: schedule?.minute ?? 0,
     weekday: schedule?.weekday ?? 0,
+    // New schedules are in the browser's local time; existing ones keep theirs.
+    timezone: schedule?.timezone ?? BROWSER_TZ,
     include_volumes: schedule?.include_volumes ?? true,
     stop_first: schedule?.stop_first ?? true,
     keep: schedule?.keep ?? 7,
@@ -429,7 +446,7 @@ function ScheduleForm({
         )}
         {form.frequency !== "hourly" && (
           <label className="space-y-1">
-            <span className="text-xs font-medium text-slate-500">Hour (UTC)</span>
+            <span className="text-xs font-medium text-slate-500">Hour</span>
             <Input type="number" min={0} max={23} value={form.hour} onChange={(e) => set("hour", Number(e.target.value))} />
           </label>
         )}
@@ -437,6 +454,23 @@ function ScheduleForm({
           <span className="text-xs font-medium text-slate-500">Minute</span>
           <Input type="number" min={0} max={59} value={form.minute} onChange={(e) => set("minute", Number(e.target.value))} />
         </label>
+        <label className="space-y-1">
+          <span className="text-xs font-medium text-slate-500">Time zone</span>
+          <select
+            className={selectClass}
+            value={form.timezone}
+            onChange={(e) => set("timezone", e.target.value)}
+          >
+            {!TIME_ZONES.includes(form.timezone) && (
+              <option value={form.timezone}>{form.timezone}</option>
+            )}
+            {TIME_ZONES.map((z) => (
+              <option key={z} value={z}>
+                {z === BROWSER_TZ ? `${z} (this browser)` : z}
+              </option>
+            ))}
+          </select>
+        </label>
       </div>
       <div className="grid gap-3 sm:grid-cols-3">
         <label className="space-y-1">