OpenClaw Checkpoint - Personal AI Assistant Backup & Recovery

Backup and disaster recovery for OpenClaw workspaces

Platform: macOS and Linux only. Windows is not supported.

Automatically sync your OpenClaw agent's identity, memory, and configuration to GitHub. Never lose your agent's state again.

What Gets Backed Up

Quick Start

Install (Recommended)

# Clone this repo
git clone https://github.com/AnthonyFrancis/openclaw-checkpoint.git ~/.openclaw/skills/openclaw-checkpoint

# Copy scripts to your tools directory
mkdir -p ~/.openclaw/workspace/tools
cp ~/.openclaw/skills/openclaw-checkpoint/scripts/checkpoint* ~/.openclaw/workspace/tools/
chmod +x ~/.openclaw/workspace/tools/checkpoint*

# Add to PATH (add to ~/.zshrc or ~/.bashrc for persistence)
export PATH="${HOME}/.openclaw/workspace/tools:${PATH}"

# Run setup
checkpoint-setup

The interactive wizard will:

1. Guide you through creating a private GitHub repo
2. Set up SSH authentication
3. Configure automatic backups
4. Test the backup system

Quick Install

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/AnthonyFrancis/openclaw-checkpoint/main/scripts/install-openclaw-checkpoint.sh | bash

This runs the install script -- review it first if you prefer to inspect before executing.

Commands

Auto-Backup Options

checkpoint-schedule 15min    # Every 15 minutes
checkpoint-schedule 30min    # Every 30 minutes
checkpoint-schedule hourly   # Every hour (default)
checkpoint-schedule 2hours   # Every 2 hours
checkpoint-schedule daily    # Once per day
checkpoint-schedule disable  # Turn off

Disaster Recovery

When your machine dies:

# On new machine:

# 1. Clone your backup
git clone git@github.com:YOURUSER/openclaw-state.git ~/.openclaw/workspace

# 2. Restore API keys from your password manager
# (secrets are not backed up for security)

# 3. Start OpenClaw
openclaw gateway start

# 4. Restore your cron jobs
openclaw cron restore ~/.openclaw/workspace/memory/cron-jobs-backup.json

Your agent will remember everything up to the last checkpoint, including scheduled tasks.

⚠️ Security: Use a PRIVATE Repository

Your backup contains personal data:

• Agent identity and personality
• Conversation history and memories
• Personal notes and configurations

Always use a private GitHub repository for your backup.

Requirements

• macOS or Linux (Windows is not supported)
• Git
• SSH key or GitHub Personal Access Token
• A private GitHub repository for storing backups

Cron Job Backup & Restore

Each time you run checkpoint-backup, your OpenClaw cron jobs are automatically exported to memory/cron-jobs-backup.json. This means your scheduled tasks (morning briefs, daily syncs, automated workflows, etc.) are preserved alongside your workspace.

Backup happens automatically -- no extra steps needed. The checkpoint-backup command calls openclaw cron list --json, cleans the output to keep only configuration (not runtime state), and saves it to the backup file.

Restore after disaster recovery:

# After restoring your workspace with checkpoint-resume, re-create your cron jobs:
openclaw cron restore memory/cron-jobs-backup.json

# Or manually inspect the backup and recreate jobs:
cat ~/.openclaw/workspace/memory/cron-jobs-backup.json

Requirements:

• The openclaw CLI must be available on PATH
• The OpenClaw gateway must be running for backup to succeed
• If either is unavailable, checkpoint-backup continues without cron backup (non-blocking)

How It Works

1. checkpoint-init creates a git repo in ~/.openclaw/workspace
2. checkpoint-backup exports cron jobs to JSON, then commits and pushes changes to GitHub
3. checkpoint-schedule sets up cron (Linux) or launchd (macOS) for auto-backups
4. checkpoint-resume pulls the latest backup from GitHub

Security and Permissions

This skill uses standard system scheduling to automate backups:

• macOS: Creates a launchd plist at ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.openclaw.checkpoint.plist
• Linux: Adds a user-level cron job (visible via crontab -l)

Auto-backup is opt-in only -- it is never enabled unless you explicitly run checkpoint-schedule. You can disable it at any time with checkpoint-stop or checkpoint-schedule disable.

The skill does not install any background daemons, system services, or root-level processes. All scheduling runs under your user account.

File access scope: The skill only reads and writes within ~/.openclaw/workspace. It does not access files outside this directory. Sensitive files (.env.*, credentials, OAuth tokens) are excluded from backups via .gitignore.

Troubleshooting

<details> <summary><strong>"Not a git repository"</strong></summary>

Run checkpoint-setup for guided setup, or checkpoint-init to initialize manually.

</details> <details> <summary><strong>"Failed to push checkpoint"</strong></summary>

Another machine pushed changes. Run checkpoint-resume first, then checkpoint-backup.

</details> <details> <summary><strong>GitHub prompting for password</strong></summary>

GitHub no longer accepts passwords. Switch to SSH:

cd ~/.openclaw/workspace
git remote set-url origin git@github.com:USER/REPO.git

</details> <details> <summary><strong>"Permission denied (publickey)"</strong></summary>

Your SSH key isn't added to GitHub. Run checkpoint-auth to set up SSH authentication.

</details>

About

This is a community skill for OpenClaw, an AI agent framework. It's not officially affiliated with the OpenClaw project.

License

MIT