Backup Skill for OpenClaw

OpenClaw Backup Skill Overview

The Backup skill gives your OpenClaw agent the ability to snapshot and restore your entire configuration — skills, commands, settings, MCP integrations, contexts, and templates — with a single natural-language request. If you have ever lost a working setup after a bad update or a misconfigured skill, this is the safety net you need.

OpenClaw configurations live across multiple directories and files under ~/.claude/. Manually tracking what changed and when is tedious and error-prone. The OpenClaw Backup skill automates the entire process: it creates timestamped tar.gz archives, supports selective backup modes, and can sync your setup across machines using Git, rsync, or cloud storage like Dropbox and Google Drive.

Typical workflow:

1. Ask OpenClaw to back up your current setup before installing a new skill.
2. The agent packages your configuration into a timestamped archive in ~/openclaw-backups/.
3. If anything breaks, ask OpenClaw to restore from the latest backup — your working setup is back in seconds.

This skill pairs naturally with the Config Guardian skill, which validates configuration changes in real time, and the 1Password skill for securely managing API tokens included in your backups.

Prerequisites for Backup Skill

Before installing the Backup skill, make sure you have:

• OpenClaw installed and running (v1.0+)
• Sufficient disk space for backup archives (typically 5–50 MB per snapshot depending on your skill count)
• clawhub CLI installed for skill management
• Git (optional) — required only if you want version-controlled backup history

Verify your setup:

# Check OpenClaw version
openclaw --version

# Check available disk space
df -h ~/openclaw-backups

# Check clawhub CLI
clawhub --version

How to Install the Backup Skill

Install the Backup skill with a single command:

npx clawhub@latest install backup

To verify the installation:

clawhub list

You should see backup in the list of installed skills. Install with clawhub CLI for the fastest setup experience.

Backup Skill Configuration

The Backup skill works out of the box with sensible defaults. You can customize behavior through environment variables.

Environment Setup

# Custom backup directory (default: ~/openclaw-backups)
export OPENCLAW_BACKUP_DIR="$HOME/openclaw-backups"

# Maximum number of backups to retain (default: 7)
export OPENCLAW_BACKUP_RETENTION=7

# Enable automatic pre-update backups (default: true)
export OPENCLAW_BACKUP_AUTO=true

What Gets Backed Up

The skill archives the following directories and files by default:

| Path | Content | |------|---------| | ~/.claude/skills/ | Installed skill definitions | | ~/.claude/commands/ | Custom commands | | ~/.claude/settings.json | Agent settings and preferences | | ~/.claude/mcp/ | MCP server configurations | | ~/.claude/contexts/ | Session contexts | | ~/.claude/templates/ | Custom templates |

Cache and log files are automatically excluded — they regenerate on startup and would only bloat your archives.

Important: Backup archives may contain API tokens, secrets, and credentials stored in your settings or MCP configs. Store backups in a secure location and never commit them to public repositories.

Backup Skill Usage Examples

1. Create a Full Backup

You: "Back up my entire OpenClaw setup before I install the new Kubernetes skill."

The agent creates a timestamped archive (e.g., openclaw-2026-03-13_1045.tar.gz) containing all configuration files. It reports the archive path, file size, and item count when complete.

2. Selective Skills-Only Backup

You: "Back up just my installed skills, I want to test removing a few."

The agent runs a skills-only backup, archiving only the ~/.claude/skills/ directory. This is faster and produces a smaller file when you only need to protect skill definitions.

3. Restore from a Backup

You: "Something broke after that update. Restore from my latest backup."

The agent lists available backups, shows you the most recent one with its timestamp and contents, and asks for confirmation before restoring. It validates the archive integrity first, then stops the agent, replaces the current config, and restarts — your working setup is back.

4. List and Manage Backups

You: "Show me all my backups and how much space they use."

The agent lists all archives in your backup directory, sorted by date, with file sizes. It flags any backups older than your retention period and offers to clean them up.

5. Sync Backups to a Remote

You: "Push my latest backup to my Git backup repo."

The agent commits the latest archive to your configured Git repository and pushes it to the remote. This enables version history and multi-device access — clone the repo on another machine and restore from any snapshot.

Backup Security & Best Practices

Backup archives contain your complete OpenClaw configuration, which may include sensitive data. Follow these guidelines to stay safe:

• Encrypt sensitive backups. If your configuration includes API keys or tokens, encrypt archives before storing them in cloud storage. Use gpg or your secret manager.
• Restrict file permissions. Keep backup files readable only by your user: chmod 700 ~/openclaw-backups.
• Never commit backups to public repos. Add ~/openclaw-backups/ to your global .gitignore to prevent accidental exposure.
• Rotate old backups. Set OPENCLAW_BACKUP_RETENTION to automatically clean up old archives. Seven backups is a reasonable default for most setups.
• Verify restores periodically. Test your restore process before you actually need it. Run a restore to a temporary directory to confirm archive integrity.
• Use Config Guardian alongside Backup. Config Guardian validates changes in real time, while Backup provides point-in-time recovery. Together, they form a complete safety net. Review the Safety Checklist for general OpenClaw security guidance.

Troubleshooting Backup Errors

"No backups found in ~/openclaw-backups"

The backup directory is empty or does not exist.

1. Confirm the directory exists:

ls -la ~/openclaw-backups

2. If you customized the path, check that OPENCLAW_BACKUP_DIR is set correctly:

echo $OPENCLAW_BACKUP_DIR

3. Create your first backup by asking OpenClaw: "Back up my config now."

"Permission denied when creating backup archive"

The backup directory is not writable.

# Fix permissions
chmod 700 ~/openclaw-backups

# Or create the directory if missing
mkdir -p ~/openclaw-backups && chmod 700 ~/openclaw-backups

"Backup archive is corrupted — restore failed"

The archive was damaged during storage or transfer.

1. Test the archive integrity:

tar -tzf ~/openclaw-backups/openclaw-2026-03-13_1045.tar.gz > /dev/null

2. If corrupted, try the previous backup in the retention list.
3. For Git-synced backups, check if an older commit has a healthy archive: git log --oneline in the backup repo.