Getting Started

Install SaveState, take your first snapshot, and restore your AI identity — all in under a minute.

Installation

SaveState is available via npm, Homebrew, or a standalone binary.

npm (recommended)

$ npm install -g @savestate/cli

Or run directly with npx:

$ npx savestate init

Homebrew

$ brew tap savestatedev/tap
$ brew install savestate

Shell installer (macOS & Linux)

$ curl -fsSL https://savestate.dev/install.sh | sh

This auto-detects your platform (macOS arm64/x64, Linux arm64/x64) and installs the appropriate binary. Falls back to npm if no binary is available.

Initialize

Run savestate init in your project or workspace directory. This creates a .savestate/ directory with your encryption and storage configuration.

$ savestate init
✓ Encryption configured (AES-256-GCM + scrypt KDF)
✓ Storage: ~/.savestate/ (local)
✓ Config saved to .savestate/config.json

You'll be prompted to set a passphrase. This passphrase derives your encryption key — SaveState never stores your passphrase. Keep it safe.

Your First Snapshot

With SaveState initialized, take a snapshot of your current AI state:

$ savestate snapshot
✓ Platform detected: claude-code
✓ Extracting identity, memory, conversations...
✓ Snapshot created: ss-2026-01-27T15-00-00-a3f2k9
✓ Encrypted & stored (12.4 KB)

SaveState auto-detects which AI platform you're using (see Adapters) and extracts everything: identity files, memory, conversations, tools, and more.

Snapshot options

# Add a label and tags
$ savestate snapshot --label "Before migration" --tags "backup,pre-update"

# Force a specific adapter
$ savestate snapshot --adapter clawdbot

# Force a full snapshot (skip incremental)
$ savestate snapshot --full

Listing Snapshots

$ savestate list
ID                             PLATFORM      SIZE     DATE
ss-2026-01-27T15-00-00-a3f2k9  claude-code   12.4 KB  2026-01-27
ss-2026-01-26T09-30-00-b7c1m4  clawdbot      48.2 KB  2026-01-26

Restoring

Restore from the latest snapshot — or any snapshot by ID:

# Restore from latest snapshot
$ savestate restore latest

# Restore a specific snapshot
$ savestate restore ss-2026-01-26T09-30-00-b7c1m4

# Migrate to a different platform
$ savestate restore latest --to claude

# Dry run — see what would change
$ savestate restore latest --dry-run

Next Steps