CowAgent can create a portable local archive for migration or disaster recovery.
Create a backup
The archive contains:
config.json- Agent persona and user files such as
AGENT.md, USER.md, and MEMORY.md
- Daily memory, session history, knowledge, custom skills, and scheduled tasks in the configured workspace
- Legacy
user_datas.pkl, when present
Transient tmp/ data, caches, Git metadata, and symbolic links are skipped. The
archive is written with owner-only permissions where the operating system
supports them.
A backup may contain API keys, conversation history, and other personal data.
Store and transfer it as a secret. The ZIP file is not encrypted.
Restore a backup
Stop CowAgent before restoring:
Use --workspace to migrate workspace files to a different location:
Restore validates the archive format and paths before writing anything. It
overwrites matching files but does not delete unrelated files already present
at the destination. When current CowAgent data exists, the command first
creates a cow-pre-restore-*.zip rollback archive beside the selected backup.
For unattended scripts, pass --yes to acknowledge overwrites. 