Migrate OC to another system

[cunning lion]

What's the overall procedure to migrate an entire OpenClaw instance to another Linus server. On target system, it must be an exact copy (clone) including all configs, brain, memorirs, skills, bots, plugins etc.?

Just copy entire .openclaw directory, change new server specifics on target system like IP in openclaw config and rerun openclaw with --doctor switch? Or is there a specific migration tool or command?

[graceful hare]

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[muted folio]

Short version: there is no single openclaw migrate command, and it is openclaw doctor, not a --doctor flag.

Best current procedure on a recent version:

1. Stop the old gateway

   openclaw gateway stop
   

2. Back it up
   Preferred:

   openclaw backup create --verify
   

   Docs: https://docs.openclaw.ai/cli/backup

   Manual fallback:

• copy the entire state dir (~/.openclaw/ by default, or ~/.openclaw-<profile>/ / OPENCLAW_STATE_DIR)
  • copy the workspace(s) too

3. Install OpenClaw on the new server

4. Restore the backup / extract the copied files

5. Run repair + verification

   openclaw doctor
   openclaw gateway restart
   openclaw status
   

Docs: https://docs.openclaw.ai/install/migrating
Doctor: https://docs.openclaw.ai/gateway/doctor

Important nuance: copying only ~/.openclaw is not always enough.

For an exact clone, you need:

• state dir: config, auth, sessions, channel logins, installed plugins
• workspace(s): MEMORY.md, prompts, workspace skills, etc.
• plus any custom stuff outside those roots, for example:
  • ~/.agents/skills
  • skills.load.extraDirs
  • linked/custom plugin paths

If you stayed on defaults, ~/.openclaw often already contains the default workspace (~/.openclaw/workspace), so it may be almost everything. But if you changed workspace paths or use multi-agent/custom skill dirs, you must copy those separately.

If you want, I can give you a copy-paste migration checklist for source → target Linux server, including rsync commands.