Backup and Restore

Create a credential-filtered workspace archive and restore it transactionally.

Tars state lives under TARS_HOME, normally ~/.tars/.

Export

tars export
tars export --output ./tars-backup.tar.gz

The default export includes configuration structure, memory, tasks, sessions, skills, and extensions. It excludes known credential files and redacts recognized secret-bearing JSON keys on a best-effort basis. This is not comprehensive DLP: notes, malformed or large JSON, and custom extension build artifacts may contain sensitive values. Treat every archive as sensitive.

If an installed CLI exposes --include-secrets, it is an explicit high-risk opt-in. Use it only for an encrypted, access-controlled transfer and remove the archive after restoration.

Import

Stop the supervisor, then import a trusted archive:

tars stop
tars import ./tars-backup.tar.gz
tars status

Import preflights archive paths and links, extracts to a staging directory, validates the Tars marker and layout, backs up the current home, and swaps atomically. A failed validation or swap leaves the current installation intact or rolls it back.

Do not manually extract an untrusted archive into ~/.tars/.

Machine migration

Install the same or newer Tars version on the destination, copy the archive over a protected channel, import it, then re-enter excluded secrets with tars secret set. Review extension paths and enablement before starting the supervisor:

tars extensions audit
tars extensions migrate
tars start