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backup

Create, list, and manage backups of target directories.

skillshare backup              # Backup all skill targets
skillshare backup claude       # Backup specific target
skillshare backup agents       # Backup all agent targets
skillshare backup --all        # Backup skills + agents
skillshare backup --list       # List all backups
skillshare backup --cleanup    # Remove old backups

When to Use​

  • Create a manual backup before risky changes
  • List existing backups to check recovery options
  • Clean up old backups to free disk space

Automatic Backups​

Backups are created automatically before:

  • skillshare sync (skill targets and agent targets)
  • skillshare sync agents (agent targets only)
  • skillshare target remove

Location: ~/.local/share/skillshare/backups/<timestamp>/

Commands​

Create Backup​

skillshare backup              # All targets
skillshare backup claude       # Specific target
skillshare backup --dry-run    # Preview

List Backups​

skillshare backup --list
All backups (15.3 MB total)
  2026-01-20_15-30-00  claude, cursor     4.2 MB  ~/.config/.../2026-01-20_15-30-00
  2026-01-19_10-00-00  claude             2.1 MB  ~/.config/.../2026-01-19_10-00-00
  2026-01-18_09-00-00  claude, cursor     4.0 MB  ~/.config/.../2026-01-18_09-00-00

Cleanup Old Backups​

skillshare backup --cleanup           # Remove old backups
skillshare backup --cleanup --dry-run # Preview cleanup

Default cleanup policy:

  • Keep last 10 backups
  • Remove backups older than 30 days
  • Cap total size at 500 MB

Options​

FlagDescription
--allBackup both skills and agents
--project, -pUse project mode (.skillshare/backups/); agents only
--global, -gUse global mode (default for skills)
--list, -lList all backups
--cleanup, -cRemove old backups
--target, -t <name>Target specific backup (alternative to positional arg)
--dry-run, -nPreview without making changes

backup also accepts a positional kind argument: skillshare backup agents scopes the backup to agent targets only.

Backup Structure​

~/.local/share/skillshare/backups/
├── 2026-01-20_15-30-00/
│   ├── claude/
│   │   ├── skill-a/
│   │   └── skill-b/
│   └── cursor/
│       ├── skill-a/
│       └── skill-b/
└── 2026-01-19_10-00-00/
    └── claude/
        └── ...

What Gets Backed Up​

  • Regular directories in targets (actual skill files)
  • Per-skill symlinks in merge-mode targets are resolved and followed — the real content is backed up

This means:

  • In merge mode: All skills are backed up (symlinks resolved, local copies included)
  • In copy mode: All managed skill directories are backed up
  • In symlink mode: Nothing is backed up (entire directory is a single symlink)

Agent Backup​

Agents have their own backup flow that runs alongside skill backups, with two distinctions worth knowing:

Entry naming. Agent backups are stored under <target>-agents/ inside each timestamp directory, parallel to the skill backup. For example, after skillshare backup --all the layout looks like:

~/.local/share/skillshare/backups/2026-01-20_15-30-00/
├── claude/          # Skills backup for claude
├── claude-agents/   # Agents backup for claude
└── cursor/

Project mode is the inverse of skills. In project mode (-p), backup refuses to back up skill targets but does back up agent targets. The error you'll see if you forget the agents filter:

backup is not supported in project mode (except for agents)

So in project mode you must say either skillshare backup -p agents or skillshare backup -p --all.

skillshare backup agents                  # All agent targets (global)
skillshare backup agents claude           # Only claude's agents
skillshare backup agents -p               # Project agent targets
skillshare backup --all                   # Skills + agents in one shot

See Agents for the agent resource model and restore for recovery.

See Also​