How to move OpenClaw to a new computer without losing your agent

What has to come with it

The agent you talk to is spread across more than its memory file. OpenClaw’s migration guide lists what a move has to carry: the configuration, the model sign-ins and API keys, the conversation history, the chat connections (the WhatsApp login, the Telegram session), and the workspace with MEMORY.md, USER.md, SOUL.md, skills and prompts. Current versions keep much of that in SQLite databases rather than plain files, so copying openclaw.json and a few Markdown files across gives you an agent with the right name and none of its sign-ins, history or connections. The backup command collects all of it into one archive.

Some things the agent depends on live outside OpenClaw entirely: programs it installed for itself, scheduled jobs set up in the computer’s own scheduler rather than in OpenClaw, SSH keys, a Tailscale login, a browser profile with your sign-ins. Ask the agent before the move what it has installed or set up outside its workspace, and keep the list.

The move, step by step

On the old computer, check where the state lives and which version you run, then stop the agent and back it up:

openclaw status
openclaw --version
openclaw gateway stop
mkdir -p ~/Backups/openclaw
openclaw backup create --output ~/Backups/openclaw --verify

Stopping first matters for a move: the backup can copy a running agent safely, but anything the agent does after the copy would be left behind. Move the .tar.gz by scp, a USB drive or another private route; it contains every key the agent holds, so it does not go through email or a public file-sharing link.

On the new computer, install OpenClaw at the same version as the old one, or newer. A newer version moves the data to its own format on first start; an older one refuses data from a newer one. Onboarding may create a fresh ~/.openclaw; that is fine, the restore replaces it. Then unpack the archive into an empty folder:

openclaw backup restore ~/openclaw-backup.tar.gz --target ~/openclaw-restored

The restore checks the archive and writes nothing into the live agent. With the Gateway stopped, move the restored state into place (or point OPENCLAW_STATE_DIR at it), using the manifest.json inside to see where the configuration, credentials and workspace go. From a Mac to Linux the home folder changes, from /Users/you to /home/you, so map each part to its new path rather than copying the old ones. Make sure the user who will run the Gateway owns the files, then:

openclaw doctor
openclaw gateway start
openclaw status

Check what the migration guide checks: the Gateway is running, the channels are connected without pairing again, the dashboard shows your past conversations, and the agent knows who you are. Ask it something only it would remember.

Only one of them may run

The old and new Gateway are the same agent with the same credentials. Left running together, they compete: Telegram hands each message to only one of them and rejects the other’s connection, a WhatsApp login can be signed out, and scheduled jobs run twice. Keep the old Gateway stopped, and switch off whatever would start it again: a login item or LaunchAgent on a Mac, a system service on Linux. Once the new one has run for a few days, uninstall OpenClaw from the old computer and delete its old backups along with it.

What usually needs doing again

• Plugins. The archive keeps their settings, not their installed code. Reinstall or update each one (openclaw plugins update <id>).
• WhatsApp. Its login carries state that changes with use, and an older copy can fall out of step. If the agent stops receiving WhatsApp messages, link it again from the dashboard.
• Telegram or Discord tokens kept in an environment file. If the old setup read TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN or DISCORD_BOT_TOKEN from an .env file, check that the restored state directory’s .env has them; openclaw doctor warns when one is missing.
• A profile or custom state folder. If the old Gateway ran with --profile or OPENCLAW_STATE_DIR, the new one must too, or the channels look logged out and the history looks empty.
• Anything only a Mac can do. iMessage needs a Mac signed into Messages, so an agent leaving a Mac mini for a Linux server leaves iMessage behind, or keeps that Mac as a node for it.

When your old host has closed

Three managed OpenClaw hosts have closed in 2026, and what their owners can still save differs:

• KiloClaw runs until its retirement on 20 October 2026; saving your agent from KiloClaw covers the dashboard export and the fuller backup to ask your agent for.
• Klaus shut on 1 September 2026, and its in-app export closed with it. Klaus’s closing page says an export taken before then includes a recovery prompt: paste it into your new OpenClaw and it restores the workspace, skills and chat history, then walks you through reconnecting Slack, Telegram and WhatsApp. Without an export, the page asks you to email support@klausai.com.
• American Claw is winding down with all memberships cancelled, and its notice gives no export route. Its terms deleted an instance’s data at the end of the billing period, so plan on a fresh agent, rebuilt from whatever you kept.

Starting fresh is less of a loss than it sounds if you saved the Markdown files: an agent’s personality and memory live in SOUL.md, USER.md and MEMORY.md, which any new OpenClaw reads from its workspace. Keeping your agent’s personality and memory in files covers what each one holds.

From a Mac mini to the cloud

The usual reason to move is the computer rather than the agent: a Mac mini at home sleeps, loses power, and needs its updates and backups run by you. A VPS keeps the agent running when your home internet drops, with the same backup and restore as above, and you take on the server. If you would rather not run any computer for it, managed OpenClaw hosts take the machine off your hands; before you choose one, ask whether it can take in an existing agent from an OpenClaw backup, since not every host lets you reach the place the restore needs to go.