Manage SandboxesState and Backups

Create and Restore Snapshots

View as Markdown

NemoClaw snapshots preserve manifest-defined sandbox state before destructive or state-changing operations. They are the preferred backup and restore path.

When to Create a Snapshot

  • Before running nemo-deepagents <name> destroy.
  • Before major NemoClaw version upgrades.
  • Periodically, if you have invested time customizing Deep Agents skills, memory, or managed MCP state.

Understand Snapshot Contents

Snapshots capture the manifest-declared snapshot state directories and store them in ~/.nemoclaw/rebuild-backups/<name>/. Agent manifests can also declare durable top-level state files. Treat snapshot directories as private local data.

Before NemoClaw marks a snapshot complete, it strips recognized credential values from copied JSON, YAML, and .env files. It preserves OpenShell credential placeholders so rebuild can reattach the host-side provider. If NemoClaw cannot sanitize a copied configuration or environment file, it omits that file from the snapshot. If it cannot remove the unsafe file, snapshot creation returns an error. It deletes the incomplete backup when cleanup succeeds and reports when the backup remains. This sanitization uses an isolated python3 helper on POSIX hosts to keep reads, replacements, and removals anchored to opened directory descriptors. If a copied file or parent directory changes identity during the operation, snapshot creation fails closed instead of following the changed path.

Deep Agents snapshots include manifest-declared state under /sandbox/.deepagents, including skills and runtime state, while omitting credential-bearing user files. NemoClaw refuses to create a snapshot when it detects an active dcode task or cannot verify that the Deep Agents state tree is idle.

Wait for active dcode work to finish before running nemo-deepagents <name> snapshot create.

Snapshots preserve sandbox registry metadata that affects rebuild behavior, including custom policy presets applied with policy add --from-file or policy add --from-dir and baseline network policy entries excluded with policy exclude. When you restore a snapshot, NemoClaw replays those recorded custom presets with their stored YAML content, so you do not need the original preset files on disk, and rebuild continues to apply the recorded baseline exclusions.

The target sandbox’s current agent manifest remains authoritative for directory and state-file restore behavior. NemoClaw rejects the restore when the snapshot’s agent, config directory, any snapshot directory, state-file path, or state-file strategy conflicts with that manifest. Restore limits directory cleanup to state directories authorized by both the snapshot and the current manifest. It preserves target-only directories and directories whose backup failed.

For managed images, NemoClaw applies the current manifest’s managed config merge rules by default and does not fall back to whole-file replacement. For Deep Agents targets, whole-file config replacement is limited to sandboxes created from a custom Dockerfile.

Create and List Snapshots

$nemo-deepagents my-assistant snapshot create
$nemo-deepagents my-assistant snapshot list

snapshot list prints a table of version, name, timestamp, and path. NemoClaw computes versions (v1, v2, through vN) from timestamp order, so vN is always the newest snapshot.

snapshot create requires shields to be down. Snapshot creation and restore share the per-sandbox transition lock with the shields auto-restore timer.

If a timed shields-down window expires during snapshot work, the deadline gate blocks new mutations and waits for the exact snapshot owner to finish without signaling it. Snapshot work does not bypass recovery for an expired shields-down window. If a state-directory failure prevents gate publication, normal mutation-lock acquisition also fails. If recovery reports a state-directory failure, correct it and run nemo-deepagents <name> shields status. Durable containment or retained exact gates keep new mutations blocked until you complete exact-generation recovery. If the command reports exact-generation recovery guidance, stop all NemoClaw processes for the sandbox and follow that guidance before you rerun nemo-deepagents <name> snapshot create.

Tag a snapshot with a human-readable label:

$nemo-deepagents my-assistant snapshot create --name before-upgrade

When a directory or state file cannot be captured, snapshot create reports the failed items, removes the incomplete snapshot, and exits nonzero. snapshot list shows no new entry, so a later restore cannot select a capture that never completed. If removal fails, the command reports the listed snapshot path. Remove that directory manually before you run snapshot restore because the incomplete capture remains selectable.

Restore a Snapshot

Restore the latest snapshot:

$nemo-deepagents my-assistant snapshot restore

Pass an exact version, name, or timestamp to select a specific snapshot. Use the exact timestamp from snapshot list; a timestamp prefix does not select a snapshot.

$nemo-deepagents my-assistant snapshot restore v3
$nemo-deepagents my-assistant snapshot restore before-upgrade
$nemo-deepagents my-assistant snapshot restore 2026-04-14T09-40-09-760Z

Post-restore policy reconciliation is best-effort. NemoClaw warns and continues the remaining restore steps in these cases:

  • NemoClaw cannot verify whether a custom policy owns the live observability-otlp-local policy entry.
  • The built-in observability-otlp-local policy preset has drifted or cannot be inspected.
  • NemoClaw cannot add or remove a recorded policy preset.

The live network policy can then retain unwanted egress or omit expected egress until you repair the named preset. After a warning, run nemo-deepagents <name> policy list. Confirm that the named preset is recorded in the sandbox registry and active on the gateway, or absent from both.

To clone a snapshot into a different sandbox name, pass --to <name>. If the destination sandbox already exists, NemoClaw refuses to overwrite it unless you pass --force:

$nemo-deepagents my-assistant snapshot restore before-upgrade --to my-assistant-clone
$nemo-deepagents my-assistant snapshot restore before-upgrade --to my-assistant-clone --force --yes

Cross-sandbox restore from a stopped source is available for Docker- and VM-driver sandboxes. For a stopped source, its registry entry must record both the sandbox image and a complete inference route; NemoClaw creates the destination from the recorded image. NemoClaw stops before creating or replacing the destination when either record is missing, and directs you to run nemo-deepagents onboard when no image is recorded. For a Kubernetes-driver source, the pod image must remain resolvable through its gateway.

For dashboard-enabled agents, NemoClaw allocates the destination sandbox its own dashboard port instead of reusing the source port. If no port is available, restore stops before deleting an existing --force destination.

The force-overwrite path restores and verifies lockdown on a destination with an active shields timer, then revokes that timer before it deletes the destination. It clears the remaining local shields state only after deletion succeeds, before a same-name replacement is created.

Restore Agent Configuration Safely

The nemo-deepagents <name> rebuild command uses the same snapshot mechanism automatically. NemoClaw rejects unsafe symlinks and hard links inside sandbox state during backup creation before they can enter a snapshot.

Excluded Deep Agents State

Credential-bearing Deep Agents files such as .deepagents/.env and user-authored .deepagents/.mcp.json are intentionally excluded from snapshots. Deep Agents auth state files such as .deepagents/.state/auth.json and .deepagents/.state/chatgpt-auth.json are also excluded because the managed launcher refuses to start when upstream credential state is present.

The managed .deepagents/.nemoclaw-mcp.json projection and hooks.json are excluded because NemoClaw reconstructs managed MCP state and disables executable Deep Agents Code hooks in the managed harness. NemoClaw recreates the current inference route headers, models and update tables, managed MCP projection state, and provider credentials from host-side onboarding and OpenShell provider state during rebuild.

Restore Managed Deep Agents Configuration

For a NemoClaw-managed Deep Agents image, NemoClaw restores only the allowlisted ui.show_scrollbar, ui.show_url_open_toast, threads.relative_time, and threads.sort_order preferences from the previous config.toml when their values pass validation. Unknown, runtime-controlled, executable, and security-sensitive backup keys are dropped instead of replacing freshly generated settings on that managed path.

A Deep Agents target created from a custom Dockerfile restores config.toml as a whole file because the custom image owns its config schema. On the managed key-level restore path, malformed config, missing managed data, an unsafe link, or an unsafe file replacement fails the restore without falling back to a whole-file copy.

Validate Before Replacement

Before a Deep Agents rebuild changes the sandbox, NemoClaw verifies the recorded inference route, provider, model, reasoning settings, web search selection, base image, and policy inputs. If a late check fails, NemoClaw restores the previous MCP state and keeps the existing sandbox intact.

Back Up Every Registered Sandbox

Run nemo-deepagents backup-all before broad maintenance such as nemo-deepagents update, nemo-deepagents upgrade-sandboxes, or an OpenShell gateway migration.

$nemo-deepagents backup-all

backup-all walks the sandboxes registered on the host, creates a snapshot for each eligible running or temporarily started sandbox, and stores the snapshot bundles under ~/.nemoclaw/rebuild-backups/<name>/. If a registered docker-driver sandbox’s container is stopped, backup-all starts the container for the duration of the backup and returns it to its stopped state afterward. If the container cannot be returned to the stopped state, the backup run fails and reports that the container was left running. If a sandbox is not running and its container cannot be started this way, start the sandbox or its container and rerun nemo-deepagents backup-all.

For each eligible sandbox, backup-all holds one lifecycle transaction through the complete backup. Within that transaction, it starts a stopped container when required, opens a 30-minute shields-down window when the sandbox starts with Shields up, copies sandbox state, restores the previous Shields state, and returns any container it started to the stopped state. A sandbox that starts with Shields down remains down. If the timer expires during the transaction, the deadline gate blocks new mutations and waits for the exact backup owner to finish without signaling it. An initial lock or unlock failure marks that sandbox as failed, and backup-all continues with the next sandbox. NemoClaw attempts to restore the previous Shields state before it processes the next sandbox, including when the backup fails. If lockdown cannot be restored, backup-all stops and does not process the remaining sandboxes. Correct the reported issue, run the printed nemo-deepagents <name> shields up command, and rerun nemo-deepagents backup-all.

When a backup fails, NemoClaw identifies the affected state item and reports permission denied, tar read error, or absent after extraction when available. Use nemo-deepagents <name> snapshot list and nemo-deepagents <name> snapshot restore to inspect or restore one sandbox’s bundles later.