Service Coverage
This page covers two topics: the compatibility rules LocalStack enforces when loading a snapshot, and the current level of snapshot support across AWS services.
Snapshot compatibility
Section titled “Snapshot compatibility”The internal data structures inside a LocalStack emulator change over time as services evolve. To prevent silently loading state into an incompatible runtime, LocalStack ships a set of compatibility rules that compare the LocalStack version recorded in the snapshot with the version of the running emulator. These rules apply to all snapshots, whether saved locally to a file, saved to a Cloud Pod, or implicitly saved when persistence is enabled.
If a rule rejects the snapshot, LocalStack does not load it, then logs the reason. The rules currently enforced are:
| Rule | Behavior |
|---|---|
| Forward compatibility | Reject loading a snapshot into a LocalStack emulator older than the one that produced it. |
First CalVer release (v2026.03) |
Reject loading a snapshot saved before v2026.03 into LocalStack v2026.03 or later. The snapshot mechanism was rewritten for several services in the first calendar-versioned release. |
Loading a snapshot saved with v2026.03 or later into a newer LocalStack version of the same series remains supported.
For example, a snapshot saved with v2026.03 can be loaded into v2026.03.1 or v2026.04.
Disable compatibility checks
Section titled “Disable compatibility checks”If you understand the risks and want LocalStack to load a snapshot regardless of these rules, start the container with DISABLE_COMPATIBILITY_RULES=1.
This bypasses every compatibility rule and lets LocalStack attempt to load the state as-is.
DISABLE_COMPATIBILITY_RULES=1 lstk start --persistimage: localstack/localstack-proenvironment: - LOCALSTACK_AUTH_TOKEN=${LOCALSTACK_AUTH_TOKEN:?} - PERSISTENCE=1 - DISABLE_COMPATIBILITY_RULES=1volumes: - "${LOCALSTACK_VOLUME_DIR:-./volume}:/var/lib/localstack"docker run \ -e LOCALSTACK_AUTH_TOKEN=${LOCALSTACK_AUTH_TOKEN:?} \ -e PERSISTENCE=1 \ -e DISABLE_COMPATIBILITY_RULES=1 \ -v ./volume:/var/lib/localstack \ -p 4566:4566 \ localstack/localstack-proService coverage
Section titled “Service coverage”Although we are working to support snapshots for all AWS services, there are some common issues, known limitations, and also services that are not well tested for snapshot support. An overview is available here.
For example, when using LocalStack’s snapshot feature, ports assigned to certain services (such as RDS or Elasticache) may not be preserved when reloading that snapshot. If you start new services before restoring the snapshot, these new instances may use ports originally used by the saved services.
As a result, restored resources may point to invalid or unintended ports. It is suggested to restore services in the same order as initially deployed, though this is not always reliable.
If you encounter a limitation or bug with snapshot support, please contact support.
Snapshot Coverage Overview
Section titled “Snapshot Coverage Overview”| Service ▲ | Supported | Persistence Test Suite | Limitations |
|---|---|---|---|