Openclaw Self Backup

What This Skill Does

The Openclaw Self-Backup skill is a robust, automated disaster recovery tool designed specifically for OpenClaw AI agents. It ensures that critical identity, memory, and operational data are preserved against system failures or corruption. By automating the backup of core files—such as your SOUL.md, MEMORY.md, and the openclaw-mem database—the skill provides peace of mind for developers and users managing long-running, state-heavy AI agents. It supports multiple backup destinations, including local storage, remote Git repositories, and S3 buckets, ensuring data redundancy. The system utilizes structured configuration files to define inclusion and exclusion rules, handling sensitive database integrity with SQLite’s specific backup commands to avoid corruption.

Installation

To install, ensure you have the OpenClaw environment active. You can install via the ClawHub command clawhub install self-backup. Alternatively, clone the source code into your /skills/ directory. Once installed, copy the provided config/backup.example.json to config/backup.json and adjust the workspace and backupDir paths to match your system. Finally, initialize your schedule via cron or the native OpenClaw cron manager to automate the process.

Use Cases

This skill is perfect for: 1) Production agents that constantly update memory and need daily state snapshots; 2) Developers iterating on scripts who need versioned safety nets; 3) Multi-environment setups where moving an agent between machines requires a portable, synced state. It is essential for any user performing critical research or long-term task management where data loss would incur significant time penalties.

Example Prompts

1. "Run an immediate backup of my current agent workspace to ensure all recent memory updates are saved."
2. "List all available backup snapshots from the last week so I can prepare to restore my previous SOUL file."
3. "Restore the database from the snapshot taken on Tuesday at 9 AM to resolve the current memory file errors."

Tips & Limitations

Always ensure your disk space is sufficient to hold the retention period defined in your configuration. The tool relies on consistent naming, so avoid manually renaming files inside the backup directory. While this tool handles files excellently, it does not manage external dependencies installed via package managers; ensure your environment setup scripts are backed up separately if they are not stored within the workspace directory. Regularly test your restore process using the dry-run command to avoid false confidence in your disaster recovery strategy.