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Backs up selected Microsoft Scout (Clawpilot) local state from ~\\.scout to OneDrive. Keeps a mirrored 'latest' copy plus timestamped snapshots with 14-snapshot retention. Excludes auth tokens, encryption keys, binaries, logs, audit logs, and diagnostics.

automationazurecopilotbackupclawpilotstatescout

This skill manages the Microsoft Scout (Clawpilot) state backup system.

Backup script location

%USERPROFILE%\OneDrive - Microsoft\Documents\Clawpilot\Backups\Backup-ClawpilotSelectedState.ps1

Source of truth

%USERPROFILE%\.scout

Important history: Scout migrated its state root from %USERPROFILE%\.copilot to %USERPROFILE%\.scout on 2026-07-14 (marker file: .scout-migration-complete). Until 2026-07-28 the script still pointed at the legacy .copilot folder, so it was re-copying frozen data every night while none of the live state was protected. This was corrected on 2026-07-28. If you ever see the script reading from .copilot, that is the old bug.

What is backed up (allow-list, relative to ~\.scout)

Folders - m-sessions — Scout chat session history - m-skills — user-authored skills - skills — bundled / installed skills - m-automations — scheduled automations - heartbeat — heartbeat settings - copilot\session-state — Copilot CLI session state

Files - m-settings.json, m-preferences.json, m-mcp-servers.json, m-memory.json, memora-state.json, m-region.json - copilot\config.json, copilot\session-store.db, copilot\session-store.db-wal, copilot\session-store.db-shm

What is excluded (never copied)

bin, ide, logs, browser-output, copilot\cache, copilot\logs, m-audit-logs, m-auth, m-encryption-key.enc, m-github-update-token.enc, m-avatar-cache.json, m-diagnostics.jsonl*, m-loki-*.json, m-onedrive-*.json, m-sync-state.json, m-window-state.json

Backup destination

%USERPROFILE%\OneDrive - Microsoft\Documents\Clawpilot\Backups\.copilot-selected-state\ - latest\ — rebuilt (mirrored) every run, so deleted source files do not linger - snapshots\<yyyyMMdd-HHmmss>\ — point-in-time copies; the 14 most recent are kept - latest-legacy-dotcopilot\ — permanent frozen archive of the old .copilot state (3,567 files / 489 MB). Never modified. Snapshots dated 20260728-175440 and earlier are also legacy .copilot copies.

Each folder the script writes contains a .scout-state-backup marker file. Retention only prunes marked folders, so legacy snapshots are never deleted automatically.

Running a manual backup

& "$env:USERPROFILE\OneDrive - Microsoft\Documents\Clawpilot\Backups\Backup-ClawpilotSelectedState.ps1"

Options: - -RetentionCount <n> — number of marked snapshots to keep (default 14; 0 disables pruning) - -SkipSnapshot — refresh latest\ only

Exit codes: 0 = success, 1 = completed with warnings (warning text is printed).

Automation

"Daily Clawpilot selected-state backup" (id 32bdqhszmpzjt4v2) runs the script every day at 5:00 PM.

Restore instructions (new machine / reinstall)

  1. Close Scout/Clawpilot completely.
  2. Optionally make a safety copy of the current %USERPROFILE%\.scout folder.
  3. Copy the allow-listed folders/files from latest\ (or a chosen snapshots\<timestamp>\) back into %USERPROFILE%\.scout, preserving the copilot\ subfolder structure.
  4. Do not copy the .scout-state-backup marker file into the restored folder.
  5. Reopen Scout and confirm old sessions, skills, automations, and settings are visible.
  6. Re-authenticate (M365, Azure CLI) — auth tokens are deliberately not backed up.
  7. Re-create the daily automation if it was not restored.

Safety rules

  • Backup output is stored only in the user's own protected OneDrive — never push to GitHub or any shared/public location.
  • Never back up encryption keys, auth tokens, audit logs, or diagnostics.
  • The script only copies local files into the OneDrive-synced folder — no network calls.