Booker's OpenClaw Backup

Create, inspect, configure, and restore self-contained backup bundles for ~/.openclaw. Use when the user wants full-state backup, backup listing, changing th...

Security Scan

The skill's scripts, instructions, and requirements are coherent for a local ~/.openclaw backup/restore tool; nothing requested or installed is disproportionate to that purpose.

Purpose & Capability

The name/description match the provided scripts: create, list, configure, and restore self-contained tar.gz bundles of ~/.openclaw. Required files and behaviors (reading $HOME, writing bundles to a user-specified backup directory, storing config in config.env) are appropriate for a backup tool.

Instruction Scope

Runtime instructions direct the agent to run local shell scripts that only operate on local paths and the backup directory. The scripts do not perform network calls or access unrelated system configuration. Two environment variables used by the scripts (OPENCLAW_SOURCE_DIR and OPENCLAW_RESTORE_TARGET) are not mentioned in SKILL.md's 'Public defaults vs local overrides' section — SKILL.md documents OPENCLAW_SNAPSHOT_DIR but not these two optional overrides. This is a minor documentation mismatch (the variables are plausible override hooks) but worth noting.

Install Mechanism

There is no install spec and no external downloads. The skill is instruction-only with included scripts; no network-based installation or archive extraction from remote URLs is present.

Credentials

The skill requests no credentials and no privileged environment access. It relies on standard environment variables and the user's $HOME. It will read and bundle whatever is in the source directory (by default ~/.openclaw), which is expected for a backup utility.

Persistence & Privilege

always is false and the skill does not request persistent global privileges or modify other skills. It writes a local config.env in the skill directory when using set_backup_dir.sh, which is consistent with the described configuration model.

Assessment

This skill appears to do what it says: bundle ~/.openclaw into portable tar.gz archives and restore them with integrity checks. Before installing or running: 1) inspect any existing ~/.openclaw contents you plan to bundle (backups will include those files); 2) be aware the scripts will read $HOME and may be influenced by optional environment overrides (OPENCLAW_SOURCE_DIR, OPENCLAW_RESTORE_TARGET, and the documented OPENCLAW_SNAPSHOT_* variables); 3) set the backup directory to an absolute path you control (use set_backup_dir.sh) so backups are stored where you expect; and 4) note that the 'restore' flow is conservative (checksums, rejects symlinks/special files, and requires manual execution of the restore.sh inside an extracted bundle). The only issue to address is a documentation gap: the scripts accept a couple of extra optional environment variables not listed in SKILL.md — that's not malicious but worth noting.

OpenClaw Backup

Use this skill as the unified backup and restore entrypoint for ~/.openclaw.

Main commands

Create a backup bundle:

bash scripts/create_backup.sh

List existing bundles:

bash scripts/list_backups.sh

Show current configuration and effective values:

bash scripts/show_config.sh

Change the default backup directory:

bash scripts/set_backup_dir.sh /absolute/path

Select a bundle, audit it, extract it, and print the restore command:

bash scripts/select_and_restore.sh

Bundle format

Each backup is a self-contained tar.gz bundle with this structure:

occt7pkbak-YYYYMMDD-HHMMSS/
├── .openclaw/
├── restore.sh
├── manifest.txt
└── SHA256SUMS

The bundled restore.sh is the primary restore path.

Public defaults vs local overrides

Public default path:

~/backups/openclaw-snapshots

Local/private setups can override that path in two ways:

• environment variable: OPENCLAW_SNAPSHOT_DIR
• local config file: config.env

Configuration model

This skill keeps long-term local defaults in config.env.

Current configurable values:

• OPENCLAW_SNAPSHOT_DIR
• OPENCLAW_SNAPSHOT_PREFIX
• OPENCLAW_SNAPSHOT_KEEP

Priority order is:

• command-line flags
• skill config file (config.env)
• OPENCLAW_SNAPSHOT_* environment variables
• built-in defaults

Important: in the current design, values stored in config.env override same-name environment variables. If you want a one-off override, prefer command-line flags such as --out-dir.

show_config.sh shows stored config values, environment values, and final effective values.

CLI notes

Primary CLI flag for backup location:

• --out-dir

Compatibility alias still accepted:

• --backup-dir

Safety model

• integrity verification is mandatory during restore
• symbolic links and special files are rejected
• tar entries are audited before extraction, including hard-link rejection
• dangerous target paths are rejected
• the restore target basename must match the bundled source basename, normally .openclaw
• the bundle is portable across environments; restore uses the current runtime target path rather than a build-time HOME lock
• do not rename the extracted bundle root before running restore.sh