openclaw-backup

What This Skill Does

The openclaw-backup skill provides a robust framework for securing your OpenClaw environment by archiving critical configuration files, workspace data, credentials, and session information. This skill ensures that your primary configuration (openclaw.json), agent profiles, workspace memory (including SOUL.md), and API credentials are safely captured in compressed .tar.gz archives. It intelligently manages storage space by automatically maintaining a rotation policy that retains only the last 7 backups, preventing your disk from filling up with stale data. The skill is designed to handle sensitive data with proper exclusions, ensuring that cache folders like completions/ and unnecessary logs are omitted from the archive to keep backups lean and focused.

Installation

To install this skill, use the ClawHub CLI tool. Run the following command in your terminal: clawhub install openclaw/skills/skills/alessandropcostabr/openclaw-backup-safe Once installed, ensure the script has proper execution permissions and that your ~/.openclaw directory is structured correctly for the backup utility to traverse the subdirectories properly.

Use Cases

This skill is essential for users who maintain long-term AI agent memory or complex configurations. Use it when:

• Preparing for system migrations or server updates.
• Implementing a disaster recovery plan for your SOUL.md files.
• Automating daily maintenance to protect against accidental file deletion.
• Creating snapshots before testing experimental agent behaviors or new skill integrations.

Example Prompts

1. "OpenClaw, please run an immediate backup of my current environment and save it to the default folder."
2. "Can you set up a daily automatic backup schedule for me so I don't lose my agent memory?"
3. "I need to revert to a previous state. Can you help me identify the latest backup and walk me through the restore process?"

Tips & Limitations

• Manual Restoration: While the backup process is automated, the restore process is manual to prevent accidental data overwriting. Always verify your current ~/.openclaw directory before initiating a restore.
• Cron Monitoring: When using the provided JSON configuration for cron jobs, ensure your system clock is synchronized via NTP to ensure backups run at the correct time in UTC.
• Exclusions: The script automatically skips logs and cache files. If you have custom local data in other directories, you may need to manually update the backup script parameters to include those paths.
• Storage: Regularly monitor the ~/openclaw-backups/ directory if you intend to move these files to an off-site location like cloud storage, as the script only manages local rotation.