claude-code-backup

Backs up your Claude Code and OpenClaude configs to two private GitHub repositories. Built for Windows (Git Bash and Task Scheduler, no cron), and covers both ~/.claude and ~/.openclaude so OpenClaude history never collides with Claude Code history.

Adapted from jtklinger/claude-code-backup-guide.

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Why two repos?

Your ~/.claude and ~/.openclaude directories contain a lot of sensitive material:

• OAuth tokens and API keys (.credentials.json, .mcp.json)
• Local-only secrets (settings.local.json)
• Conversation history (history.jsonl, projects/)
• Custom agents, hooks, skills, and commands
• Plugin caches and MCP server configs

All of it has to live in private repos. Splitting it across two of them means you can rotate one side without touching the other, and the two histories stay separate.

The scripts repo (this one) is the only public part. No secrets live in the scripts.

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What gets backed up

Source dir	Default target repo	Visibility
~/.claude	<you>/claude-config-backup	Private
~/.openclaude	<you>/openclaude-config-backup	Private

Excluded by default because they are regenerated or volatile:

• cache/, logs/, backups/, paste-cache/, sessions/, projects/, tasks/, teams/, telemetry/
• .git/, node_modules/, *.log, *.tmp, *.lock, .last-cleanup
• Browser-style cache dirs (Code Cache, GPUCache, Service Worker)

Note on projects/: the default exclude skips the large per-project conversation transcripts, but a second pass still backs up every projects/<project>/memory/ directory, so your persistent memory files are preserved. If you want full conversation history backed up too, remove projects from the EXCLUDE_DIRS array in backup.sh.

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Requirements

• Windows 10/11, or any OS with Git Bash and bash
• Git for Windows, which provides bash.exe and git.exe (robocopy is native to Windows)
• GitHub CLI (gh), authenticated with at least the repo scope
• PowerShell 5.1 or newer (only needed for the Task Scheduler step)

Check your auth:

gh auth status

Token scopes must include repo. If they don't:

gh auth refresh -s repo,workflow

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Quick start

git clone https://github.com/dexteon/claude-code-backup.git
cd claude-code-backup
bash setup.sh

setup.sh does four things:

1. Verifies gh auth and reads your GitHub username.
2. Creates claude-config-backup and openclaude-config-backup as private repos, or reuses them if they already exist.
3. Writes a local .env (git-ignored, chmod 600) with the repo names and paths.
4. Runs backup.sh once to seed both repos.

You can also pass repo names non-interactively:

bash setup.sh dexteon/my-claude-backup dexteon/my-openclaude-backup

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Manual backups

# from the cloned scripts dir
./backup.sh              # full backup, both repos
./backup.sh --dry-run    # show what would be committed, no push

On Windows, files are copied with robocopy /MIR (the script falls back to rsync or cp -r on other platforms). Git add, commit, and push are per-repo. Commits are timestamped backup <UTC ISO>.

After the main mirror, a second pass syncs every projects/<project>/memory/ directory. This preserves your persistent memory files while the bulk per-project transcripts under projects/ stay excluded.

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Scheduling automatic backups (Windows Task Scheduler)

schedule.ps1 registers a per-user scheduled task. No admin elevation needed.

Open PowerShell in this directory:

# Daily at 09:00 (default)
.\schedule.ps1

# Custom time
.\schedule.ps1 -Hour 14 -Minute 30

# Every 6 hours instead of daily
.\schedule.ps1 -IntervalHours 6

# Remove the task
.\schedule.ps1 -Uninstall

What the script does:

• Finds bash.exe from Git for Windows.
• Builds a New-ScheduledTaskAction that runs bash ./backup.sh >> backup.log 2>&1.
• Registers the task under your user account with LogonType Interactive, so it runs only when you are logged in and never needs to store your password.
• Sets -StartWhenAvailable so the task catches up after sleep or shutdown, with a 30-minute execution time limit.

Manual triggers after install:

Start-ScheduledTask -TaskName 'ClaudeCodeBackup'
Get-ScheduledTask -TaskName 'ClaudeCodeBackup' | Get-ScheduledTaskInfo

Logs land in backup.log next to the scripts.

Alternative: cron (WSL, Linux, macOS)

# Edit with: crontab -e
0 9 * * * /bin/bash /path/to/claude-code-backup/backup.sh >> /path/to/claude-code-backup/backup.log 2>&1

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Restoring

# restore both into ~/.claude and ~/.openclaude
./restore.sh

# only one side
./restore.sh claude
./restore.sh openclaude

# preview without writing
./restore.sh --dry-run

# usage
./restore.sh --help

restore.sh is non-destructive. If the live target directory is non-empty, it renames it to ~/.claude.pre-restore.<timestamp> before copying the repo over, so you can roll back.

The backup repo's own .git/ is excluded during restore, so the restored directory is clean config, not a git working copy.

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Different paths or repo names?

Edit .env:

CLAUDE_BACKUP_REPO=dexteon/claude-config-backup
OPENCLAUDE_BACKUP_REPO=dexteon/openclaude-config-backup
CLAUDE_HOME=/c/Users/Dex/.claude
OPENCLAUDE_HOME=/c/Users/Dex/.openclaude
BACKUP_WORKDIR=/c/Users/Dex/.claude-backup-work

.env is read by backup.sh, restore.sh, and setup.sh.

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Files

File	Purpose
setup.sh	One-shot installer: creates private repos, writes .env, runs first backup
backup.sh	Syncs both source dirs into the two repos, commits, pushes
restore.sh	Pulls both repos and mirrors them into the live dirs (non-destructive)
schedule.ps1	Registers or removes a Windows Scheduled Task
.env	Generated by setup.sh; git-ignored; holds repo paths
.gitignore	Keeps .env, logs, and temp files out of the scripts repo

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Security model

The scripts repo (this one) is public. No secrets live in scripts, README, or commit history.

The data repos (*-config-backup) are private, created automatically with --private. .env is git-ignored at the scripts-repo level. Do not commit it.

If a token in a data repo leaks, treat it as a credential compromise: rotate the OAuth token, the MCP API keys, and anything in *.local.json. GitHub's secret scanning will also catch common token formats if you enable push protection on the data repos.

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Differences from jtklinger/claude-code-backup-guide

• Two source dirs, two repos. The original backs up ~/.claude only; this one also covers ~/.openclaude.
• Windows-native. Uses robocopy instead of rsync, Git Bash instead of WSL, and Task Scheduler instead of launchd or cron.
• Non-interactive setup. setup.sh accepts repo names as arguments so it can run inside an installer.
• Non-destructive restore. restore.sh preserves the live directory with a timestamped .pre-restore rename, and excludes the backup repo's .git/ so the restored config dir stays clean.
• Selective memory backup. Excludes the bulk per-project transcripts under projects/ but preserves every projects/<project>/memory/ directory.
• No bundled pre-commit hooks. The surface is kept small. Add your own if you want to redact secrets before push.

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License

MIT. See LICENSE.