OpenClaw Automatic Full and Incremental Backup

Problem

An OpenClaw working directory can accumulate configuration, plugin, task, and cache files over time. Copying the whole directory repeatedly is slow, can accidentally destroy current state during restore, and may let old backups consume unbounded disk space.

How It Works

The skill uses tar --listed-incremental to create true incremental backups, relying on snapshot state to capture only changed files. The default schedule is an initial full backup, a weekly full backup on Saturday, incremental backups Monday through Friday, and an automatic upgrade to full backup if the last full backup is at least 7 days old. After each backup, it validates the archive with tar -tzf and uses an fcntl lock to prevent concurrent backup jobs from interfering with each other. Before restore, the current directory is copied to .openclaw.pre-restore-timestamp/ to reduce accidental loss. Retention is configured as 30 days for incremental backups and 180 days for full backups, with expired backups cleaned up automatically.

Boundaries

It requires Python 3.8+, GNU tar, and cron, making it suitable for Linux or Unix-like environments that support scheduled jobs. It excludes common cache, credential, and build directories by default, including logs/, plugins/, node_modules/, credentials/, bin/, and obj/; if critical data lives in those locations, review the exclusion rules separately. At least 5GB of free backup space is recommended.