A comprehensive tool for synchronizing files and directories across local systems, remote servers, and cloud storage providers using rsync and rclone.
Install & Download
1. ClawHub CLI
The fastest way to install a skill directly from the registry.
npx clawhub@latest install sync
2. Manual Installation
Copy the skill folder to one of these locations
~/.openclaw/skills/ <project>/skills/ Priority: Workspace > Local > Bundled
3. Prompt Installation
Copy this prompt to OpenClaw to install it automatically.
Help me install sync using Clawhub. If Clawhub is not installed, install it first (npm i -g clawhub).
Prefer to download?
Get the raw skill files in a ZIP archive.
What is Sync?
The Sync skill is designed for developers and system administrators who require precise control over data distribution. By wrapping the power of industry-standard utilities like rsync and rclone, this skill enables automated workflows for mirroring directories, deploying code, and managing backups. It is an essential component of the Openclaw Skills library for maintaining data consistency across diverse infrastructure.
Whether you are pushing local updates to a production server via SSH or archiving assets to S3-compatible cloud storage, this skill ensures that permissions, timestamps, and directory structures remain intact. It emphasizes safety through dry-run capabilities and efficiency through compression and delta-transfer logic.
Sync Use Cases
- Deploying web applications to remote servers while excluding version control and dependency folders.
- Automating scheduled backups from local workstations to cloud storage providers.
- Synchronizing large datasets across distributed teams with checksum verification.
- Mirroring local development environments to remote staging containers.
- Resuming interrupted transfers of large media files over high-latency connections.
How Sync Works
- The skill evaluates the source and destination paths, applying specific logic for trailing slashes to determine if the directory itself or only its contents should be moved.
- It initializes a baseline configuration using archive mode to preserve all file metadata including permissions and modification times.
- User-defined exclusion patterns are loaded from a .syncignore file to filter out unnecessary files like node_modules or system logs.
- For remote targets, it establishes a secure connection via SSH, supporting custom ports and key-based authentication.
- For cloud targets, it utilizes rclone remotes to interface with S3, Drive, or other cloud APIs with optimized chunk sizes.
- An optional verification step is performed using checksums to ensure bit-perfect accuracy across the source and destination.
Sync Setup
To use the Sync skill within Openclaw Skills, ensure you have the necessary binaries installed on your host machine.
# Install rsync and rclone on Ubuntu/Debian
sudo apt update && sudo apt install rsync rclone
# Install rsync and rclone on macOS
brew install rsync rclone
For cloud synchronization, initialize your remotes:
rclone config
Sync Data Schema & Taxonomy
The Sync skill operates based on path-based logic and configuration files to organize data movement.
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| Source Path | The local or remote origin of the data. |
| Destination Path | The target location where data will be mirrored. |
| Exclude List | A .syncignore file relative to the source root containing skip patterns. |
| Checksum Log | Optional audit logs generated during the verification phase. |
| Remote Config | Configuration stored in rclone.conf for cloud provider authentication. |
Sync Advanced Features
- Support for --dry-run to preview file changes without executing the actual transfer.
- Checksum-based synchronization (-c) for environments where file size and time are unreliable indicators.
- Bidirectional sync support through Unison integration for multi-master file consistency.
- Partial transfer flags to enable resuming of large files on unstable network links.
- Advanced S3 tuning using custom chunk sizes to prevent timeouts during cloud uploads.
- Seamless integration with other Openclaw Skills for complex automation pipelines.
SKILL.md
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