Back up & restore your work

SubnetSlinger keeps your work on THIS machine and nowhere else (see "Your account, your license, and your data"). That's good for privacy, but it means a lost or replaced laptop takes your work with it — unless you've made a backup. This is that backup, built in: File ▸ Back up & restore your work.

What it's for

Moving the things you BUILD UP over time onto a new machine: install on the new laptop, sign in to restore your license, import the backup, and pick up where you left off. It carries the artifacts an engineer accumulates after using the tools for a while — your device inventory, incidents and notes, runbooks, saved topology maps, MAC / drift / certificate / file-hash watch lists, projects, custom themes, your saved host list, SSH quick commands, MCP server setups, and the current activity log (activity.log, not the rotated activity.log.1). Your preferences and AI-provider choice can be included too (off by default).

Not yet included

The SSL / TLS Cert fleet list, SPOG boards, Monitor targets, Golden config baselines, your Config Builder custom templates and the Deputy's Project knowledge (instructions, memory, skills, tasks) aren't in a backup yet — note or export them separately.

How it works

Two halves of one dialog:

• CREATE — tick what to include (everything you have is pre-ticked), choose where to save, and it writes a single .ssbackup file. Put it wherever you keep backups — a USB stick, a file share, your own cloud drive. It's yours; we never see it.
• RESTORE — choose a .ssbackup file, it shows you exactly what's inside, tick what to bring in, and confirm. It overwrites those items with the backup's versions. Restart to load them.
• UNDO — changed your mind? "Undo last restore" puts things back exactly as they were. Before every restore the app quietly snapshots whatever it's about to overwrite, so undo is precise — it even removes items the restore added that weren't there before.

What it leaves out

The Vault, SSH host keys and your license — this is a WORK backup, not a secrets backup, so re-enter your secrets on the new machine.

• The Vault: the DPAPI bind (on by default) seals its passphrase to this Windows user and machine, so a bound vault.json can't be opened on another machine with the passphrase (that's what makes a stolen bound copy useless). Carrying it would only mislead, so it's excluded. Note your Vault entries before you move. Re-enter your secrets on the new machine. Passwords you stored in the Vault for a saved host don't travel either — the host (name, address, username) does; the password you re-enter.
• SSH host keys. The known-host fingerprints that pin each server's identity are left out on purpose: on new hardware you WANT to verify each host's key fresh rather than trust a copied file. This is a security feature, not a gap.
• Your license. It isn't your data — sign in on the new machine and Pro unlocks.

Good habits

Make a backup before a laptop refresh, before a big change you might want to roll back, or just now and then so "lost laptop" is an inconvenience instead of a loss. The file is plain and portable; keep it wherever you trust. And demo/screenshot mode never interferes — backup always reads your REAL work, even while sample data is on screen.