synology-backup

What This Skill Does

The synology-backup skill provides a robust, automated framework for securing your OpenClaw workspace and agent data. By leveraging standard SMB protocols, it enables you to mount a remote Synology NAS share directly to your local file system, facilitating seamless synchronization of your workspace, configurations, and agent-specific data. It is engineered for reliability, supporting periodic snapshots and configurable retention periods to ensure you can recover from failures or unintended configuration changes. Whether you are running a single instance or managing multiple sub-agents, this skill automates the complex task of data preservation, ensuring your intelligence architecture remains persistent and disaster-resilient.

Installation

1. Ensure your system has the necessary networking tools: sudo apt-get install -y cifs-utils rsync.
2. Install the skill using the ClawHub command: clawhub install openclaw/skills/skills/pfrederiksen/synology-backup.
3. Create a dedicated user on your Synology NAS with restricted, folder-specific access.
4. Configure credentials in ~/.openclaw/.smb-credentials, ensuring file permissions are strictly set to 600.
5. Customize ~/.openclaw/synology-backup.json to define your host IP (Tailscale or local), target share, and backup frequency using standard cron syntax.
6. For persistence, update your /etc/fstab to handle automatic mounting upon system reboot.

Use Cases

This skill is essential for maintaining production-grade OpenClaw environments. Typical use cases include scheduling nightly backups to ensure minimal data loss, manually triggering a snapshot before performing significant system updates, restoring specific agent configurations after a botched experiment, and maintaining a secure off-site archive of your AI workspace to comply with disaster recovery policies. It is specifically optimized for VPS environments where using Tailscale provides a secure, encrypted tunnel to your NAS without opening ports to the public internet.

Example Prompts

• "Run a manual backup of my current workspace to the Synology NAS right now."
• "Check the status of my backups; when was the last successful snapshot taken?"
• "I need to restore the agent configurations from two days ago—can you help me locate the correct backup file?"

Tips & Limitations

• Security: Never store your SMB password in plaintext files outside of the designated protected credentials file.
• Connectivity: If using Tailscale, ensure both your VPS and the NAS are active on the same tailnet.
• Sensitive Data: By default, the .env file containing API keys is ignored. If you choose to include it, ensure your NAS storage is encrypted and access is strictly restricted.
• Retention: Periodically monitor your NAS storage levels, as high retention settings or large workspace file counts can consume significant space over time.