Self Backup & Restore#

Backup and restore your OpenClaw agent's complete state, including: configuration, skills, memory, and workspace files.

What Gets Backed Up#

CategoryPathPriorityOpenClaw config~/.openclaw/openclaw.json⭐⭐⭐ RequiredAPI credentials~/.openclaw/.env⭐⭐⭐ RequiredSkills~/.openclaw/workspace/skills/⭐⭐⭐ RequiredMemory files~/.openclaw/workspace/memory/⭐⭐⭐ RequiredIdentity filesMEMORY.md SOUL.md IDENTITY.md USER.md⭐⭐⭐ RequiredConfig filesAGENTS.md TOOLS.md HEARTBEAT.md⭐⭐ ImportantCron jobs~/.openclaw/cron/jobs.json⭐⭐ ImportantCredentials~/.openclaw/credentials/⭐⭐ Important

What's NOT Backed Up#

• ~/.openclaw/logs/ — logs, not needed
• ~/.openclaw/media/ — media cache, too large
• ~/.openclaw/workspace/.venv-*/ — Python envs, can be rebuilt
• ~/.openclaw/completions/ — history cache

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Run Backup#

bash

python3 ~/.openclaw/workspace/skills/self-backup/scripts/backup.py

Output: ~/backups/openclaw-backup-YYYY-MM-DD_HHMM.tar.gz

Run Restore#

bash

python3 ~/.openclaw/workspace/skills/self-backup/scripts/restore.py ~/backups/openclaw-backup-YYYY-MM-DD_HHMM.tar.gz

List Backups#

bash

python3 ~/.openclaw/workspace/skills/self-backup/scripts/backup.py --list

Setup Weekly Auto-Backup (via OpenClaw cron)#

bash

openclaw cron add \
  --name "weekly-self-backup" \
  --cron "0 2 * * 0" \
  --tz "Asia/Shanghai" \
  --message "Run backup: python3 ~/.openclaw/workspace/skills/self-backup/scripts/backup.py and report result" \
  --session isolated \
  --announce \
  --channel telegram

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After Restore: Rebuild Steps#

1. Reinstall OpenClaw (fresh machine only) bash

   npm install -g openclaw
   
   

2. Restore backup bash

   python3 restore.py openclaw-backup-YYYY-MM-DD.tar.gz
   
   

3. Rebuild Python environment (not included in backup) bash

   cd ~/.openclaw/workspace
   python3 -m venv .venv-stock
   source .venv-stock/bin/activate
   pip install yfinance pandas numpy pandas-ta ta ddgs tavily-python requests beautifulsoup4
   
   

4. Re-login ClawHub bash

   clawhub auth login --token <YOUR_TOKEN> --no-browser
   
   

5. Verify bash

   openclaw status && openclaw doctor