Export and Import

Export & import

Your data is yours to take anywhere. Gubbins exports to open formats and imports from pasted text or files — so you can move data in and out without lock-in.

Where to find it: Import… beside the Add-item button, and the Export wizard in the Inventory More menu.

Exporting

Get your data out in whichever form suits:

• JSON data export — your items, contacts and loans as one structured file, for scripts and other tools.
• Markdown vault — a folder of readable Markdown files (one per item), with full-resolution images extracted alongside. Great for archiving or reading outside Gubbins.
• Raw .sqlite — the database file itself, for anyone who wants the data directly.
• CSV — from reports, for spreadsheets.

Exports can be scoped — the whole inventory, a single item, or a project's sub-folder.

⚠️ Heads-up An export is a one-way trip out of Gubbins — it is not a backup. The JSON data export in particular cannot be loaded back in, and Gubbins will tell you so if you try to restore from one. To make a file you can actually restore from, use Backup & restore instead. If you want a round-trip through a spreadsheet, the Catalogue CSV re-imports without any manual column mapping.

A project's bill of materials and the reorder / shopping list each export on their own, straight from where you're working — as CSV, TSV, an Excel workbook (.xlsx), JSON, a Markdown table, a printable HTML page, or plain text — for sharing, ordering or printing a parts list. The BOM adds a grouped EDA BOM (CSV) for electronics tools like KiCad. The spreadsheet formats load on demand the first time you use them, so they never slow the app down; once you've installed Gubbins, they're cached for offline use too.

Importing

Bringing data in is just as flexible. Paste text or pick a file, and Gubbins detects the format and walks you through a review before anything is written:

• CSV / TSV, JSON, Markdown, or even free-form lines — Gubbins works out the columns and lets you map them.
• Pasting free-form lines, Gubbins recognises a bare order code or listing URL from several suppliers (Amazon, LCSC, DigiKey, RS Components, Farnell, Adafruit) and fills it in as the item's SKU automatically — handy for turning an invoice or order confirmation straight into items.

A project's bill of materials and a purchase list each import from where you're working, using the same format detection — so a BOM export, a supplier basket or a typed shopping list can be brought in without going through the item importer first.

⚠️ Heads-up A serialised item is a single tracked instance, so its quantity is always 1. If a row says it's serialised but asks for a quantity of 5, the review flags it rather than quietly importing one unit — give each unit its own row.

ℹ️ Note Numbers copied straight out of a spreadsheet are read as they appear, so a quantity written 1,500 imports as one thousand five hundred. A cell that isn't a plain number — 12kg, ~12, n/a, or a quantity with a fractional part — is flagged in the review with the column and the value, rather than being imported as a rounded-down or empty figure.

Every importer reads numbers by the same rule, whichever decimal convention your spreadsheet uses: £1,234.56 and 1.234,56 € both mean the same price, and prices quoted to four decimal places keep their precision. Where a lone separator could be read either way, a group of exactly three digits is treated as thousands (1,500 is fifteen hundred) and anything else as a decimal (1,50 is one and a half) — so if your figures use a comma decimal, check the review preview before importing.

💡 Tip The fastest way to start a big inventory is to paste a list you already have — a spreadsheet column, a stocktake note — and let the importer turn it into items. Then run data hygiene to fill any gaps.

ℹ️ Note Coming from another inventory app specifically? There's a guided one-click path — see Migrating from another tool.

Related pages

• Migrating from another tool — moving from another app.
• Backup & restore — full portable backups.
• Bulk edit & clone — tidying imported data.