Obsidian backup & restore (data-safety runbook)

🧒 When reporting to Anton: always end with a child-simple "In plain words" recap in his language (plain words, no jargon) — his standing request. See memory eli5-always.

This skill is the operational runbook for Anton's vault data-safety system. The rules (always preserve originals; always back up offsite to Google Drive) live in memory — preserve-originals-rule, vault-offsite-backup — and in the import skills (obsidian-ingest Rule 0, telegram-reimport Step 0). Don't re-derive or duplicate them here. This file says what to run, where things are, and how to recover.

The system at a glance — 4 layers

1. Originals (Rule 0). Every import's raw source is copied verbatim to $OBSIDIAN_ROOT/_originals/<key>\<date>__<name>\ (sha256 manifest), never deleted. Script: archive_original.py.
2. 3-2-1 backup. Vault → one git bundle (full history) + _originals copy-only → to Google Drive (offsite/cloud) and <LOCAL_BACKUP_DIR> (separate disk). Script: backup_to_drive.py.
3. Nightly automation. Windows Task Scheduler job Obsidian Backup to Drive runs the backup daily 03:00 (runs even when Claude is closed).
4. Weekly watchdog. Claude routine obsidian-backup-healthcheck (Mon ~10:00) runs backup_healthcheck.py and Telegrams Anton — heartbeat if fine, alert (and may self-heal) if broken.

Where everything is (this machine)

Thing	Path
Vault (git repo)	$OBSIDIAN_VAULT
Originals (permanent)	$OBSIDIAN_ROOT/_originals/ (+ README.txt)
Scripts	$IMPORTS_ROOT/{archive_original,backup_to_drive,backup_healthcheck}.py (+ backup_to_drive.cmd, log backup_to_drive.log, verdicts in backup_health\)
Offsite copy (cloud)	<GDRIVE_ROOT>\Obsidian-Backup\ — Google account owner.personal@example.com (G: shortcut → this folder; Google uploads to cloud)
Local copy (2nd disk)	<LOCAL_BACKUP_DIR>\
Each copy holds	vault\Owner-Knowledge-<date>.bundle (last 14 kept) · _originals\ · MIGRATE.md · last-backup.txt

Path is machine-specific (Google Drive on HP Palo Alto); on another machine, backup_to_drive.py auto-detects E:\Google Drive on*.

Common tasks

All commands run with $env:PYTHONUTF8=1 in PowerShell.

Back up now (commit vault → bundle+verify → Drive + C:):

python $IMPORTS_ROOT/backup_to_drive.py

Good habit after big imports (alongside the brain reindex). Google finishes uploading in the background.

Check the backup is healthy now:

python $IMPORTS_ROOT/backup_healthcheck.py

Prints STATUS OK / STATUS PROBLEM; full verdict at $IMPORTS_ROOT/backup_health/health-latest.md.

Archive an import original (Rule 0 — also auto-done by the import skills):

python $IMPORTS_ROOT/archive_original.py "<source path>" --source <key> --label "<note>"

Restore / migrate — see the next section.

Manage the nightly Windows task:

Get-ScheduledTaskInfo -TaskName 'Obsidian Backup to Drive'   # last/next run, result
Start-ScheduledTask   -TaskName 'Obsidian Backup to Drive'   # run now
Disable-ScheduledTask -TaskName 'Obsidian Backup to Drive'   # pause

Manage the weekly watchdog routine: the Scheduled section in the sidebar, or the scheduled-tasks MCP (list_scheduled_tasks / update_scheduled_task taskId obsidian-backup-healthcheck). After (re)creating it, click Run now once to pre-approve PowerShell + Telegram.

Restore & migrate (the disaster runbook)

The backup folder (Drive or C:) is self-describing — it contains MIGRATE.md. The vault lives entirely inside the newest vault\Owner-Knowledge-<date>.bundle (full git history in one file).

Migrate the whole vault to a NEW computer:

1. Install Git + Obsidian. Sign into Google Drive owner.personal@example.com so Obsidian-Backup\ syncs down (or copy it from <LOCAL_BACKUP_DIR>).
2. Take the newest bundle in Obsidian-Backup\vault\.
3. git clone "Owner-Knowledge-<date>.bundle" Owner-Knowledge → the result is the full vault repo with history.
4. Open that folder as an Obsidian vault. Copy _originals\ across too (it's just files).

Restore a single file / folder:

git clone "<newest>.bundle" tmp_restore
# copy the file out of tmp_restore\ ... OR an older version:
git -C tmp_restore log --oneline -- "<path>"
git -C tmp_restore restore --source <hash> -- "<path>"

(For an in-place vault you can also recover from the live repo: git -C $OBSIDIAN_VAULT restore --source <hash> -- <path> — see [[vault-backup-rule]].)

Troubleshooting — "the backup looks broken"

backup_healthcheck.py pinpoints which check failed. Map:

• Stale / missing bundle, but task still Enabled → the daily job just didn't run (PC was off, etc.). Fix: run backup_to_drive.py once. (The watchdog does this automatically.)
• Windows task MISSING or DISABLED → re-enable (Enable-ScheduledTask -TaskName 'Obsidian Backup to Drive') or re-register:

  $action   = New-ScheduledTaskAction -Execute '$IMPORTS_ROOT/backup_to_drive.cmd'
  $trigger  = New-ScheduledTaskTrigger -Daily -At '3:00AM'
  $settings = New-ScheduledTaskSettingsSet -StartWhenAvailable -ExecutionTimeLimit (New-TimeSpan -Hours 1) -MultipleInstances IgnoreNew
  Register-ScheduledTask -TaskName 'Obsidian Backup to Drive' -Action $action -Trigger $trigger -Settings $settings -Force
  

  (Registering a scheduled task needs Anton's explicit OK — it can trip the persistence guard.)
• Bundle FAILED git bundle verify (corruption) → do NOT trust it. Keep the older good bundles (we retain 14), check the vault repo health (git -C $OBSIDIAN_VAULT fsck), then run a fresh backup_to_drive.py. Don't delete the bad bundle until a good one exists.
• _originals lagging in a target → re-run backup_to_drive.py (robocopy is copy-only, it'll catch up).
• Drive not uploading → confirm Google Drive for Desktop is running and signed into owner.personal@example.com; the local Obsidian-Backup\ is on E: and syncs from there.

Invariants (never violate)

• Never delete anything under _originals\ — ever. It's the upstream source of truth.
• Originals/backups of originals are copy-only (robocopy /E /XO, never /MIR) — deletions must never propagate.
• The git bundle is the migration artifact — keep it self-contained (--all), verify before trusting.
• Don't sync the live vault folder (or live .git) into Drive directly — we back up the bundle, on purpose (avoids corruption / conflict copies / ransomware propagation).
• The standing rules are in memory ([[preserve-originals-rule]], [[vault-offsite-backup]]); reference them, don't fork them.

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Like this skill? It is one of 100 in second-brain-starter-kit: the second brain we built for ourselves and run every day at Palo Alto AI Research Lab. Install the whole set with npx skills add tonydzi/second-brain-starter-kit. Everything is open source and free, so take what you need.

Flagships worth a look on their own: secondop-panel (a second opinion from a panel of external models), claude-memory-tidy (stop your agent's memory from rotting), telegram-mcp-kit (your own Telegram over MCP in about 15 minutes).

Author: Anton Dziatkovskii, Palo Alto AI Research Lab. Telegram @tonydzi - WhatsApp +1 341 222 9178 - X @Tony_Stef_

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