Ralph Session Backup

This skill provides a script to backup Ralph sessions with versioning support. Each session maintains multiple timestamped backups, organized under repository-specific folders to avoid naming conflicts between different repositories.

Usage

To backup a specific session:

1. First, resolve the skill directory location (this skill's folder containing SKILL.md)
2. Navigate to the repository root directory where .ralph-sessions exists
3. Run the backup script with a path resolved relative to the skill directory: python3 <skill_directory>/scripts/backup_session.py <session_name>

Important: The script path must be resolved relative to the current skill directory location. This requires first determining where this skill is installed (e.g., in personal Copilot folders like .claude, .copilot, etc.) before executing the script.

Versioning & Storage Optimization

The script creates a versioned backup structure and auto-zips older backups to optimize storage:

SwarmSessions/
└── <repo_name>/
    └── <session_name>/           # Session folder (YYMMDD-HHMMSS)
        ├── backup_YYMMDD-HHMMSS/    # Latest backup (unzipped directory)
        ├── backup_YYMMDD-HHMMSS.zip # Older backups (auto-zipped)
        ├── latest-win/              # Windows junction point -> latest backup directory
        └── latest-linux/            # Linux symlink -> latest backup directory

Auto-Zipping Logic: When a new backup is created, the script automatically zips any existing unzipped backup directories in the session folder. Only the most recent backup remains as an unzipped directory for easy access via the latest links.

Command Options

• python3 backup_session.py <session_name> - Create a new versioned backup
• python3 backup_session.py <session_name> --list - List all existing versions
• python3 backup_session.py <session_name> --cleanup=N - Keep only the last N versions (default: 5)
• python3 backup_session.py <session_name> --get-latest-path - Print the path to the latest session version (platform-specific)

Recovery

To restore from a specific version:

1. Navigate to SwarmSessions/<repo_name>/<session_name>/
2. Copy the desired backup_YYMMDD-HHMMSS folder back to .ralph-sessions/<session_name>
3. Or use latest-win/ (Windows) or latest-linux/ (Linux/WSL) for the most recent backup

Cross-Platform Access

The script creates platform-specific link variants:

• latest-win/: Windows junction point (transparent directory link, no admin rights needed)
• latest-linux/: Linux symlink (works in WSL and native Linux)

Both links point to the most recent backup and are created regardless of the current platform. If link creation fails, a warning is shown but the backup still succeeds.

Requirements

• Python 3.8 or higher
• The session folder must exist in .ralph-sessions
• Write access to the Google Drive folder
• Cross-platform: Works on Windows and WSL (backs up to Windows filesystem)