Builder mode
Backups
Make and schedule backups of your agent, restore one, and see exactly what a backup holds.
A backup is a snapshot of your agent's own files: its personality, memory, conversations, scheduled tasks, skills and configuration. SettingsBackups is where you make one, schedule them on Pro, and restore or delete them.
Opening Backups
Open SettingsBackups (open it). In builder mode it's under "Developer" in the Settings list.
The top card has "Create backup now" and, on the right, how many backups your plan keeps: "retention · last 3" on Mini, "retention · last 7" on Pro. On Pro it also has the "auto-backup schedule". Below it, "History" lists your backups, newest first.
What a backup holds
A backup copies these from your agent's disk:
| In the backup | What it is |
|---|---|
SOUL.md and AGENTS.md | Your agent's personality and standing instructions (see Personality) |
memories | The built-in memory folder (see Memory and background tasks) |
sessions and state.db | Your agent's conversation sessions and its state database |
cron | Your scheduled tasks |
skills | The skills on your agent |
config.yaml | Your agent's configuration file |
.tz_applied | The time zone your scheduled tasks are written in |
It doesn't hold:
- Your agent's environment settings, which is where most of your keys reach it.
- Installed apps, their files or their data.
- Anything else on your agent's disk outside the list above.
- Settings MyHermes keeps for you outside your agent, such as your webhooks, your connectors and your API key. A restore doesn't change them either.
Making a backup
- Press "Create backup now". It reads "Creating…" until the backup is done.
- The new backup appears at the top of "History".
- Both plans can make backups by hand.
- If your agent is asleep, it's woken to take the backup.
- Up to 3 an hour. The hour starts with your first backup; a fourth before it ends gets "Too many requests. Wait a moment and try again."
- You get an email at your account address when a backup you made by hand finishes, or if it fails. The button in the email for a finished backup opens the Backups page; it doesn't download anything.
- If it fails, an error appears under the button. Try again in a moment.
Automatic backups
Under "auto-backup schedule", pick "off", "daily" or "weekly". The one that's on is highlighted.
- They start off. Nothing is backed up automatically until you pick "daily" or "weekly".
- They run once a day at 05:00 UTC, for agents that are due one.
- "Due" counts every backup. An agent on "daily" gets an automatic backup when its newest backup of any kind, including one you made by hand, is at least a day old. On "weekly", at least 7 days old. So a backup you make yourself pushes the next automatic one back.
- You hear about failures only. An automatic backup that fails emails you; one that works doesn't.
- Moving from Pro to Mini turns automatic backups off. Billing covers the move.
If changing the schedule fails, you see "Couldn't update backup frequency. Please try again."
How many backups are kept
Retention is a number of backups, not a number of days.
- Mini keeps the newest 3 and Pro the newest 7, counting backups you made by hand and automatic ones together.
- When a new backup is made, the oldest ones beyond that number are deleted.
- Safety copies taken before a restore (
pre_restore) don't count toward that number. The newest 3 of them are kept. - The final backup taken when a plan ends (
post_cancel) doesn't count either. It's deleted after 30 days.
The History list
Each row shows when the backup was taken, in your browser's own date and time format, then its kind and size, for example manual · 12.4 MB.
| Kind | What made it |
|---|---|
manual | You, with "Create backup now" |
auto | Your automatic schedule (Pro) |
pre_restore | A safety copy of your agent, taken just before a restore |
post_cancel | The final backup taken when a plan ends |
While the list loads you see "Loading backups…". With none yet, it says "No backups yet."
Restoring a backup
- On the backup's row, press "Restore".
- The row asks "Overwrite current data?". Press "Yes" (or "No" to back out).
- The button shows "…" while the restore runs.
What happens:
- MyHermes takes a safety copy of your agent as it is now. It appears in History as
pre_restore. - Your agent's disk is wiped, and the backup's contents are put back.
- Your agent restarts on the restored files.
After a restore, your agent moves the restored scheduled tasks into the time zone it's set to now, keeping their times. If one can't be moved exactly, your agent stays in the backup's time zone, and the "Timezone" card in SettingsBackground tasks shows that zone. Pick your time zone and press "Apply" to see which tasks block the move (see Scheduled tasks).
If a restore fails, an error appears on the page. Before doing anything else, check whether your agent is as it was. Send your agent a message and wait for its reply, so you know it's awake. Then open SettingsPersonality and see whether its files read as they did before. If the editor shows "Last synced", that's a stored copy rather than your agent's disk, so wait a moment and open it again; "No SOUL.md on disk yet" for a file you had before means the disk was wiped. If your agent is as it was, the restore stopped before changing anything; don't restore a pre_restore copy. If it isn't, close and reopen Backups so History refreshes, then restore the pre_restore copy whose time matches your attempt. That puts your agent's own files back as they were just before it; you can then try the restore again if you still want it, and if it fails the same way again, send us a ticket through Get help. An older pre_restore would take you further back, and every restore deletes app data again.
Deleting a backup
- On the backup's row, press "Delete".
- The row asks "Delete permanently?". Press "Yes" (or "No").
The backup is gone for good. Any kind can be deleted, safety copies included. If deleting fails, you see "Couldn't delete the backup. Please try again."
You can't download a backup
There's no download or export in MyHermes. Backups can only be restored onto your agent from SettingsBackups. If you want a copy of your agent's personality files, copy their text from Personality. To ask for a copy of the personal data MyHermes holds about you, see the Privacy Policy.
When your plan ends
These are the same steps Billing describes:
- After a cancellation, at the end of your paid period MyHermes takes a final backup (
post_cancel) and then removes your agent. That backup is kept for 30 days, but the dashboard can't restore it. - After a renewal payment fails and the plan ends, the agent is removed without a final backup.
- If you subscribe again and get a new agent, its Backups list shows only the new agent's backups. The old agent's backups aren't listed.
Deleting everything
There's no button that deletes your account and everything in it. The Privacy Policy explains how to ask for your data to be deleted: email [email protected].
If something goes wrong
- "Too many requests. Wait a moment and try again." You've made 3 backups in the hour that started with your first one. Wait until that hour is up, then try again.
- A backup fails. Try again in a moment. If your agent was asleep, it's woken first, which can take a little while.
- No automatic backup today. They run at 05:00 UTC, and only when your newest backup is at least a day old ("daily") or 7 days old ("weekly"). Check that your schedule isn't "off".
- A restore fails. Check your agent first: send it a message and wait for the reply, then look at SettingsPersonality. A "Last synced" note means a stored copy, so reopen it in a moment; "No SOUL.md on disk yet" for a file you had means the disk was wiped. If it's as it was, don't restore a
pre_restorecopy. Only if it isn't, reopen Backups and restore thepre_restorecopy taken at the time of your attempt; if there's none from just now, nothing was changed. If it fails the same way again, send us a ticket through Get help. - An app stopped working after a restore. The restore deleted its files and data. See the warning under Restoring a backup.
Common questions
Can I download my backups?
No. There's no download or export in MyHermes. Backups can only be restored onto your agent. For a copy of your personal data, see the Privacy Policy.
How long are backups kept?
By number, not by days: the newest 3 on Mini and the newest 7 on Pro. Safety copies from restores and the final backup after a cancellation follow their own rules, described under How many backups are kept.
Are my keys in my backups?
Some can be. The configuration file in every backup can hold your model key and the key your agent uses for connectors. See What a backup holds.
Is my app data backed up?
No. And a restore deletes it, so think twice before restoring if you use apps.
I moved from Pro to Mini. What happens to my 7 backups?
They stay until the next backup is made. From then on, only the newest 3 are kept. Automatic backups stop when you move to Mini.
What's next
- Personality: the two files every backup holds.
- Apps and workflows: apps, whose data isn't in any backup.
- Billing: what happens to your agent and its backups when a plan ends.