Tools

Tools: Update: OpenClaw Backup and Restore: Protect Your Agent Data [2026]

2026-04-14 0 views admin
Tools: Update: OpenClaw Backup and Restore: Protect Your Agent Data [2026]

What to Back Up

Method 1: Manual Backup

Method 2: Docker Volume Backup

Method 3: Git-Based Backup

Method 4: Cloud Sync

Automated Backups with Cron

How to Restore from Backup

Migrating OpenClaw to a New Server

Backup Best Practices Free skills and AI personas for OpenClaw — browse the marketplace. Browse the Marketplace → Join 1k+ OpenClaw operators sharing deployment guides, security configs, and workflow automations. OpenClaw stores its data across several directories and files. Understanding what each contains helps you decide what to back up and how often. Conversations, memory, vector embeddings, agent state Agent configuration, skill settings, integration configs API keys, environment variables, secrets Custom skill files (SKILL.md format) Docker configuration (if applicable) Low (recreated automatically) The data directory is the most important. It contains your agent's conversation history, long-term memory, and vector embeddings that power semantic search. If you lose this, your agent loses all its learned context and conversation history. Rebuilding from scratch is possible but time-consuming. The config directory contains your agent's personality, integration settings, cron job definitions, and skill configurations. Without this, your agent runs but with default settings — you would need to reconfigure everything manually. The .env file contains your API keys and secrets. Without it, your agent cannot connect to any AI model provider. Always handle this file with extra care during backups — encrypt it or store it separately from other backup data. Custom skills are SKILL.md files you have created or modified. Skills downloaded from ClawHub can be reinstalled, but custom skills exist only on your system. The simplest backup method is creating a compressed archive of your OpenClaw directory: This creates a single compressed file containing all essential data. For a typical personal agent running for several months, the backup file is usually 50-200MB. Copy the backup off-machine. A backup that lives on the same disk as your agent is not really a backup — if the disk fails, you lose both. Copy it to another location: If you use Docker, your data lives in Docker volumes (or bind mounts). Backing up volumes requires a slightly different approach. For bind mounts (volumes mapped to host directories in docker-compose.yml, like ./data:/app/data): Use the manual backup method above. The data is directly accessible on your host filesystem. For named Docker volumes: This uses a temporary Alpine container to access the Docker volume contents and create a compressed archive on your host filesystem. Git provides version-controlled backups, letting you track changes over time and restore to any previous state. This is excellent for configuration and skill files, and workable for data files. Step 1: Initialize a git repository. Step 2: Set up a private remote repository. Step 3: Commit changes regularly. You can do this manually or automate it with a cron job: Important: Never commit your .env file to git — it contains API keys. Back up .env separately using manual copy or an encrypted backup method. Backing up .env securely: Cloud sync provides off-site backup with minimal effort. Use rclone to sync your backups to S3, Google Drive, Dropbox, or dozens of other cloud storage providers. Configure a remote (example with Google Drive): The best backup is one that runs automatically. Create a backup script and schedule it with cron. Create the backup script: This creates a daily backup, keeps the last 30 days of backups, and logs each operation. Adding the rclone line provides off-site protection. Restoring from a tar archive: Restoring Docker volumes: Moving OpenClaw from one server to another is essentially a backup-and-restore operation across machines: Templates let you quickly answer FAQs or store snippets for re-use. Hide child comments as well For further actions, you may consider blocking this person and/or reporting abuse

Command

Copy

# Create a timestamped backup TIMESTAMP=$(date +%Y%m%d-%H%M%S) tar -czf ~/openclaw-backup-$TIMESTAMP.tar.gz \ -C ~/openclaw \ data/ config/ .env skills/ -weight: 500;">docker-compose.yml 2>/dev/null echo "Backup saved to ~/openclaw-backup-$TIMESTAMP.tar.gz" ls -lh ~/openclaw-backup-$TIMESTAMP.tar.gz # Create a timestamped backup TIMESTAMP=$(date +%Y%m%d-%H%M%S) tar -czf ~/openclaw-backup-$TIMESTAMP.tar.gz \ -C ~/openclaw \ data/ config/ .env skills/ -weight: 500;">docker-compose.yml 2>/dev/null echo "Backup saved to ~/openclaw-backup-$TIMESTAMP.tar.gz" ls -lh ~/openclaw-backup-$TIMESTAMP.tar.gz # Create a timestamped backup TIMESTAMP=$(date +%Y%m%d-%H%M%S) tar -czf ~/openclaw-backup-$TIMESTAMP.tar.gz \ -C ~/openclaw \ data/ config/ .env skills/ -weight: 500;">docker-compose.yml 2>/dev/null echo "Backup saved to ~/openclaw-backup-$TIMESTAMP.tar.gz" ls -lh ~/openclaw-backup-$TIMESTAMP.tar.gz # Copy to another machine via SCP scp ~/openclaw-backup-$TIMESTAMP.tar.gz user@backup-server:/backups/ # Or copy to a USB drive cp ~/openclaw-backup-$TIMESTAMP.tar.gz /Volumes/USB-Drive/backups/ # Copy to another machine via SCP scp ~/openclaw-backup-$TIMESTAMP.tar.gz user@backup-server:/backups/ # Or copy to a USB drive cp ~/openclaw-backup-$TIMESTAMP.tar.gz /Volumes/USB-Drive/backups/ # Copy to another machine via SCP scp ~/openclaw-backup-$TIMESTAMP.tar.gz user@backup-server:/backups/ # Or copy to a USB drive cp ~/openclaw-backup-$TIMESTAMP.tar.gz /Volumes/USB-Drive/backups/ # List volumes -weight: 500;">docker volume ls | grep openclaw # Back up a named volume to a tar file -weight: 500;">docker run --rm \ -v openclaw_data:/source:ro \ -v ~/backups:/backup \ alpine tar -czf /backup/openclaw-data-$(date +%Y%m%d).tar.gz -C /source . # Back up another volume -weight: 500;">docker run --rm \ -v openclaw_config:/source:ro \ -v ~/backups:/backup \ alpine tar -czf /backup/openclaw-config-$(date +%Y%m%d).tar.gz -C /source . # List volumes -weight: 500;">docker volume ls | grep openclaw # Back up a named volume to a tar file -weight: 500;">docker run --rm \ -v openclaw_data:/source:ro \ -v ~/backups:/backup \ alpine tar -czf /backup/openclaw-data-$(date +%Y%m%d).tar.gz -C /source . # Back up another volume -weight: 500;">docker run --rm \ -v openclaw_config:/source:ro \ -v ~/backups:/backup \ alpine tar -czf /backup/openclaw-config-$(date +%Y%m%d).tar.gz -C /source . # List volumes -weight: 500;">docker volume ls | grep openclaw # Back up a named volume to a tar file -weight: 500;">docker run --rm \ -v openclaw_data:/source:ro \ -v ~/backups:/backup \ alpine tar -czf /backup/openclaw-data-$(date +%Y%m%d).tar.gz -C /source . # Back up another volume -weight: 500;">docker run --rm \ -v openclaw_config:/source:ro \ -v ~/backups:/backup \ alpine tar -czf /backup/openclaw-config-$(date +%Y%m%d).tar.gz -C /source . cd ~/openclaw # Initialize -weight: 500;">git -weight: 500;">git init # Create .gitignore to exclude sensitive files and large binaries cat > .gitignore << 'EOF' # Never commit API keys .env # Exclude logs logs/ # Exclude large binary files in data (optional) data/*.db-wal data/*.db-shm # Exclude Docker files -weight: 500;">docker-compose.yml EOF # Initial commit -weight: 500;">git add -A -weight: 500;">git commit -m "Initial OpenClaw backup" cd ~/openclaw # Initialize -weight: 500;">git -weight: 500;">git init # Create .gitignore to exclude sensitive files and large binaries cat > .gitignore << 'EOF' # Never commit API keys .env # Exclude logs logs/ # Exclude large binary files in data (optional) data/*.db-wal data/*.db-shm # Exclude Docker files -weight: 500;">docker-compose.yml EOF # Initial commit -weight: 500;">git add -A -weight: 500;">git commit -m "Initial OpenClaw backup" cd ~/openclaw # Initialize -weight: 500;">git -weight: 500;">git init # Create .gitignore to exclude sensitive files and large binaries cat > .gitignore << 'EOF' # Never commit API keys .env # Exclude logs logs/ # Exclude large binary files in data (optional) data/*.db-wal data/*.db-shm # Exclude Docker files -weight: 500;">docker-compose.yml EOF # Initial commit -weight: 500;">git add -A -weight: 500;">git commit -m "Initial OpenClaw backup" # Create a private repo on GitHub, GitLab, or Gitea # Then add as remote -weight: 500;">git remote add origin -weight: 500;">git@github.com:your-username/openclaw-backup.-weight: 500;">git -weight: 500;">git push -u origin main # Create a private repo on GitHub, GitLab, or Gitea # Then add as remote -weight: 500;">git remote add origin -weight: 500;">git@github.com:your-username/openclaw-backup.-weight: 500;">git -weight: 500;">git push -u origin main # Create a private repo on GitHub, GitLab, or Gitea # Then add as remote -weight: 500;">git remote add origin -weight: 500;">git@github.com:your-username/openclaw-backup.-weight: 500;">git -weight: 500;">git push -u origin main # Add to crontab: commit and push daily at 2 AM 0 2 * * * cd ~/openclaw && -weight: 500;">git add -A && -weight: 500;">git commit -m "Daily backup $(date +\%Y\%m\%d)" 2>/dev/null && -weight: 500;">git push origin main 2>/dev/null # Add to crontab: commit and push daily at 2 AM 0 2 * * * cd ~/openclaw && -weight: 500;">git add -A && -weight: 500;">git commit -m "Daily backup $(date +\%Y\%m\%d)" 2>/dev/null && -weight: 500;">git push origin main 2>/dev/null # Add to crontab: commit and push daily at 2 AM 0 2 * * * cd ~/openclaw && -weight: 500;">git add -A && -weight: 500;">git commit -m "Daily backup $(date +\%Y\%m\%d)" 2>/dev/null && -weight: 500;">git push origin main 2>/dev/null # Encrypt .env before backing up gpg --symmetric --cipher-algo AES256 -o ~/openclaw/.env.gpg ~/openclaw/.env # Add .env.gpg to -weight: 500;">git (encrypted version is safe to commit) -weight: 500;">git add .env.gpg -weight: 500;">git commit -m "Update encrypted .env backup" # Encrypt .env before backing up gpg --symmetric --cipher-algo AES256 -o ~/openclaw/.env.gpg ~/openclaw/.env # Add .env.gpg to -weight: 500;">git (encrypted version is safe to commit) -weight: 500;">git add .env.gpg -weight: 500;">git commit -m "Update encrypted .env backup" # Encrypt .env before backing up gpg --symmetric --cipher-algo AES256 -o ~/openclaw/.env.gpg ~/openclaw/.env # Add .env.gpg to -weight: 500;">git (encrypted version is safe to commit) -weight: 500;">git add .env.gpg -weight: 500;">git commit -m "Update encrypted .env backup" # Linux/macOS -weight: 500;">curl https://rclone.org/-weight: 500;">install.sh | -weight: 600;">sudo bash # Or via Homebrew on macOS -weight: 500;">brew -weight: 500;">install rclone # Linux/macOS -weight: 500;">curl https://rclone.org/-weight: 500;">install.sh | -weight: 600;">sudo bash # Or via Homebrew on macOS -weight: 500;">brew -weight: 500;">install rclone # Linux/macOS -weight: 500;">curl https://rclone.org/-weight: 500;">install.sh | -weight: 600;">sudo bash # Or via Homebrew on macOS -weight: 500;">brew -weight: 500;">install rclone rclone config # Follow the interactive setup to add a Google Drive remote # Name it "gdrive" or similar rclone config # Follow the interactive setup to add a Google Drive remote # Name it "gdrive" or similar rclone config # Follow the interactive setup to add a Google Drive remote # Name it "gdrive" or similar # Sync backup directory to cloud rclone sync ~/backups/openclaw gdrive:openclaw-backups/ # Or sync directly from the OpenClaw directory (excluding .env) rclone sync ~/openclaw gdrive:openclaw-backups/ \ --exclude ".env" \ --exclude "logs/**" \ --exclude "node_modules/**" # Sync backup directory to cloud rclone sync ~/backups/openclaw gdrive:openclaw-backups/ # Or sync directly from the OpenClaw directory (excluding .env) rclone sync ~/openclaw gdrive:openclaw-backups/ \ --exclude ".env" \ --exclude "logs/**" \ --exclude "node_modules/**" # Sync backup directory to cloud rclone sync ~/backups/openclaw gdrive:openclaw-backups/ # Or sync directly from the OpenClaw directory (excluding .env) rclone sync ~/openclaw gdrive:openclaw-backups/ \ --exclude ".env" \ --exclude "logs/**" \ --exclude "node_modules/**" rclone sync ~/backups/openclaw s3:my-bucket/openclaw-backups/ rclone sync ~/backups/openclaw s3:my-bucket/openclaw-backups/ rclone sync ~/backups/openclaw s3:my-bucket/openclaw-backups/ cat > ~/openclaw-backup.sh << 'SCRIPT' #!/bin/bash set -e BACKUP_DIR=~/backups/openclaw TIMESTAMP=$(date +%Y%m%d-%H%M%S) ARCHIVE=$BACKUP_DIR/openclaw-$TIMESTAMP.tar.gz # Create backup directory mkdir -p $BACKUP_DIR # Create compressed archive tar -czf $ARCHIVE \ -C ~/openclaw \ data/ config/ .env skills/ -weight: 500;">docker-compose.yml 2>/dev/null # Remove backups older than 30 days find $BACKUP_DIR -name "openclaw-*.tar.gz" -mtime +30 -delete # Optional: sync to cloud # rclone copy $ARCHIVE gdrive:openclaw-backups/ echo "$(date): Backup created at $ARCHIVE" >> ~/backups/openclaw-backup.log SCRIPT chmod +x ~/openclaw-backup.sh cat > ~/openclaw-backup.sh << 'SCRIPT' #!/bin/bash set -e BACKUP_DIR=~/backups/openclaw TIMESTAMP=$(date +%Y%m%d-%H%M%S) ARCHIVE=$BACKUP_DIR/openclaw-$TIMESTAMP.tar.gz # Create backup directory mkdir -p $BACKUP_DIR # Create compressed archive tar -czf $ARCHIVE \ -C ~/openclaw \ data/ config/ .env skills/ -weight: 500;">docker-compose.yml 2>/dev/null # Remove backups older than 30 days find $BACKUP_DIR -name "openclaw-*.tar.gz" -mtime +30 -delete # Optional: sync to cloud # rclone copy $ARCHIVE gdrive:openclaw-backups/ echo "$(date): Backup created at $ARCHIVE" >> ~/backups/openclaw-backup.log SCRIPT chmod +x ~/openclaw-backup.sh cat > ~/openclaw-backup.sh << 'SCRIPT' #!/bin/bash set -e BACKUP_DIR=~/backups/openclaw TIMESTAMP=$(date +%Y%m%d-%H%M%S) ARCHIVE=$BACKUP_DIR/openclaw-$TIMESTAMP.tar.gz # Create backup directory mkdir -p $BACKUP_DIR # Create compressed archive tar -czf $ARCHIVE \ -C ~/openclaw \ data/ config/ .env skills/ -weight: 500;">docker-compose.yml 2>/dev/null # Remove backups older than 30 days find $BACKUP_DIR -name "openclaw-*.tar.gz" -mtime +30 -delete # Optional: sync to cloud # rclone copy $ARCHIVE gdrive:openclaw-backups/ echo "$(date): Backup created at $ARCHIVE" >> ~/backups/openclaw-backup.log SCRIPT chmod +x ~/openclaw-backup.sh # Edit crontab crontab -e # Add daily backup at 3 AM 0 3 * * * ~/openclaw-backup.sh # Edit crontab crontab -e # Add daily backup at 3 AM 0 3 * * * ~/openclaw-backup.sh # Edit crontab crontab -e # Add daily backup at 3 AM 0 3 * * * ~/openclaw-backup.sh # Stop OpenClaw -weight: 500;">docker compose down # or: -weight: 600;">sudo -weight: 500;">systemctl -weight: 500;">stop openclaw # Remove current data (or move it aside) mv ~/openclaw/data ~/openclaw/data.old mv ~/openclaw/config ~/openclaw/config.old # Extract backup tar -xzf ~/backups/openclaw/openclaw-20260324-030000.tar.gz -C ~/openclaw # Restore .env if needed # cp ~/backups/openclaw/.env.backup ~/openclaw/.env # Start OpenClaw -weight: 500;">docker compose up -d # or: -weight: 600;">sudo -weight: 500;">systemctl -weight: 500;">start openclaw # Verify -weight: 500;">docker compose logs -f --tail=20 openclaw # Stop OpenClaw -weight: 500;">docker compose down # or: -weight: 600;">sudo -weight: 500;">systemctl -weight: 500;">stop openclaw # Remove current data (or move it aside) mv ~/openclaw/data ~/openclaw/data.old mv ~/openclaw/config ~/openclaw/config.old # Extract backup tar -xzf ~/backups/openclaw/openclaw-20260324-030000.tar.gz -C ~/openclaw # Restore .env if needed # cp ~/backups/openclaw/.env.backup ~/openclaw/.env # Start OpenClaw -weight: 500;">docker compose up -d # or: -weight: 600;">sudo -weight: 500;">systemctl -weight: 500;">start openclaw # Verify -weight: 500;">docker compose logs -f --tail=20 openclaw # Stop OpenClaw -weight: 500;">docker compose down # or: -weight: 600;">sudo -weight: 500;">systemctl -weight: 500;">stop openclaw # Remove current data (or move it aside) mv ~/openclaw/data ~/openclaw/data.old mv ~/openclaw/config ~/openclaw/config.old # Extract backup tar -xzf ~/backups/openclaw/openclaw-20260324-030000.tar.gz -C ~/openclaw # Restore .env if needed # cp ~/backups/openclaw/.env.backup ~/openclaw/.env # Start OpenClaw -weight: 500;">docker compose up -d # or: -weight: 600;">sudo -weight: 500;">systemctl -weight: 500;">start openclaw # Verify -weight: 500;">docker compose logs -f --tail=20 openclaw # Stop OpenClaw -weight: 500;">docker compose down # Restore to a specific commit cd ~/openclaw -weight: 500;">git log --oneline # find the commit you want -weight: 500;">git checkout abc1234 -- data/ config/ skills/ # Decrypt .env if using gpg backup gpg --decrypt .env.gpg > .env # Start OpenClaw -weight: 500;">docker compose up -d # Stop OpenClaw -weight: 500;">docker compose down # Restore to a specific commit cd ~/openclaw -weight: 500;">git log --oneline # find the commit you want -weight: 500;">git checkout abc1234 -- data/ config/ skills/ # Decrypt .env if using gpg backup gpg --decrypt .env.gpg > .env # Start OpenClaw -weight: 500;">docker compose up -d # Stop OpenClaw -weight: 500;">docker compose down # Restore to a specific commit cd ~/openclaw -weight: 500;">git log --oneline # find the commit you want -weight: 500;">git checkout abc1234 -- data/ config/ skills/ # Decrypt .env if using gpg backup gpg --decrypt .env.gpg > .env # Start OpenClaw -weight: 500;">docker compose up -d # Stop containers -weight: 500;">docker compose down # Restore volume from backup -weight: 500;">docker run --rm \ -v openclaw_data:/target \ -v ~/backups:/backup \ alpine sh -c "rm -rf /target/* && tar -xzf /backup/openclaw-data-20260324.tar.gz -C /target" # Start containers -weight: 500;">docker compose up -d # Stop containers -weight: 500;">docker compose down # Restore volume from backup -weight: 500;">docker run --rm \ -v openclaw_data:/target \ -v ~/backups:/backup \ alpine sh -c "rm -rf /target/* && tar -xzf /backup/openclaw-data-20260324.tar.gz -C /target" # Start containers -weight: 500;">docker compose up -d # Stop containers -weight: 500;">docker compose down # Restore volume from backup -weight: 500;">docker run --rm \ -v openclaw_data:/target \ -v ~/backups:/backup \ alpine sh -c "rm -rf /target/* && tar -xzf /backup/openclaw-data-20260324.tar.gz -C /target" # Start containers -weight: 500;">docker compose up -d # On old server: create backup and transfer tar -czf /tmp/openclaw-migration.tar.gz -C ~/openclaw data/ config/ .env skills/ -weight: 500;">docker-compose.yml scp /tmp/openclaw-migration.tar.gz user@new-server:/tmp/ # On new server: -weight: 500;">install and restore mkdir -p ~/openclaw && cd ~/openclaw tar -xzf /tmp/openclaw-migration.tar.gz -weight: 500;">docker compose up -d # On old server: create backup and transfer tar -czf /tmp/openclaw-migration.tar.gz -C ~/openclaw data/ config/ .env skills/ -weight: 500;">docker-compose.yml scp /tmp/openclaw-migration.tar.gz user@new-server:/tmp/ # On new server: -weight: 500;">install and restore mkdir -p ~/openclaw && cd ~/openclaw tar -xzf /tmp/openclaw-migration.tar.gz -weight: 500;">docker compose up -d # On old server: create backup and transfer tar -czf /tmp/openclaw-migration.tar.gz -C ~/openclaw data/ config/ .env skills/ -weight: 500;">docker-compose.yml scp /tmp/openclaw-migration.tar.gz user@new-server:/tmp/ # On new server: -weight: 500;">install and restore mkdir -p ~/openclaw && cd ~/openclaw tar -xzf /tmp/openclaw-migration.tar.gz -weight: 500;">docker compose up -d - Back up on the old server: Create a full backup archive including data, config, .env, skills, and -weight: 500;">docker-compose.yml. - Transfer to the new server: Use scp, rsync, or a cloud storage intermediary to move the backup file. - Install OpenClaw on the new server: Follow the installation guide for your preferred method (Docker or -weight: 500;">npm). - Restore the backup: Extract the backup archive into the new OpenClaw directory. - Update configurations: Change any server-specific settings (IP addresses, domain names, ports) in the .env file and config. - Start and verify: Start OpenClaw and verify all integrations, cron jobs, and skills are working. - Follow the 3-2-1 rule: Keep 3 copies of your data, on 2 different storage types, with 1 copy off-site. For example: local disk + external drive + cloud storage. - Test your restores. A backup you have never tested restoring from is not a reliable backup. Every few months, spin up a test instance and restore from backup to verify the process works. - Encrypt sensitive backups. Backups containing your .env file have your API keys. Encrypt before storing off-site. - Automate everything. Manual backups are backups you will forget to make. Set up a cron job and cloud sync so backups happen without your intervention. - Monitor your backups. Check that backup files are being created (the backup log helps). Set up an alert if backups -weight: 500;">stop running — a silent failure is the worst kind. - Keep retention reasonable. 30 days of daily backups is sufficient for most operators. Longer retention for weekly snapshots (keep 12 weeks) provides deeper history without using excessive storage.

🏷️ Tags

toolsutilitiessecurity toolsupdateopenclawbackuprestoreprotectagent

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