Backup & Restore

abtars provides automated backups and restore for disaster recovery and machine migration.

Creating a backup

abtars backup

Output (in ~/.backup-abtars/):

• abtars-YYYY-MM-DD.zip — full system backup (config + data + abmind tree)
• abmind-YYYY-MM-DD.abm — encrypted memory backup

Modes

Command	What's backed up
abtars backup	Everything minus binaries + encrypted memory (.abm)
abtars backup --config	Config dirs only (lightweight, no memory)

Flags

Flag	Description
--config	Config-only mode (fast, small)
--encrypt	Encrypt the zip using abmind.key (AES-256-GCM)
--output <dir>	Custom output directory (default: ~/.backup-abtars/)
--prune-days N	Retention period in days (default: 7, 0 = no prune)

Full backup includes

Everything in ~/.abtars/ except binaries and runtime:

• config/ — transport.json, models.json, users.json, peers.json, IRC config
• secret/ — API keys and tokens
• skills/ — core, custom, self-created, downloaded
• core/ — prompts, personality, skills catalog
• agents/ — sub-agent definitions
• tasks/ — task definitions and scheduled entries
• state/ — runtime state
• workspace/ — agent working directory
• scripts/ — deploy scripts

Plus ~/.abmind/ tree (excluding raw DB) and a WAL-safe copy of memory.db.

Full backup excludes

• releases/, current/, bin/, app/ — rebuilt by abtars update
• logs/ — ephemeral
• node_modules/ — dependency cache
• Runtime files: *.sock, *.db-wal, *.db-shm, bridge.lock, watchdog.lock

Config-only backup includes

• config/, secret/, tasks/, skills/, core/, agents/

No memory, no abmind, no workspace. Filename: abtars-config-YYYY-MM-DD.zip.

Encryption

The .abm file is always encrypted (AES-256-GCM via abmind.key). The .zip is plaintext by default — use --encrypt to protect it:

abtars backup --encrypt

Requires ~/.abmind/secret/abmind.key to exist (created during abmind install).

Restoring from backup

abtars restore <file>

Auto-detects file type and does the right thing:

Input file	Behavior
.zip / .7z	Extract to ~/.abtars/ + find sibling .abm → restore memory too
.abm	Delegate to abmind restore --mode merge
.enc	Restore sibling .abm first (creates key) → decrypt → extract

Flags

Flag	Description
--config	Restore zip only, skip abmind memory
--passphrase <p>	Passed to abmind restore (only needed on fresh machine without key file)

Sibling detection

Backup produces paired files: abtars-2026-06-05.zip + abmind-2026-06-05.abm. On restore, abtars finds the matching .abm by date in the same directory and restores both automatically.

Examples

# Restore everything (same machine — key file exists)
abtars restore ~/.backup-abtars/abtars-2026-06-05.zip

# Config only (skip memory)
abtars restore ~/.backup-abtars/abtars-config-2026-06-05.zip --config

# Restore encrypted backup on fresh machine
abtars restore ~/abtars-2026-06-05.zip.enc --passphrase "my-passphrase"

# Restore just memory
abtars restore ~/.backup-abtars/abmind-2026-06-05.abm

Disaster recovery (fresh machine)

# 1. Install
npm install -g abtars abmind
abmind install --non-interactive --passphrase "your-passphrase"
abtars install
abtars update

# 2. Restore
abtars restore ~/path/to/abtars-2026-06-05.zip
# ↑ automatically restores sibling .abm too (key recreated from passphrase during abmind install)

# 3. Start
abtars restart --cold

Same machine recovery (wiped data)

abtars install --force
abtars update
abtars restore ~/.backup-abtars/abtars-2026-06-05.zip
abtars restart --cold

Retention

Old backups are auto-pruned after 7 days (configurable with --prune-days). For long-term retention, copy backups off-machine or to cloud storage.