Updates, backups and help

Keeping Pimpo up to date, moving it, backups and check-ups.

Updates#

The desktop app updates itself: when a new version is ready it says so at the top of the app and in the menu bar, and Update and restart installs it. Before a new version touches anything, Pimpo keeps a copy of your data. Settings › General › Updates looks for updates now, turns on beta versions, and goes back to the version you had before, with your data as it was then. On a server, run pimpo update (and pimpo update --rollback to go back).

Moving and backups#

Settings › Automatic cloud backup keeps a copy of everything in your own storage, every day or every week, and keeps the last copies you choose:
- Amazon S3 or compatible (Cloudflare R2, Backblaze B2, MinIO, Wasabi): give the bucket, the region (auto on R2), the service address when it is not Amazon, and an access key that can read, write, list and delete in that bucket.
- Google Drive: connect Google in Connections (with the Google Drive API turned on in your Google Cloud project) and allow Drive. Backups go to a "Pimpo backups" folder; Pimpo only sees files it created.
- Each backup is encrypted on your computer with the passphrase you choose, database and memory included, so the storage service cannot read it. Keep the passphrase somewhere safe: without it no one can open the backups.
- See backups › Restore brings one back; it takes effect when Pimpo restarts, and what was there is kept aside. If a backup fails, you get a message.

Settings › Export and import everything creates one file with everything, all encrypted with a passphrase of at least 12 characters you choose. Import it on another computer. What was there before is kept aside.
pimpo export file.pimpo and pimpo import file.pimpo do the same from the terminal. A file exported by an older Pimpo, not sealed as a whole, opens only with pimpo import --unsealed file.pimpo.
pimpo snapshots and pimpo restore go back to an automatic daily snapshot. Paired devices, passkeys and people stay as they are now, so a device you removed does not come back.
pimpo routines import FOLDER installs routines from a folder in the repository's layout (routines/<id>/), after the same checks as the repository: manifest, their own tests and an audit. They arrive paused; review their settings and resume each one. --active installs them running.
Coming from OpenClaw or Hermes? Use Settings › Bring over from OpenClaw or Hermes, or pimpo migrate openclaw.

When the database is damaged: Pimpo checks its database every time it starts (SQLite's own check and the newest part of the history chain) and before every copy. A copy of a damaged database is refused, so it never pushes a good copy out; the check-up shows it and you are told once. At start, a damaged database is moved, untouched, into quarantine/ in the data folder, and Pimpo opens only a recovery page, for the administrator alone (your login link, a browser or device of yours that was signed in, or the recovery link Pimpo prints at start and pimpo token shows). There you can go back to the newest copy that passes its check (damaged copies are never offered), start fresh, or download the damaged file as a zip for a repair elsewhere. Either way the damaged file stays in quarantine/, and Pimpo then starts as usual. On the command line, pimpo restore NAME does the same while Pimpo is stopped.

Local copies (Settings › Backup): Pimpo copies everything on this computer every day, before each update and before an import, and keeps the last ten. Pick one and choose Go back to this; it takes effect when Pimpo is closed and reopened, and the current state is copied first, so it can be undone. After an update Pimpo tells you once that the copy from before is there. Going back to a copy restores data, not the previous version of the app.

Check-up#

In System status (the Pimpo menu, or ⌘⇧D), Check everything tests every part for real, right now: each chat channel answers, email and calendar can be read, every model a job may use answers one word (API models, up to a cent each; Claude Code is only looked for, so your usage limit is not spent), each service passes its own check, local copies and cloud backups are recent, and there is room on the disk. Problems come first, each with what to do and a link to where to do it.

Help, notifications and labs#

Help (at the bottom of the menu) answers questions about Pimpo itself: it starts a chat, and the agent reads this guide to answer. In Settings › Notifications choose what reaches you outside the app: task results, failed routines and backup problems can be silenced (they stay in Needs you); approval requests always arrive. Settings › Labs turns off newer features: organizing memory every night, searching memory by meaning, and exploring the MCP registry.

This page is built from the repository's documentation. Improve it on GitHub.