A backup is a single .zip file that carries your conversations to another device. The container is an ordinary zip so it survives email, cloud folders and USB drives. The data inside it is encrypted with a password you choose.
Create a backup
On the Mac
- Open Settings › Account.
- Under Backup, choose Create a backup.
- Enter a password of at least 12 characters. A meter shows its strength.
- Choose where to save the file. The default name is
Kalon Backup <date>.zip.
On iPhone and iPad
- Open Settings › Backup and restore.
- Choose Create a backup and set a password.
- Save the file, for example to the Files app.
The password is the only way to open the backup. It is not stored anywhere and cannot be recovered.
Restore a backup
- On the Mac, choose Import a backup in Settings › Account. On iPhone, choose Restore from a backup in Settings › Backup and restore.
- Select the file. Kalon shows what it contains, such as the date and the number of chats and messages, before it asks for the password.
- Enter the password.
Restoring adds to what is already on the device and never deletes anything. Conversations that already exist gain any new messages. A wrong password, or a damaged file, stops the import before anything is written.
What is included
| Included | Not included |
|---|---|
| Every chat and Build session, including archived ones, with their messages and agent traces. | Downloaded models. |
| Attachment previews. | Online provider API keys. |
| Family profiles and their photos. | Kalon Link pairings. |
| Saved memory notes. | The app passcode. |
| The usage history. | MCP server configuration. |
| Pinned replies, reply ratings and Build session colours and groups. | Skills and other settings. |
| Files in Kalon-managed Build workspaces, up to 25 MB per workspace and 200 MB in total. | Dependency and build folders such as node_modules, dist and target. |
How it is encrypted
The zip holds three entries:
| Entry | Contents |
|---|---|
README.txt | Plain text explaining what the file is. |
manifest.json | Plain text: the format version, creation date, counts of chats, messages, attachments and profiles, and the key-derivation salt. No conversation content. |
backup.kalon | Everything else, encrypted. |
- The password is stretched into a 256-bit key with Argon2id, using 19 MiB of memory, 2 passes and a random 16-byte salt.
- The payload is encrypted with AES-256-GCM in the STREAM construction, in 64 KiB chunks. Every chunk is authenticated, and so is their order, so a truncated or altered file fails to open rather than restoring partially.
- The file is written a chunk at a time, so creating a backup uses little memory however large your history is.
A backup protects against someone who obtains the file. It does not protect against someone who already has your unlocked device, or against a weak password.