Backups

OpenClaw keeps its authoritative state in SQLite: one global control-plane database under the state directory (usually ~/.openclaw), plus one database per configured agent at <agentDir>/openclaw-agent.sqlite. Agent directories default to locations under the state directory but can be configured outside it. See Database schemas for the exact layout. This guide covers protecting that state: one-off archives, per-database snapshots, scheduling, offsite copies, and continuous replication for installs that should not re-upload whole databases on every backup.

When cold transcript storage is enabled, older transcript payloads also live in immutable compressed files. Use an OpenClaw backup command to capture those payloads with the database.

Never copy live .sqlite, -wal, -shm, or -journal files as a backup. The databases are written while the Gateway runs, and raw file copies of a live database can be torn or corrupt. Every supported path below captures committed state safely.

SQLite snapshots, including Doctor's pre-migration backups and backup reuse on retry, preserve vector memory tables without loading the native sqlite-vec extension. Backup creation therefore works on older Intel CPUs without AVX. Vector search still needs a compatible extension; on those hosts, build sqlite-vec without AVX and set memory.search.store.vector.extensionPath to that build's loadable extension.

Choose a path

• One-off state and workspace archive: openclaw backup create.
• An archive on a disk or object store: openclaw backup create --to <location>.
• One database, compact and verified: openclaw backup sqlite create.
• Versioned and incremental by content: openclaw backup git create.
• Regular protection: provision the Gateway-owned backup automation.
• Continuous, incremental, seconds of data loss: replicate the databases with Litestream.
• Periodic incremental pull to another machine, no object storage: sqlite3_rsync.

Full archives

Absolute symbolic links keep their original target locations, including links to separately backed-up config or credentials. Review these links before activating state on another host or at another path; see the backup symbolic-link caveat.

openclaw backup create --output ~/Backups/openclaw --verify

This writes a timestamped .tar.gz covering state, config, credentials, every configured agent directory, and (by default) workspaces, then validates the archive manifest and payload. Agent directories remain included when --no-include-workspace is set, even if their configured locations are outside the state directory. OpenClaw-owned SQLite databases, including agent databases inside workspace or managed-state assets, are captured with SQLite's online backup API, owner-verified, sanitized, and compacted. Other SQLite files in workspaces remain ordinary workspace files. Backup CLI documents every flag, owner-declared regenerable resources, volatile files, and verification details.

If the configuration is malformed, state archive creation fails because agent and plugin ownership cannot be resolved. --no-include-workspace only excludes workspace files; it does not bypass ownership discovery. Before repairing the configuration, save the active config file:

openclaw backup create --only-config --output ~/Backups/openclaw --verify

This saves only the active JSON config file, without parsing it or including its $include dependencies. Repair the configuration, then rerun the full archive command above to protect state, credentials, agents, and workspaces.

Archives are full copies: each run re-uploads everything. They are the right tool before an update, reset, uninstall, or machine move, and a reasonable daily routine for small installs. For large workspaces or frequent backups, prefer snapshots or continuous replication below.

On ephemeral container hosts, keep the archive outside the container and use openclaw backup restore as the disaster-recovery primitive for rebuilding a fresh persistent state tree. Restore stages files only; activation remains an explicit offline deployment step.

Per-database snapshots

openclaw backup sqlite create --global --repository ~/Backups/openclaw-sqlite
openclaw backup sqlite create --agent main --repository ~/Backups/openclaw-sqlite

Each run publishes one verified snapshot directory (manifest.json plus database.sqlite) into the repository directory. Snapshots are vacuumed, so deleted-page remnants do not inflate them, and every snapshot records a SHA-256 that openclaw backup sqlite verify rechecks later.

--agent <id> resolves the database from that agent's configured agentDir, including roots outside the state directory. The same owner-derived lookup applies to explicit Git agent backups, --all, and scheduled Git backups. Verifying or restoring a historical artifact by agent id does not require that agent to exist in the current configuration.

Snapshot repositories are local directories. Scheduling, upload, retention, and restore-on-boot are intentionally left to the operator; the sections below cover them.

Cold transcript backups

Full archives, per-database SQLite snapshots, and Git backups include every cold transcript referenced by their captured database. Before publication, the backup owner reads each immutable archive, verifies its size and SHA-256, and embeds the compressed bytes in the private snapshot. It does not change the live database's storage policy. A missing or corrupt archive fails backup creation rather than producing a successful backup with incomplete history.

The resulting database is self-contained: restoring it on another machine does not need the source sessions/cold/ directory. Embedded compressed payloads add backup bytes and can make a backup larger than the live database; compaction may still make it smaller overall. Full archives may also contain retained immutable files alongside their self-contained database snapshots.

After restore, the compressed payloads initially remain inside SQLite. If cold storage is enabled, the background worker publishes and verifies their archive files before releasing the embedded database bytes. The restored history stays available throughout this transition. Settings distinguishes embedded archive bytes, which are included in the database size, from archive file bytes, and reports how many embedded archives moved back to files.

Litestream and sqlite3_rsync copy database bytes only and do not perform this embedding step. If any file-backed cold archives remain, also capture the immutable cold/ directory under each agent's session artifact directory, even if automatic archival is disabled. Capture the database first, then the files, and retain every file referenced by that database snapshot. A database replica without its referenced cold files is incomplete. Prefer the supported OpenClaw snapshot commands when you need one portable recovery artifact.

Schedule backups

After configuring and initializing a storage location, enable a Gateway-owned daily archive backup:

openclaw backup enable --to offsite --every 24h --keep-daily 7 --keep-weekly 4 --keep-monthly 12

The Gateway creates, verifies, and uploads each archive using the location's encryption settings. Add --no-include-workspace to omit workspace files, or --namespace <name> to use a stable namespace instead of the sanitized hostname. Keep the location's credentials and encryption passphrase available to the Gateway process. Retention is optional; without any --keep-* flags, backups are never pruned. See retention rules.

Each namespace belongs to the installation that first uploads to it. To deliberately take over an existing namespace, pass --claim-namespace to backup enable --to. The schedule retains this flag only when explicitly passed; its runs can then replace an existing ownership claim. Prefer a separate --namespace for a different installation that is still running.

For incremental database history in Git, initialize a private repository and enable the Git schedule instead. This backs up the shared database and every configured agent database, including custom agent roots:

openclaw backup git init --repository ~/Backups/openclaw-git --remote [email protected]:you/openclaw-backups.git
openclaw backup enable --repository ~/Backups/openclaw-git --every 24h --push

backup enable --push refuses to schedule when no origin remote is configured, so a fresh install cannot silently create a schedule whose pushes always fail.

Pushed schedules redact credential-bearing tables and secret-prefixed machine-state rows by default: an unattended recurring push would otherwise retain credentials durably in remote Git history. Pass --include-secrets to schedule full-fidelity remote backups when you accept that tradeoff and the remote is private; restores from redacted history require re-pairing devices and re-authenticating providers afterward. Local (non-push) schedules keep full fidelity so restores are complete.

Use --global-only or --agent <id> to narrow the Git scope. Add --exclude-secrets for a redacted Git history.

There is one managed job per mode: offsite archives and Git backups can run together. Re-running backup enable updates the job for the selected mode, including its destination. Existing Git schedules continue to be recognized. The interval defaults to 24h. Disable one mode or both:

openclaw backup disable --offsite
openclaw backup disable --git
openclaw backup disable

Enabling or disabling requires a reachable local Gateway, because jobs run on the Gateway host. There is no local fallback scheduler. For a remote Gateway, create the job explicitly with openclaw cron add on that host.

As an alternative, use your platform scheduler directly. A nightly cron example that snapshots the control-plane database and the main agent database:

0 3 * * * openclaw backup sqlite create --global --repository "$HOME/Backups/openclaw-sqlite" --json >> "$HOME/Backups/openclaw-backup.log" 2>&1
5 3 * * * openclaw backup sqlite create --agent main --repository "$HOME/Backups/openclaw-sqlite" --json >> "$HOME/Backups/openclaw-backup.log" 2>&1

On macOS, a launchd job works the same way; on servers provisioned from the hosting guides, a systemd timer is the natural fit. --json emits one machine-readable result per run, so the log doubles as a backup audit trail. Prune old snapshot directories on your own retention schedule.

Every non-dry-run archive, local SQLite snapshot, and Git backup attempt is also recorded in the shared state database. Host-level jobs can report their outcome with openclaw backup record; see external backup jobs.

openclaw status shows the newest backup attempt and offsite result. The Control UI's Backups section on the Systems landing and Gateway host views shows each target's last success, size, destination, latest failure, and next scheduled run. Its storage location Check action checks access without writing a backup. openclaw doctor keeps the 14-day freshness hint and also flags an offsite schedule after a failed attempt or when its last success is older than three schedule intervals. Diagnose that destination with openclaw storage test <name>.

The recorded history keeps the newest 200 attempts plus the newest attempt and newest successful result for every backup kind and target. Status and Doctor retain an infrequently used destination's last outcome even when another job produces more than 200 newer results.

Copy backups offsite

Use a named storage location for an external disk, mounted network directory, or plugin-provided object store. The built-in filesystem provider uses an existing directory; the Cloudflare plugin provides R2 storage. Configure the location and its encryption first, then explicitly initialize the intended destination:

openclaw storage init offsite
openclaw storage test offsite
openclaw backup create --to offsite

The backup command checks the location before creating the archive, verifies the archive locally, uploads it, and confirms its stored size. A missing initialization marker refuses the backup: reconnect the disk or check the bucket and prefix, or initialize the location only if it is new. Runtime backups never initialize a location or create a missing filesystem root. See Storage CLI.

By default, the local archive lives only in managed scratch space and is removed after the upload. Add --output ~/Backups/openclaw to retain a local copy. Local copies are plaintext .tar.gz archives even when the storage location encrypts uploaded bytes; protect both destinations accordingly.

Backups are stored under backups/<namespace>/, where the namespace defaults to the sanitized hostname. Use a distinct explicit namespace for each installation sharing a destination:

openclaw backup create --to offsite --namespace gateway --keep-daily 7 --keep-weekly 4 --keep-monthly 12
openclaw backup list --from offsite --namespace gateway
openclaw backup verify --from offsite --namespace gateway latest
openclaw backup restore --from offsite --namespace gateway latest --target ./restored-openclaw

The first upload claims the namespace for the installation's durable Gateway device identity. Its owner.json contains the device ID, hostname, and claim time, and uses the location's encryption settings. OpenClaw checks ownership before archiving, at archive publication, and before each retention deletion. A different device identity causes a failed attempt with the owner's hostname and abbreviated device ID, even if both machines use the same hostname.

Choose another --namespace for a separate installation. To deliberately take over a stopped or retired installation's namespace, for example after moving to new hardware, run:

openclaw backup create --to offsite --namespace gateway --claim-namespace

The displaced installation is rejected at its next publication or deletion. Object stores cannot make an object's write conditional on a separate ownership claim, so a residual provider round-trip window remains between the final check and the effect. Stop the old installation before taking over; use a separate namespace for installations that run concurrently.

Retention runs only after a successful upload. It keeps the newest backup in each selected UTC day, week, or month, combining the policies and always preserving the newest backup. It never deletes other namespaces or objects whose keys do not match the backup filename pattern, including owner.json. No retention flags means no deletion; see Backup CLI for exact rules.

Remote verification and restore download and decrypt into managed scratch, then use the same archive checks as local files. Restore still stages into a fresh target; follow Restore a full archive before activating the result. When recovering on another host, specify the original namespace and retain the original encryption passphrase and location marker. backup list --from offsite without --namespace also lists available namespaces and their claim hostnames so you can find the original data. Listing, verifying, and restoring never require or change namespace ownership.

A restored installation carries the original device identity and can continue using its namespace. A cloned copy running concurrently shares that identity; give it its own --namespace so the two copies do not share retention.

Each archive is a full copy. For large installs where upload size matters, use Git-backed snapshots or continuous replication. Plain local archives and snapshot repositories remain ordinary files that external backup tools can copy.

Versioned backups to a Git repository

Git-backed backups dump each selected database into deterministic schema.sql, manifest.json, and per-table JSONL files, then create one commit for the whole run. Unchanged database content produces no commit, so Git stores and pushes only content changes by construction. OpenClaw stages only the backup-owned global and agents paths, not unrelated files elsewhere in the repository.

openclaw backup git init --repository ~/Backups/openclaw-git --remote <private-git-url>
openclaw backup git create --repository ~/Backups/openclaw-git --all --push
openclaw backup git log --repository ~/Backups/openclaw-git

Use a repository dedicated to OpenClaw backups. Existing global/ and agents/<agentId>/ scopes must be empty or contain a valid schema-version-1 OpenClaw backup manifest. OpenClaw refuses to replace any other scope, and an --all run validates every existing agent scope before deleting stale backup-owned entries.

The repository root must be owned by the current user and must not be group- or world-writable. This is checked during init and every create. On POSIX systems, confirm ownership and run chmod 700 <repository> to repair unsafe permissions.

The repository is ordinary Git and can use any remote, including GitHub. Keep the remote private: the default dump includes auth profiles, tokens, and other credential-bearing state. --exclude-secrets omits the documented secret tables and machine-state key prefixes when a redacted history is more useful than a credential-complete backup; see Backup CLI for the exact list.

Verify or restore one database at any commit without overwriting a live file:

openclaw backup git verify --repository ~/Backups/openclaw-git --ref <commit> --global
openclaw backup git restore --repository ~/Backups/openclaw-git --ref <commit> --agent main --target ./restored-agent.sqlite

Git restore converges derived search state: it rebuilds content-backed FTS5 indexes, leaves transcript projection state for Gateway startup reconciliation, and leaves vector tables for memory indexing to recreate. It then verifies table hashes, SQLite integrity, and foreign keys. Trigger bodies can contain CASE expressions and SQL comments. Incomplete trigger definitions fail the restore before the target file is published.

Continuous replication with Litestream

Litestream is an open-source replication daemon for SQLite. It runs alongside the Gateway with no OpenClaw changes: it watches each database's write-ahead log and streams incremental changes to object storage, with periodic snapshots so restores stay fast. Only changed pages leave the machine, which makes it the right tool when backups must not re-upload whole databases.

Litestream's one hard requirement is WAL mode, which OpenClaw uses on local filesystems; on network-backed storage such as NFS or SMB, OpenClaw falls back to rollback journaling, so verify with PRAGMA journal_mode; first. A minimal litestream.yml replicating the control-plane database and one agent database to an S3-compatible bucket:

dbs:
  - path: /home/user/.openclaw/state/openclaw.sqlite
    replicas:
      - url: s3://openclaw-backups/state
  - path: /home/user/.openclaw/agents/main/agent/openclaw-agent.sqlite
    replicas:
      - url: s3://openclaw-backups/agents/main

Run litestream replicate under your process supervisor, one entry per database you care about. To recover, restore to a fresh path and activate it offline:

litestream restore -o ./restored-openclaw.sqlite s3://openclaw-backups/state

For an agent with a custom agentDir, replace the example's default agent database path with its configured <agentDir>/openclaw-agent.sqlite.

Litestream replicates database bytes only. Config, credentials files, and workspaces still need one of the file-based paths above, and the replicated data is as sensitive as the archives, so apply the same bucket access and encryption rules.

Pull replication with sqlite3_rsync

sqlite3_rsync is the SQLite project's official replication tool, modeled on rsync: it compares page hashes between an origin and a replica database and ships only changed pages, typically over SSH with the same binary installed on both ends. Unlike a raw file copy, it takes a read transaction on the origin, so pulling from a live database while the Gateway runs produces a consistent replica. WAL mode is required on the origin. OpenClaw uses WAL on local filesystems but deliberately falls back to rollback journaling on network-backed storage such as NFS or SMB, so check the origin before relying on this path:

sqlite3 ~/.openclaw/state/openclaw.sqlite "PRAGMA journal_mode;"

If this prints anything other than wal, use one of the file-based paths above instead.

The tool ships in the sqlite-tools binary bundles on the SQLite download page and in the full source tree; package-manager SQLite builds often omit it. Pull a database to another machine you control:

sqlite3_rsync 'user@gateway-host:~/.openclaw/state/openclaw.sqlite' ./replica/openclaw.sqlite

Re-running the command is incremental: an unchanged database exchanges only a few kilobytes of hashes, and appended data transfers at roughly its own size. Treat the replica as read-only and as sensitive as the origin.

Two caveats. First, deltas are page-based, and OpenClaw's databases run incremental auto-vacuum on a periodic maintenance timer; a vacuum pass relocates pages, so a sync shortly after one (or after large deletions such as transcript-archive eviction) can transfer far more than the actual data change. Second, this replicates database bytes only, like Litestream: config, credentials files, and workspaces still need a file-based path above. For continuous replication with predictable upload size, prefer Litestream; use sqlite3_rsync for scheduled or ad-hoc pulls between machines without object storage. To recover, treat the replica like any restored database: copy it into place while the Gateway is stopped, then follow Restore a database.

Restore

Restore is deliberately explicit; nothing overwrites live state in place.

Restore a full archive

Start only from an archive you created or otherwise trust. openclaw backup verify checks archive structure and payload layout, but it does not authenticate the archive or make untrusted content safe.

Before a full restore, review What gets backed up. Then verify and extract into a fresh staging directory with one command:

ARCHIVE=./2026-03-09T08-00-00.000+08-00-openclaw-backup.tar.gz
openclaw backup restore "$ARCHIVE" --target ./restored-openclaw

The target must not exist or must be empty, and it must not be inside the live state directory or any configured live agent directory. OpenClaw verifies archive structure, the manifest, hardlinks, symbolic-link entries, and the root SQLite snapshot and its durably registered agent snapshots before it writes the target. Other payload remains opaque. A non-empty target is refused, and a failed extraction cleans its incomplete output. The command never writes into live state or agent roots and has no force or in-place mode. Treat the restored directory as sensitive: it can contain credentials, auth profiles, sessions, and workspace data.

Before restoring, ensure the target filesystem has room for the archive's full uncompressed payload, plus extraction overhead, while the live tree remains in place. Renaming or moving the live tree to a sibling path on the same filesystem does not free its blocks; a full restore therefore needs space for a second tree.

The schema-version-1 manifest records archiveRoot, the original paths under paths, an assets[] list, and additive configured-agent ownership metadata. Each asset includes its kind, original sourcePath, and archivePath inside the tarball. An external custom agent root has kind agent when it needs its own source; roots already covered by a state or workspace asset appear in ownership metadata without duplicating archive entries. Use the asset and ownership fields as the source of truth; do not derive the archive root from the archive filename or reconstruct agent paths from the default layout. Older archives without additive ownership metadata remain verifiable.

The archive layout is:

<archive-root>/manifest.json
<archive-root>/payload/posix/<absolute-source-path-without-leading-slash>/...
<archive-root>/payload/windows/<DRIVE>/<rest>/...
<archive-root>/payload/relative/<relative-source-path>/...

To activate, stop the Gateway and any node hosts that use the restored files. Make a fresh backup of current state or move it aside. Then move the extracted state asset into place, or point OPENCLAW_STATE_DIR at that asset. Restore every custom agent root using its recorded agent id and original source path; either preserve its configured agentDir or update that setting to its new location. On a new machine or under a different home directory, also use the manifest to map config, credentials, and workspace assets to their new paths. Run openclaw doctor before restarting the Gateway. See Updating for the rollback workflow.

Selective extraction of raw tar members is an expert, offline last resort when a full staged restore cannot fit, not the recommended recovery path. It bypasses the restore command's complete-layout and cleanup safeguards. Keep the original archive unchanged, verify it first, stop every writer, and use manifest.json to confirm the exact asset path and agent ownership for each selected member. Restore the config, shared database, and all required per-agent databases from the same backup generation. Extract SQLite members only from the archive's managed snapshots; never combine a database with -wal, -shm, or -journal files from another generation. Prefer restoring onto storage with enough space for the complete archive whenever possible.

Restore a database

For a snapshot, openclaw backup sqlite restore <snapshot-directory> --target <new-database-path> writes a re-verified database to a fresh target. For Git history, openclaw backup git restore --repository <dir> --ref <commit> (--global | --agent <id>) --target <new-database-path> materializes and verifies a fresh database. For Litestream, litestream restore writes a fresh database file. Move the result into place while the Gateway is stopped, then start the Gateway and check openclaw health and openclaw doctor.

After restoring onto a different OpenClaw version, preflight the database first with openclaw database preflight; see Database schemas.

Related

• Agent workspace for keeping workspace files in a private git repository
• Backup CLI reference
• Cloudflare Containers — continuous Litestream replication to R2 for an ephemeral container deployment
• Cloudflare plugin — R2 storage locations for archive backups
• Database schemas
• Migrating between machines
• Storage locations
• Updating