Back up or move your station

// one file holds the whole station; your keys stay on the PC they were entered on

Your station lives in one folder on this PC: your agents, rooms and props, conversations, memories, routines and everything they made. BACK UP STATION copies all of it into one file you can keep, and RESTORE STATION puts a station back from that file, on this PC or on a new one. Keys, tokens and sign-ins are never in a backup, so the file is safe to keep on a USB drive or in a synced folder; after a restore, bdibranding lists what to enter again.

Back up your station

1. Open SYSTEM → SETTINGS → APP & BACKUP.
2. Press BACK UP STATION. bdibranding saves your open work, then copies the station into one file. A progress bar shows while it copies; new work waits for that moment.
3. When it is done it shows the file’s size and where it is. OPEN FOLDER shows the file in File Explorer (in a browser window the button is COPY PATH).

If your agents are working, the backup asks you to let them finish, or stop them, and try again: a backup is taken while nothing else is changing. If the disk is full, it says so and saves nothing.

The backup folder

Backups go to bdibranding backups in your Documents folder (the OneDrive one when OneDrive keeps your Documents; Settings shows the full path), named after your station and the day, for example nova-2026-10-08.bdibranding-backup.json. A second backup on the same day gets -2, so nothing is overwritten. CHOOSE FOLDER… picks another folder (a USB drive or a synced folder, for example); USE DEFAULT FOLDER goes back.

A backup is never saved inside the station folder or in bdibranding’s own data folder (%LOCALAPPDATA%\ai.bdibranding.harness): a restore replaces the station folder and uninstalling removes the data folder. Keep a copy somewhere other than this PC’s disk too.

What a backup holds

• Agents, rooms and props, conversations, memories, routines, loops, tasks, projects, deliverables and permissions.
• Connector settings and saved API connections (the connections come back switched off, without their keys).
• What the station window keeps for itself: learning, earned trust, goals, quests, settings and the rest.
• Restore points and archived chats. A very large station (the limit is about 340 MB) can be backed up without them: the backup offers BACK UP WITHOUT HISTORY when it is needed.

Never in a backup: API keys, sign-ins, connector tokens, messaging-channel bot tokens and saved passwords.

Restore on the same PC

1. Open SYSTEM → SETTINGS → APP & BACKUP and press RESTORE STATION…. Pick the backup file.
2. bdibranding checks the file (every part of it carries a checksum, so a damaged or changed file is refused) and says whose station it holds, when it was saved, what is in it and what you will need to enter again.
3. Press RESTORE STATION, then CONFIRM — REPLACE THIS STATION. Restoring replaces the station that is here now, so it asks twice.
4. bdibranding restarts into the restored station. Anything running stops first. The station that was here is kept, untouched, in a rollback folder beside it (workspaces.rollback-restore-…); the screen names it. What the station window kept for that station (learning, trust, quests, settings and the rest) is kept in the same folder, in window-stores-before-restore.json.

On the same PC your model provider API keys stay where they are. Sign-ins, connector sign-ins, channel bot tokens and the keys of saved API connections are never in a backup, so the restore lists them to enter again, on this PC as on a new one.

If the station will not open, the first-run screen and the PRIOR STATION DATA screen have RESTORE BACKUP, which takes a station backup too.

Move to a new PC

1. On the old PC, press BACK UP STATION and copy the file to the new PC (a USB drive or a synced folder).
2. On the new PC, set up bdibranding (see Install & first task) and open it.
3. On the first screen, press RESTORE BACKUP and pick the file. If you have already started a station there, use SETTINGS → APP & BACKUP → RESTORE STATION… instead.
4. Confirm twice. bdibranding restarts into your station.

What to enter again

The desktop app keeps your model provider API keys in Windows Credential Manager, tied to your Windows account on the PC where you entered them, and a backup never carries any key, token or sign-in. On a new PC:

• API keys for your model providers: enter them again in SETTINGS → PROVIDERS (on the same PC they are still there).
• Sign-ins (the ChatGPT and Grok sign-ins, in the developer version only): sign in again.
• Connectors: their settings are back; sign in to each one again.
• Saved API connections: enter each key again and switch the connection back on.
• Messaging channels: enter each bot token again.
• Project folders: allow each one again, or point the project at its new place.

After a restore, bdibranding lists exactly what your station needs.

Going back to the station you replaced

The rollback folder is a whole station. To go back to it, restore an earlier backup, or quit bdibranding (from the tray too), rename the workspaces folder, rename the rollback folder to workspaces, and open bdibranding again. The window then puts back what it kept for that station by itself, from window-stores-before-restore.json (an EXPORT AGENT file, so RESTORE BACKUP takes it too).

EXPORT AGENT

EXPORT AGENT (in SETTINGS → APP & BACKUP) saves only what the station window holds, to your downloads; it is not a station backup. RESTORE BACKUP imports it. If the station’s own save is newer than the one in the file, bdibranding asks before it replaces it: KEEP THE STATION’S SAVE keeps it, with the learning it carries (trust, goals and the rest), and imports everything else in the file.