> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.agentx.wft/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # agentx export and import > Copy one machine's settings to another, with a list of the skills to bring back. Export writes your settings and a list of your skills to a file. Import restores the settings on another machine and tells you what that machine can bring back on its own. An export holds no skill content. It records where each skill came from, never what is in it. Content comes back from your account repo, or from installing the skill again. ## Export this machine ```sh theme={null} agentx export ~/agentx-export.json ``` ```text theme={null} ✓ exported the settings and 12 lineage records to ~/agentx-export.json the export holds no skill content: the account repo and 'agentx skill add' restore that ``` The file holds: | Part | What it is | | - | - | | `settings` | Your [settings](/cli/config) exactly as the file holds them: label, sources, disabled configurations, copy modes. | | `skills` | One record per skill agentx manages: its name, whether it is managed or a fork, the source and directory it came from, the base version it was installed at, and whether this machine placed it anywhere. | | `machine` | The id and label of the machine you exported from. | The file is readable by you alone, because it holds your settings. Treat it as you treat `settings.json`. agentx refuses to overwrite a file that is already there. Pass `--force` to replace it: ```sh theme={null} agentx export ~/agentx-export.json --force ``` A path that names a directory is refused whether or not you pass `--force`: give the path of the file to write. Two exports of an unchanged machine are the same file, byte for byte. ## Import onto another machine ```sh theme={null} agentx import ~/agentx-export.json ``` ```text theme={null} Replace the settings in ~/.agentx/settings.json with those of my-laptop from ~/agentx-export.json? [y/N] y ✓ imported the settings of my-laptop from ~/agentx-export.json 3 skills in the export: 1 in the account repo, 1 missing, 1 at a different version pdf managed present https://github.com/example/skills/skills/pdf xlsx managed missing https://github.com/example/skills/skills/xlsx review fork different https://github.com/example/skills/skills/review only the settings were written: add each source again, then install a missing skill with 'agentx skill add ' agentx source add https://github.com/example/skills#release ``` Import writes your settings and nothing else. It creates no account repo, fetches nothing, installs nothing and places nothing. Your source list comes back with its pins, but no source is fetched. Before you install anything from a source, run the `agentx source add` line import prints for it, which it prints even when the export lists no skills. For a pinned source that line is `agentx source add #`: `agentx source add ` alone unpins the source. When the URL or the pin holds anything but letters, digits and `._/:@%+=,#-`, import puts it in single quotes, so the line runs as printed in a POSIX shell such as bash or zsh. The export file supplies both, and quoting keeps a `$`, `&` or quote in them from running as a command. The listing says what this machine's account repo has of each skill: | State | Meaning | | - | - | | `present` | The account repo holds that skill at that version. Place it with [`agentx skill place`](/cli/skill) when the library still holds the skill; when it does not, install it again with [`agentx skill add`](/cli/skill). | | `missing` | The account repo has no branch for it. Add its source with [`agentx source add`](/cli/source), then install it again with [`agentx skill add`](/cli/skill). | | `different` | The account repo holds that name at another version, or as a fork where the export had a managed skill. | ## Confirm without a terminal Import replaces settings, so it asks first. Pass `--yes` to answer in advance: ```sh theme={null} agentx import ~/agentx-export.json --yes ``` Use `--yes` in scripts and wherever there is no terminal. Without it, and without a terminal to ask at, import exits with code 6 and changes nothing. Answering anything but `y` or `yes` does the same. ## Move to a new machine 1. On the old machine, run `agentx export ~/agentx-export.json`. 2. Copy the file to the new machine. 3. On the new machine, run `agentx import ~/agentx-export.json`. 4. Run each `agentx source add` line the import printed, exactly as printed. It names the pin of a pinned source, `#`, and `agentx source list` shows the pins too. 5. Install what the listing calls missing with `agentx skill add `. Import restores the settings and nothing else, so the sources it lists are not yet on the new machine. Until you add one again, `agentx source fetch` and `agentx skill add` exit with code 5, say the source was not fetched and name the same `agentx source add` line, pin included, so following that hint keeps the pin too. ## Script it Add `--json` to get events instead of text. Import needs `--yes` in JSON mode, since it cannot ask. ```sh theme={null} agentx --json export ~/agentx-export.json ``` ```json theme={null} {"type":"export","schema_version":1,"path":"/home/me/agentx-export.json","skills":12} {"type":"result","schema_version":1,"ok":true,"summary":"exported the settings and 12 lineage records to /home/me/agentx-export.json"} ``` ```sh theme={null} agentx --json import ~/agentx-export.json --yes ``` The run emits a `settings` event with the settings it wrote, then one `import_skill` event per record with its `state`, then `result`. A record names a version and never carries one. Its `base_hash` is the version the skill was installed at, the same field under the same name that `agentx skill list` reports. An export holds no `content_hash`: that name always means what a machine holds right now, and an export reads no library directory. ## When an import is refused | Exit code | Cause | | - | - | | 5 | The file is not there. | | 6 | The file is not an agentx export, is truncated, is larger than 8 MiB, is of a schema version this agentx does not read, carries a field it does not know, or holds settings it would not write. | | 6 | The settings hold something agentx never writes: a URL with a token in it, in either `url` or `alias`; a pin that is not a ref git accepts; a label with a control character in it or longer than 256 bytes; a source or a configuration listed twice; a list out of order. | | 6 | You answered no, or there was no terminal to ask at and `--yes` was not given. | A refused import changes nothing: your settings stay exactly as they were. ## Related topics - [agentx](/index.md) - [agentx skill](/cli/skill.md) - [agentx doctor](/cli/doctor.md) - [agentx adopt](/cli/adopt.md) - [agentx serve](/cli/serve.md)