Automatic daily backups of your AI coding assistant memories, configs, and instruction files to a private GitHub repo.

Supports Claude Code, OpenAI Codex, Gemini CLI, Cursor, and any custom AI tool you add.

Features

• Multi-tool: backs up multiple AI harnesses simultaneously (Claude, Codex, Gemini, Cursor, Windsurf, or anything with a local config directory)
• Auto-setup: interactive setup.sh detects installed AI tools, creates a private GitHub backup repo, and configures everything
• Configurable allow list: per-source include patterns in config.json control exactly which files get backed up. Sane defaults for the top AI tools out of the box.
• Daily scheduled sync: macOS LaunchAgent runs at your chosen hour. Each commit shows which sources changed: sync(claude,codex): 2026-08-24 15:00:00
• Native macOS notifications: a compiled Swift helper app shows banner notifications on each sync. Click to open your backup's commit history on GitHub.
• Restore anywhere: clone your backup repo on a new machine and rsync the data back

What it backs up

AI coding assistants store persistent memories, custom agents, instruction files, and config locally. This tool syncs them to a private GitHub repo so you never lose them.

Default include lists per tool:

Setup auto-detects which tools are installed and enables them. All include lists are fully configurable.

Requirements

• macOS (for notifications and scheduled sync via LaunchAgent)
• GitHub CLI (brew install gh), authenticated
• git, python3, rsync (pre-installed on macOS)

Quick start

git clone https://github.com/DiegoSalazar/AiSyncing.git ~/AiSyncing
cd ~/AiSyncing
bash setup.sh

Setup will walk you through:

1. Backup repo: picks a name, auto-creates a private GitHub repo via gh
2. Git identity: name and email for backup commits (defaults to your global git config)
3. AI tools: auto-detects installed tools by checking for their config directories
4. Schedule: which hour to run the daily sync (default: 3 PM)
5. Build and install: compiles the notification helper, installs the LaunchAgent, pushes the initial backup

The AiSyncing template repo is saved as the upstream remote so you can pull updates later.

Manual sync

bash ~/AiSyncing/sync.sh

How it works

1. For each enabled source, sync.sh reads the include list from config.json
2. Generates rsync filter rules at runtime (auto-includes parent directories for nested patterns)
3. Rsyncs each source directory into data/<source>/
4. Commits with a message showing which sources changed: sync(claude,gemini): 2026-08-24 15:00:00
5. Pushes to your private backup repo
6. Sends a macOS notification (click to open commit history)

Sources with missing directories are skipped with a warning, not fatal. If no sources sync, you get a notification about it.

Configuration

Everything is in config.json (created by setup.sh). See config.example.json for the full schema.

Changing what gets backed up

Each source has an include array of glob patterns. Edit it to add or remove files:

{
  "sources": {
    "claude": {
      "enabled": true,
      "source_dir": "~/.claude",
      "include": [
        "CLAUDE.md",
        "projects/*/memory/**",
        "agents/**",
        "my-custom-dir/**"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Patterns follow rsync include syntax. Parent directories are auto-included for nested paths. Anything not matched is excluded.

Adding a custom AI tool

Add a new entry to sources with any name, its config directory, and the files you want backed up. For example, to add Windsurf (Codeium):

{
  "sources": {
    "windsurf": {
      "enabled": true,
      "source_dir": "~/.codeium/windsurf",
      "include": [
        ".windsurfrules",
        "memories/**",
        "config.json",
        "settings.json",
        "prompts/**"
      ]
    }
  }
}

The sync script handles any number of sources. Each gets its own data/<name>/ subdirectory in the backup.

Changing the schedule

Edit schedule_hour in config.json, then re-run bash setup.sh to update the LaunchAgent.

Notifications

On macOS, each sync sends a banner notification showing the result. Click it to open your backup's commit history on GitHub.

The notification helper is a minimal Swift app (notifier.swift) compiled into AiSyncing.app during setup. It runs as a background process (no dock icon) and uses macOS UserNotifications for proper banner support with click actions.

On first notification, macOS will ask to allow notifications from "AI Syncing". Click Allow.

Falls back to osascript if the app isn't built (no click-to-open in fallback mode).

Logs: ~/Library/Logs/ai-syncing.log

Restore

Clone your backup repo on a new machine and copy the data back:

git clone git@github.com:you/ai-backup.git ~/AiSyncing
rsync -av ~/AiSyncing/data/claude/ ~/.claude/
rsync -av ~/AiSyncing/data/codex/ ~/.codex/
rsync -av ~/AiSyncing/data/gemini/ ~/.gemini/
rsync -av ~/AiSyncing/data/cursor/ ~/.cursor/
# Re-enable scheduled sync:
bash ~/AiSyncing/setup.sh

Verifying the round-trip

A test script proves the full backup-restore cycle works without touching your real files. It syncs ~/.claude to a temp directory, restores to a second temp directory, and diffs the two:

bash scripts/test-restore.sh

The test verifies every backed-up file is restored byte-for-byte and checks that key files (memories, config, settings) are present. Both directories are cleaned up automatically.

Uninstall

bash ~/AiSyncing/uninstall.sh

Stops the LaunchAgent and removes the compiled notification app. Your backup data and config are left in place.

Staying current

A weekly GitHub Action (Research AI Tools) monitors official documentation for all supported tools. It fetches doc pages from each tool's repo, hashes the content, and compares against stored baselines. If any docs change or become unreachable, it opens a GitHub issue for review. Can also be triggered manually from the Actions tab.

Updating the template

Setup saves the AiSyncing template as the upstream remote:

cd ~/AiSyncing
git fetch upstream
git merge upstream/main

License

MIT