Disaster recovery for your auto-reply setup - backup, restore, and partial recovery

"My laptop's SSD died. Replyer's settings, personas, and chatroom mappings all look gone, any way to recover?"

Yes, if you have a backup. This post covers backup zip contents, auto-backup schedule, scenario-specific recovery flows, and prevention rules.

What's in a backup zip

Replyer's [Download backup zip] produces a zip containing:

• config.json - all settings (model, rate limits, night gating, operator passwords)
• personas/*.yaml - all persona definitions
• sessions/*.session - Telegram auth session files
• chat_rooms.yaml - chatroom × persona mappings
• agent_history/*.yaml - persona prompt change history
• conversations/*.jsonl - response history (daily files)
• rooms/*.yaml - chatroom metadata

Average zip size is 50-500MB depending on accumulated history.

Auto-backup schedule

Replyer auto-creates backups in ~/Library/Application Support/Replyer/backups/ (mac):

• Daily - last 7 days retained
• Weekly - last 4 weeks retained
• Manual - whenever you click [Download backup zip]

5 scenarios at a glance, recovery timeline

Visual timeline of recovery steps across 5 incident scenarios. Each band shows a stage; hover to see the label.

Scenario 1, accidentally deleted a persona

The most common case. Right after:

1. Click [Stop]
2. Backup page → pick the most recent auto-backup zip
3. [Partial restore] → check personas only → [Restore]
4. Verify on the persona tools page
5. Re-check the chatroom × persona mapping
6. Click [Start] to resume

Scenario 2, corrupted config.json

Cause: disk full, force-quit during write, failed password reset:

1. Replyer shows "config corruption detected" banner on launch
2. Banner → [Restore from backup]
3. Restore only config.json from the most recent good zip
4. Auto-refresh and you're back

Scenario 3, disk failure / forced new-PC migration

• Backup in cloud / external disk: install Replyer → restore zip → done
• No backup: persona / mapping / history lost. Telegram sessions can be re-authed via SMS

Scenario 4, broken persona prompt edit

1. Persona editor → [prompt history] tab
2. Pick a working older version
3. [Revert to this version] - applied instantly

Prompt history is preserved per persona, independent of the backup zip.

Prevention - backup frequency vs data-loss risk (interactive)

Move the sliders to simulate maximum lost replies for your backup cadence and daily response volume.

Weekly cadence + 120 replies/day means up to 840 lost reply records in a worst case. Drop the cadence to daily cloud sync and that falls to ~120.

Post-restore verification

□ All Telegram accounts connected (Accounts page)
□ Persona list / system prompts intact (Persona tools page)
□ Chatroom × persona mapping correct (Rooms page)
□ Rate limits / night gating / skip probability (Settings)
□ Model .gguf downloads complete (Settings → model card)
□ Persona test response in Sandbox page
□ 1-2 hours in [manual review] mode
□ Switch to auto mode after verifying

Prevention rules

• Weekly manual upload of the backup zip to cloud (iCloud / Dropbox / Google Drive)
• Extra backup before any major persona change
• High-risk environments: daily cloud sync
• Once a year, simulate disaster recovery on a temp folder

FAQ

Q. The backup zip contains Telegram session files - security risk?

Yes. Session files equal active Telegram login. Always store backups in personal-only channels.

Q. Auto-backups eating too much disk space?

Settings → backup → shorten retention. Or exclude conversations/ from backups, that's most of the size.

Q. How do I check backup zip integrity?

Replyer's [Restore] flow runs auto-integrity checks. Monthly simulation to a temp folder is the most certain check.

Q. Can I recover just the response history?

Yes. Extract conversations/ from the zip → overwrite into the user data folder → restart Replyer.

Q. What if the backup doesn't restore (version incompatibility)?

After major version jumps (e.g. v0.5.x → v0.13.x), YAML schemas may have changed. Replyer's migration hook tries to auto-convert. Monthly simulations catch this early.

Next step

Grab the build for your OS from the Replyer download page and follow the usage manual for step-by-step setup.