Design documents are backed up with the design_doc_only=1 option.

You can backup only design documents from a cluster or bucket with the option, design_doc_only=1. You can later restore the design documents only with cbrestore:

> ./cbbackup http://10.5.2.30:8091 ~/backup -x design_doc_only=1 -b bucket_name

transfer design doc only. bucket msgs will be skipped.
done

Where you provide the hostname and port for a node in the cluster. This will make a backup copy of all design documents from bucket_name and store this as design.json in the directory ~/backup/bucket_name. If you do not provide a named bucket it will backup design documents for all buckets in the cluster. In this example we did a backup of two design documents on a node and our file will appear as follows:

[
   {
      "controllers":{
         "compact":"/pools/default/buckets/default/ddocs/_design%2Fddoc1/controller/compactView",
         "setUpdateMinChanges":"/pools/default/buckets/default/ddocs/_design%2Fddoc1/controller/setUpdateMinChanges"
      },
      "doc":{
         "json":{
            "views":{
               "view1":{
                  "map":"function(doc){emit(doc.key,doc.key_num);}"
               },
               "view2":{
                  "map":"function(doc,meta){emit(meta.id,doc.key);}"
               }
            }
         },
         "meta":{
            "rev":"1-6f9bfe0a",
            "id":"_design/ddoc1"
         }
      }
   },
   {
      "controllers":{
         "compact":"/pools/default/buckets/default/ddocs/_design%2Fddoc2/controller/compactView",
         "setUpdateMinChanges":"/pools/default/buckets/default/ddocs/_design%2Fddoc2/controller/setUpdateMinChanges"
      },
      "doc":{
         "json":{
            "views":{
               "dothis":{
                  "map":"function (doc, meta) {\n  emit(meta.id, null);\n}"
               }
            }
         },
         "meta":{
            "rev":"1-4b533871",
            "id":"_design/ddoc2"
         }
      }
   },
   {
      "controllers":{
         "compact":"/pools/default/buckets/default/ddocs/_design%2Fdev_ddoc2/controller/compactView",
         "setUpdateMinChanges":"/pools/default/buckets/default/ddocs/_design%2Fdev_ddoc2/controller/setUpdateMinChanges"
      },
      "doc":{
         "json":{
            "views":{
               "dothat":{
                  "map":"function (doc, meta) {\n  emit(meta.id, null);\n}"
               }
            }
         },
         "meta":{
            "rev":"1-a8b6f59b",
            "id":"_design/dev_ddoc2"
         }
      }
   }
]