v1.2.0

Fixed

• MariaDB hosts without the legacy mysql* symlinks could not be backed up.
  Both the dumper and the restorer asked for mysqldump / mysql by name,
  while MariaDB 11 renamed its clients to mariadb-dump / mariadb and left
  the old names as deprecated symlinks that several distributions and container
  images no longer ship — so a backup failed with "The [mysqldump] binary could
  not be found", despite MariaDB being a documented driver. Each connection now
  asks for the clients its own driver names, best first, so either spelling
  works; where both are installed the one matching the server wins, since
  MySQL's mysqldump can emit SQL a MariaDB server will not read back.
  mariadb-dump and mariadb are configurable like the other binaries
  (BACKUP_MARIADB_DUMP_PATH, BACKUP_MARIADB_PATH).

Added

• An MCP server, so an AI assistant can set backups up for you
  (php artisan backup:mcp). It speaks the Model Context Protocol over
  stdin/stdout with no extra dependency, and exposes twelve tools: a setup
  guide, an overview of the installation, the environment (disks, connections,
  binaries, free space), the resolved profiles, the full configuration
  reference, a validator, the stored backups, a retention preview, and the
  operations themselves — configure, run, verify, prune. The point is that an
  assistant reads this installation before it proposes anything, instead of
  inventing a disk name or a config key that sounds plausible.

  Writing is bounded on every side. backup_configure accepts only keys the
  reference documents, with values of the declared type; it defaults to a dry
  run that returns both the exact edits and the findings the result would
  have, and refuses to apply a change that would leave errors behind unless
  explicitly forced. A setting the config file reads through env() is written
  to .env rather than baked in as a literal, secrets are written but never
  echoed back, the config file is edited by token so its comments survive, the
  edited source is re-parsed before it is written, the previous file is copied
  aside, and the write itself is atomic.

  Permissions are per access level, not per tool name, so a tool an add-on
  contributes is governed by the same rules: reading and running backups is
  always allowed, configuration writes are on by default,
  deleting backups is off until BACKUP_MCP_ALLOW_DESTRUCTIVE=true, and the
  server refuses to start outside mcp.environments (local by default).
  Restore is not exposed over MCP at all — it overwrites a live application, so
  it stays a deliberate human act. See docs/14-mcp.md.

• ConfigValidator — a standing check on the configuration, reachable from
  the MCP server and usable on its own. It reports what would fail (a
  destination disk that does not exist, a missing dump binary, encryption
  enabled without a key, a capability that needs Pro) and what would quietly
  protect nothing: no off-site destination, no schedule, nobody on the failure
  mail, a keep_latest below 1 that would delete every backup it finds. Each
  finding names the key and the fix.

• Configuration writing primitives used by the MCP server and available to
  anything else that needs them: ConfigReference (the package's own
  configuration described as data), EnvFile (comment-preserving .env
  upserts), PhpConfigFile (token-level edits to a published config file),
  ConfigWriter (routes each key to the right file), BackupFinder and
  Edition.

• The manifest records which migrations had run (migrations.ran, manifest
  schema 1.2). A database dump only fits a codebase whose schema expectations
  match it, and the app version does not establish that — two commits can share
  a version string and differ by a migration. The dump has always contained the
  migrations table, but only after decrypting and unpacking it; the same fact
  now sits in the sidecar, so a backup can be checked against a codebase, and two
  backups diffed against each other, without touching the archive. MigrationState
  exposes latest(), count(), ahead() and matches(). Reading is fail-soft:
  no database, an unreachable one or one that never migrated records null rather
  than failing the backup, and manifests written before 1.2 read back as null —
  "not recorded", not "none had run".

• DeleteManager — targeted deletion of named backups. Retention prunes on
  a policy; this removes exactly what the caller names, for a corrupted archive
  or a run kept by mistake. Guarded rather than trusted: it refuses outright if
  the deletion would leave the destination with no backup at all, and every name
  is resolved before anything is removed, so an unknown one aborts the whole
  call instead of deleting half a selection. Deleting an incremental snapshot
  removes only its manifest — its blocks stay in the shared pool until a
  retention run garbage-collects them, because other snapshots may still
  reference them. Supports a dry run.

• BackupDeleted event. Dispatched per deleted backup, carrying an optional
  actor so a listener can record who removed what. Retention stays silent; only
  a targeted deletion fires it.

• The package now contributes a Backup Manager section to php artisan about, reporting the default profile, encryption, manifest signing, whether
  the incremental (Pro) engine is active, and scheduling.