backup

openclaw backup

Create a local backup archive for OpenClaw state, config, credentials, sessions, and optionally workspaces.

“`bash theme={“theme”:{“light”:”min-light”,”dark”:”min-dark”}}
openclaw backup create
openclaw backup create –output ~/Backups
openclaw backup create –dry-run –json
openclaw backup create –verify
openclaw backup create –no-include-workspace
openclaw backup create –only-config
openclaw backup verify ./2026-03-09T00-00-00.000Z-openclaw-backup.tar.gz

## Notes

* The archive includes a `manifest.json` file with the resolved source paths and archive layout.
* Default output is a timestamped `.tar.gz` archive in the current working directory.
* If the current working directory is inside a backed-up source tree, OpenClaw falls back to your home directory for the default archive location.
* Existing archive files are never overwritten.
* Output paths inside the source state/workspace trees are rejected to avoid self-inclusion.
* `openclaw backup verify <archive>` validates that the archive contains exactly one root manifest, rejects traversal-style archive paths, and checks that every manifest-declared payload exists in the tarball.
* `openclaw backup create --verify` runs that validation immediately after writing the archive.
* `openclaw backup create --only-config` backs up just the active JSON config file.

## What gets backed up

`openclaw backup create` plans backup sources from your local OpenClaw install:

* The state directory returned by OpenClaw's local state resolver, usually `~/.openclaw`
* The active config file path
* The OAuth / credentials directory
* Workspace directories discovered from the current config, unless you pass `--no-include-workspace`

If you use `--only-config`, OpenClaw skips state, credentials, and workspace discovery and archives only the active config file path.

OpenClaw canonicalizes paths before building the archive. If config, credentials, or a workspace already live inside the state directory, they are not duplicated as separate top-level backup sources. Missing paths are skipped.

The archive payload stores file contents from those source trees, and the embedded `manifest.json` records the resolved absolute source paths plus the archive layout used for each asset.

## Invalid config behavior

`openclaw backup` intentionally bypasses the normal config preflight so it can still help during recovery. Because workspace discovery depends on a valid config, `openclaw backup create` now fails fast when the config file exists but is invalid and workspace backup is still enabled.

If you still want a partial backup in that situation, rerun:

```bash  theme={"theme":{"light":"min-light","dark":"min-dark"}}
openclaw backup create --no-include-workspace

That keeps state, config, and credentials in scope while skipping workspace discovery entirely.

If you only need a copy of the config file itself, --only-config also works when the config is malformed because it does not rely on parsing the config for workspace discovery.

Size and performance

OpenClaw does not enforce a built-in maximum backup size or per-file size limit.

Practical limits come from the local machine and destination filesystem:

• Available space for the temporary archive write plus the final archive
• Time to walk large workspace trees and compress them into a .tar.gz
• Time to rescan the archive if you use openclaw backup create --verify or run openclaw backup verify
• Filesystem behavior at the destination path. OpenClaw prefers a no-overwrite hard-link publish step and falls back to exclusive copy when hard links are unsupported

Large workspaces are usually the main driver of archive size. If you want a smaller or faster backup, use --no-include-workspace.

For the smallest archive, use --only-config.