Time Machine for AI — encrypted backup, restore, and migration for AI agent state

Listed September 26, 2026 · Last updated October 23, 2026

⚡ SaveState

Your AI's memory. Yours.

The portable, encrypted memory layer for every AI you use.

ChatGPT keeps your memory. Claude keeps your memory. Gemini keeps your memory. You don't. SaveState fixes that.

The Problem

Every AI you use is building a model of you — your preferences, history, projects, voice. Each platform locks that memory up in its own silo. There is no portability, no audit trail, no encryption boundary the user controls. If a service changes its API, you switch platforms, or your account is suspended, everything that AI learned about you is gone.

Worse: even within a single platform, "memory" is shallow. 1M-token context windows don't fix it — research shows reliable recall drops below 50% past 256K. Your assistant forgets what you told it last month.

The Solution

SaveState is the cross-platform memory layer you control. One encrypted, searchable, portable archive for everything your AIs know about you.

export SAVESTATE_PASSPHRASE="your-passphrase"   # required, 8+ characters; never stored
npx @savestate/cli init                          # one-time: encryption + storage
npx @savestate/cli snapshot                      # capture state from any platform
npx @savestate/cli search "cocktail recs"        # full-text across every snapshot
npx @savestate/cli search "cocktail recs" --offset 20 --limit 20  # next result page
npx @savestate/cli restore latest --to claude    # move state between platforms
npx @savestate/cli mcp                           # serve memory to Claude Code / Cursor / Codex

Think of it as 1Password for AI identity: your data, encrypted with your keys, portable across every platform — backup is just one of the things you can do with it.

Features

🔐 Encrypted at rest — AES-256-GCM with scrypt key derivation. Your keys, your data.
📦 Open archive format — The SaveState Archive Format (SAF) is an open spec. No vendor lock-in.
🔌 Platform adapters — Works with ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Clawdbot, OpenAI Assistants, and more.
📊 Incremental — Like git — only captures what changed. Full history, tiny storage.
💾 Flexible storage — Local filesystem (free) or SaveState Cloud (Pro/Team).
⏰ Scheduled backups — Set it and forget it. Auto-snapshot on your schedule.
🖥️ CLI-first — Built for developers, with a web dashboard for Pro and Team plans.

Quick Start

# Install globally. The package name is @savestate/cli.
# `npm install -g savestate` and `npx savestate` are not published (npm E404).
npm install -g @savestate/cli

# Passphrase is required for snapshot and restore (at least 8 characters).
# init does not prompt when stdin is not a terminal, and it never stores this value.
export SAVESTATE_PASSPHRASE="your-passphrase"

# Initialize in your AI workspace (a Claude Code project with CLAUDE.md works)
cd ~/my-ai-workspace
savestate init

# Save the project
savestate snapshot --label first

# List snapshots
savestate list

# After CLAUDE.md changes, put the saved copy back.
# The edited file is kept as CLAUDE.md.bak.
savestate restore latest

Supported Platforms

Platform	Extract	Restore	Status
OpenClaw / Clawdbot / Moltbot	✅	✅	Full support
OpenAI Assistants API	✅	✅	Available
Claude Code	✅	✅	Available
ChatGPT	✅	⚠️ Partial	Available
Claude (consumer)	✅	⚠️ Partial	Available
Gemini	✅	⚠️ Limited	Available
Cursor	✅	✅	Community (v0.1.0)
Windsurf	✅	✅	Community (v0.1.0)

OpenClaw Full Backup (v0.3.0+)

The OpenClaw adapter captures your complete agent state:

Component	What's Captured
Identity	SOUL.md, USER.md, AGENTS.md, TOOLS.md, IDENTITY.md
Memory	MEMORY.md, memory/*.md, memory SQLite databases
Skills	All SKILL.md files + scripts
Scripts	personal-scripts/, cron-wrappers/
Extensions	Extension configs
Conversations	All session JSONL files (1000+ sessions)
Gateway Config	openclaw.json (agent defs, models, routing)
Cron Jobs	Scheduled tasks and behaviors
Channel State	Telegram offsets, message continuity
Device Identity	Device pairing, node relationships

# Full backup including semantic memory DBs
savestate snapshot

# Include credentials (channel auth tokens)
savestate snapshot --include-credentials

# Backup specific agent only
savestate snapshot --agent-id main

Community adapters welcome! See Contributing.

Architecture

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                  SaveState CLI                    │
│    init · snapshot · restore · list · diff         │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│              Adapter Layer                        │
│   clawdbot · chatgpt · claude · openai · custom   │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│              Core Engine                          │
│   snapshot · restore · diff · format              │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│              Encryption Layer                     │
│   AES-256-GCM · scrypt KDF · integrity check     │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│              Storage Backends                     │
│   local · s3 · r2 · b2 · filesystem              │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

SaveState Archive Format (SAF)

Each snapshot produces a .saf.enc file:

snapshot.saf.enc (encrypted)
  └── snapshot.tar.gz
       ├── manifest.json           # Version, platform, timestamp, checksum
       ├── identity/
       │   ├── personality.md      # System prompt, SOUL, custom instructions
       │   ├── config.json         # Settings, preferences
       │   └── tools.json          # Tool/plugin configurations
       ├── memory/
       │   ├── core.json           # Platform memory entries
       │   └── knowledge/          # Uploaded docs, RAG sources
       ├── conversations/
       │   ├── index.json          # Conversation list with metadata
       │   └── threads/            # Individual conversation exports
       ├── trace/                  # Askable Echoes trace ledger (optional)
       │   ├── index.json          # Run index + trace schema version
       │   └── runs/               # One JSONL file per run
       └── meta/
           ├── platform.json       # Source platform details
           ├── snapshot-chain.json # Incremental snapshot chain
           └── restore-hints.json  # Platform-specific restore steps

Encryption

User passphrase
    → scrypt (N=2^17, r=8, p=1) key derivation
    → 256-bit AES key
    → AES-256-GCM authenticated encryption
    → Integrity verification built into GCM auth tag

Your master key is never stored — it's derived from your passphrase each time. Data is encrypted before it leaves your machine.

CLI Reference

savestate init                        Initialize SaveState in current directory
savestate snapshot                    Capture current AI state
  -l, --label <label>                Label for the snapshot
  -t, --tags <tags>                  Comma-separated tags
  -a, --adapter <adapter>            Adapter to use
  -s, --schedule <interval>          Auto-snapshot interval (e.g., 6h)
savestate restore [snapshot-id]       Restore from a snapshot (default: latest)
  --to <platform>                    Restore to different platform
  --dry-run                          Preview without making changes
  --include <categories>             Only restore specific categories
  --tag <tag>                        Restore the newest snapshot with this tag
  --label <label>                    Restore the newest snapshot with this label
savestate list                        List all snapshots
  --json                             Output as JSON
  --oldest-first                     Show snapshots from oldest to newest
  --platform <id>                    Only snapshots recorded from this platform
  --adapter <id>                     Only snapshots recorded by this adapter
  --exclude <ids>                    Exclude snapshots from comma-separated adapters
  --since <date>                     Only snapshots taken after an ISO 8601 date
  --until <date>                     Only snapshots taken before an ISO 8601 date
  --snapshot <id>                    Show one snapshot by ID
  --tag <tag>                        Only snapshots with this tag
  --label <label>                    Only snapshots with this label
  --reverse                          Alias for --oldest-first
  --limit <n>                        Max snapshots to show
  --offset <n>                       Skip snapshots before applying --limit
savestate search <query>              Search across snapshot contents
  --type <types>                     Limit to memory, conversation, identity, or knowledge
  --exclude <types>                  Skip memory, conversation, identity, or knowledge
  --since <date>                     Only search snapshots taken after an ISO 8601 date
  --until <date>                     Only search snapshots taken before an ISO 8601 date
  --snapshot <id>                    Search within one snapshot
  --adapter <id>                     Only search snapshots from this adapter
  --tag <tag>                        Only search snapshots with this tag
  --label <label>                    Only search snapshots with this label
  --offset <n>                       Skip ranked results before applying --limit
  --limit <n>                        Max results to show (default 20)
  --json                             Output results as JSON

Search results are ranked consistently across snapshots, so `--offset` can be
combined with `--limit` to page through results. Both values are bounded to
1000; the default page size is 20.
savestate diff <a> <b>                Compare two snapshots
savestate config                      View/edit configuration
  --set <key=value>                  Set a config value
  --json                             Output as JSON
savestate adapters                    List available adapters
savestate schedule                    Configure auto-backups (Pro/Team)
  --every <interval>                 Backup interval (1h, 6h, 12h, 1d)
  --disable                          Disable scheduled backups
  --status                           Show schedule status
  --json                             Output as JSON
savestate migrate                     Migration wizard between platforms
  --from <platform>                  Source platform
  --to <platform>                    Target platform
  --list                             Show platform capabilities
  --json                             Output the --list catalog as JSON
  --dry-run                          Preview migration plan
savestate export                      Export an encrypted agent container
  -a, --agent <id>                   Agent ID to export
  -o, --output <file>                Output file path
  --dry-run                          Preview without writing
  --force                            Overwrite an existing output file
  --include <paths>                  Only pack named state paths
  -p, --passphrase <pass>            Passphrase, or SAVESTATE_PASSPHRASE / prompt
  -k, --keyfile <path>               Keyfile instead of a passphrase; empty path, missing file, directory, or file with no contents is rejected before encrypting
                                     Prints load, encrypt, and write byte sizes
savestate import <file>               Import an encrypted agent container
  --dry-run                          Preview without restoring
  -p, --passphrase <pass>            Passphrase, or SAVESTATE_PASSPHRASE / prompt
  -k, --keyfile <path>               Keyfile instead of a passphrase; empty path, missing file, directory, or file with no contents is rejected before decrypting
  --target <dir>                     Write restored agent state to this directory; missing parent directory is rejected before restoring
  --force                            Overwrite an existing target file
                                     Prints read, decrypt, verify, and restore progress
savestate verify <file>               Verify a .savestate file and list components
  -p, --passphrase <pass>            Passphrase for verification
  -k, --keyfile <path>               Keyfile for verification; empty path, missing file, directory, or file with no contents is rejected before decrypting
  --json                             Output as JSON
                                     Prints checksum, size, content type, encryption, and key derivation
                                     (including when the container has no agent_state payload)

savestate trace list                  List Askable Echoes trace runs
  --json                             Output as JSON
  --offset <n>                       Skip the first N runs (0–1000)
  --limit <n>                        Max runs to show (1–1000)
savestate trace show <run_id>         Show events for a trace run
  --json                             Output as JSON
  --offset <n>                       Skip the first N events (0–1000)
  --limit <n>                        Max events to show (1–1000)
savestate trace export                Export trace as JSONL (stdout)
  --run <id>                         Export only a specific run
  --format jsonl                     Export format
  --offset <n>                       Skip the first N runs (0–1000)
  --limit <n>                        Max runs to export (1–1000)

Storage

Local Storage (Free)

# Default — snapshots stored in ~/.savestate/
savestate config --set storage.type=local

# Custom path (e.g., Dropbox, iCloud sync folder)
savestate config --set storage.options.path=~/Dropbox/savestate

Cloud Storage (Pro/Team)

Cloud storage is managed through the SaveState API with server-side subscription verification:

# Authenticate first
savestate login

# Push local snapshots to cloud
savestate cloud push              # Push latest snapshot
savestate cloud push --all        # Push all snapshots

# Pull snapshots from cloud
savestate cloud pull              # Pull latest
savestate cloud pull --id abc123  # Pull specific snapshot

# List cloud snapshots
savestate cloud list              # Shows usage stats

Cloud storage quotas:

Pro ($9/mo): 10 GB
Team ($29/mo): 100 GB

All data is encrypted locally before upload. Zero-knowledge by design.

Contributing

SaveState is open source. We welcome contributions!

Building from source

git clone https://github.com/savestatedev/savestate.git
cd savestate
npm install
npm run build
node dist/cli.js --help

Creating an adapter

Adapters implement the Adapter interface:

import type { Adapter, Snapshot, PlatformMeta } from 'savestate';

export class MyAdapter implements Adapter {
  readonly id = 'my-platform';
  readonly name = 'My Platform';
  readonly platform = 'my-platform';
  readonly version = '0.1.0';

  async detect(): Promise<boolean> { /* ... */ }
  async extract(): Promise<Snapshot> { /* ... */ }
  async restore(snapshot: Snapshot): Promise<void> { /* ... */ }
  async identify(): Promise<PlatformMeta> { /* ... */ }
}

Publish as @savestate/adapter-<name> on npm for auto-discovery.

Project structure

src/
├── cli.ts              # CLI entry point (commander)
├── index.ts            # Public API
├── types.ts            # All TypeScript interfaces
├── encryption.ts       # AES-256-GCM encryption
├── format.ts           # SAF archive packing/unpacking
├── config.ts           # Configuration management
├── snapshot.ts         # Snapshot creation
├── restore.ts          # Snapshot restoration
├── commands/           # CLI command handlers
│   ├── init.ts
│   ├── snapshot.ts
│   ├── restore.ts
│   ├── list.ts
│   ├── diff.ts
│   ├── config.ts
│   └── adapters.ts
├── storage/            # Storage backends
│   ├── interface.ts
│   └── local.ts
└── adapters/           # Platform adapters
    ├── interface.ts
    ├── clawdbot.ts
    └── registry.ts

License

MIT © SaveState Contributors

SaveState — Your AI identity, backed up.
savestate.dev

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Read https://aiagentslisting.com/mcp/savestate to learn what the "SaveState" MCP server does and how to install it. Add it to my coding agent's MCP configuration as documented on that page, then confirm the server connects and list the tools it exposes.

Agents can also browse this directory over MCP at https://aiagentslisting.com/api/mcp

From the project README

bash

npx @savestate/cli init                          # one-time: encryption + storage
npx @savestate/cli snapshot                      # capture state from any platform
npx @savestate/cli search "cocktail recs"        # full-text across every snapshot
npx @savestate/cli search "cocktail recs" --offset 20 --limit 20  # next result page
npx @savestate/cli restore latest --to claude    # move state between platforms
npx @savestate/cli mcp                           # serve memory to Claude Code / Cursor / Codex

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