Backup Skill

Backup and restore your entire OpenClaw installation — config, credentials, workspace, memory, and skills.

Requirements

Required: gpg, tar (typically pre-installed on Linux)

Optional (for cloud uploads): jq, aws (S3/R2), gsutil/gcloud (GCS), b2 (Backblaze), rclone (Google Drive), rsync

Environment variables: BACKUP_PASSPHRASE, BACKUP_ENCRYPT, BACKUP_RETAIN_DAYS, BACKUP_STOP_GATEWAY, BACKUP_DIR

Credential files (created during setup, stored at ~/.openclaw/credentials/backup/):

• backup-passphrase — required for encrypted full backups
• aws-credentials, r2-credentials, b2-credentials, gcs-key.json, rclone.conf — optional, per cloud provider

Quick Start

# Run a backup now — creates TWO files: full (encrypted) + workspace-only
~/.openclaw/workspace/skills/backup/scripts/backup.sh

# Upload both backups to configured cloud destinations
~/.openclaw/workspace/skills/backup/scripts/upload.sh

# Full restore (same environment / disaster recovery)
~/.openclaw/workspace/skills/backup/scripts/restore.sh ~/backups/openclaw/openclaw-myhost-20260215-full.tar.gz.gpg

# Workspace-only restore (any environment — just the agent's brain)
~/.openclaw/workspace/skills/backup/scripts/restore.sh ~/backups/openclaw/openclaw-myhost-20260215-workspace.tar.gz

Interactive Setup

For guided setup, read references/setup-guide.md and follow the conversational flow with the user. This walks through encryption, backup mode, schedule, and cloud destination configuration.

Manual Usage

backup.sh — Create local backups

Every run produces two files:

1. Full backup (*-full.tar.gz.gpg) — everything including credentials, encrypted. For disaster recovery on the same or similar environment.
2. Workspace backup (*-workspace.tar.gz.gpg) — just ~/.openclaw/workspace/ (memory, skills, files), encrypted. Safe to restore on any environment without affecting gateway config. This is the agent's brain.

# Default: creates both files
./scripts/backup.sh

# Skip gateway stop/restart (for testing)
BACKUP_STOP_GATEWAY=false ./scripts/backup.sh

Saves to ~/backups/openclaw/.

upload.sh — Upload to cloud

# Upload latest local backup to all configured destinations
./scripts/upload.sh

# Upload a specific file
./scripts/upload.sh /path/to/backup.tar.gz.gpg

restore.sh — Restore from backup

# Full restore (disaster recovery — replaces entire ~/.openclaw/)
./scripts/restore.sh openclaw-myhost-20260215-full.tar.gz.gpg

# Workspace-only restore (just the agent brain — keeps your config/credentials)
./scripts/restore.sh openclaw-myhost-20260215-workspace.tar.gz

# Extract only workspace from a full backup
./scripts/restore.sh --workspace-only openclaw-myhost-20260215-full.tar.gz.gpg

# From cloud
./scripts/restore.sh s3://mybucket/openclaw/openclaw-myhost-20260215-workspace.tar.gz

Automatically detects workspace backups by filename. Creates a safety copy before extracting.

Note: Workspace-only restores don't require a gateway restart — the agent picks up the new files on its next session. Full restores stop and replace the entire ~/.openclaw/ directory, so the gateway needs to be restarted afterward.

test-backup.sh — Validate setup

./scripts/test-backup.sh

Creates a tiny test file, encrypts, uploads to all destinations, verifies, cleans up. Exit 0 = all good.

Config Reference

Config lives at ~/.openclaw/workspace/skills/backup/config.json:

Environment Variables

All settings can be overridden via env vars:

Credentials

Stored in ~/.openclaw/credentials/backup/:

• backup-passphrase — encryption passphrase
• aws-credentials — for S3
• r2-credentials — for Cloudflare R2
• b2-credentials — for Backblaze B2
• gcs-key.json — Google Cloud Storage service account key
• rclone.conf — for Google Drive (rclone config)

Security Notes

• Backups are encrypted by default with AES-256 (GPG symmetric)
• Full-mode backups REQUIRE encryption — the script will refuse to run without a passphrase when mode=full, since credentials would be stored in plaintext
• Workspace-only backups are also encrypted — they contain personal data (memory, notes, conversations)
• The passphrase file at ~/.openclaw/credentials/backup/backup-passphrase should be readable only by the owner (mode 600)
• On first use, always walk the user through setting a passphrase (see references/setup-guide.md)
• If no passphrase is set, default to portable mode — never store credentials unencrypted
• Local backups are auto-pruned after the configured retention period
• Remote backups are never auto-deleted (see references/destinations.md for lifecycle guidance)