NemoClawWorkspace and state files define your agent’s personality, memory, user context, and durable runtime state. They persist across sandbox restarts but are permanently deleted when you destroy the sandbox.
This guide covers snapshot commands, manual backup with CLI commands, and an automated script.
nemoclaw <name> destroyThe fastest way to back up and restore sandbox state is with the built-in snapshot commands.
Snapshots capture all workspace state directories defined in the agent manifest and store them in ~/.nemoclaw/rebuild-backups/<name>/.
Agent manifests may also declare durable top-level state files. For Hermes,
snapshots include SOUL.md and the SQLite database behind .hermes/state.db
using SQLite’s online backup API, then restore that database through SQLite
instead of copying a live raw database file.
Treat snapshot directories as private local data: the Hermes database can
contain session metadata and message history needed for a faithful restore.
snapshot list prints a table of version, name, timestamp, and path. Versions (v1, v2, …, vN) are computed from the timestamp order, so vN is always the newest snapshot.
To tag a snapshot with a human-readable label, pass --name:
To restore a specific snapshot instead of the latest, pass a version, name, or timestamp prefix:
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:
The nemoclaw <name> rebuild command uses the same snapshot mechanism automatically.
Snapshot restore performs a targeted repair for legacy .openclaw-data symlinks that were created by older images.
Unsafe symlinks and hard links inside sandbox state are rejected during backup creation before they can enter a snapshot.
For full details, see the Commands reference.
Use openshell sandbox download to copy files from the sandbox to your host.
Use openshell sandbox upload to push files back into a sandbox.
The repository includes a convenience script at scripts/backup-workspace.sh.
Restore from the most recent backup:
Restore from a specific timestamp:
List backed-up files to confirm completeness:
When OpenClaw is configured with multiple named agents, each agent has its own
workspace directory (workspace-main/, workspace-support/, workspace-ops/,
and so on — see Multi-Agent Deployments).
nemoclaw <name> snapshot create automatically discovers every workspace-*/
directory under the sandbox state tree and includes it in the snapshot bundle
alongside the default workspace/. snapshot restore re-applies the full
per-agent set. No manual per-workspace backup pattern is needed.
The sandbox entrypoint ensures every per-agent workspace lives directly under
the persistent .openclaw/ tree, so state also survives openshell sandbox restart.
Files that operators typically want consistent across every per-agent workspace
(AGENTS.md, shared skills, common templates) are not synced automatically.
Each workspace is independent; changes in one don’t propagate. Operators that
need this either copy the shared files explicitly to each workspace after
editing, or maintain a host-side sync layer. Tracking shared-file tooling
(shared mount, workspaces list command) in
#1260.