rank-math/manage-backup restores a Rank Math settings backup, overwriting all current settings, or deletes one permanently. It refuses without confirm: true.
Both directions are irreversible.
Before you run it
Both actions are irreversible. Restoring discards the present configuration entirely — including anything changed since the backup was taken, which on a busy site is often more than the change you are trying to undo. Deleting removes the only copy. Take a fresh backup with rank-math/create-backup first, so the current state is recoverable either way.
At a glance
| Ability | rank-math/manage-backup |
| Toolset | Rank Math — toolset/rank-math |
| Group | Rank Math › Status, Backups & Tools |
| Requires | Rank Math SEO, active on the site |
| Capability | manage_options |
| Safety | Destructive — deletes stored values, and refuses to run without confirm: true |
| Repeatable | Idempotent — running it twice leaves the same result |
| Ships in | AcrossAI Abilities Manager 0.0.34 and later |
How it works
Restoring is wholesale. It does not merge and it does not apply only the settings that differ — the backed-up configuration becomes the configuration, and anything changed since is gone.
On a site where several people touch settings, that is usually more than the person restoring intends. The cheap protection is to take a fresh backup first: then restoring the old one is reversible by restoring the new one.
Deleting is the smaller operation and still worth care, because a backup is the only copy of a configuration that no longer exists anywhere else. Deleting the automatic pre-import backup removes the ability to undo that import.
Idempotent in the sense that restoring the same backup twice produces the same settings.
Backups cover settings only. Restoring one does not touch post meta, redirections or logs.
Input
| Name | Type | Required | What it is |
|---|---|---|---|
key | string | Yes | The backup key, from rank-math/list-backups. |
action | string | Yes | restore or delete. |
confirm | boolean | Yes — must be true | The irreversibility gate. Without it the call is refused before anything is touched. |
What comes back
| Name | Type | What it is |
|---|---|---|
key | string | The backup acted on. |
action | string | What was done. |
success | boolean | Whether the call completed. |
message | string | A one-line summary of what happened, suitable for showing a human. |
error_code | string | Present only on failure — a stable machine-readable reason, such as a missing field, a wrong field type or an unmet confirmation. |
Example
Ask your assistant:
Restore the Rank Math settings from before the import.
It resolves to one call:
{
"ability": "rank-math/manage-backup",
"parameters": {
"key": "2026-09-20-140511",
"action": "restore",
"confirm": true
}
}Worth knowing
- Take a fresh backup first — then the restore is itself reversible.
- Restoring is wholesale and discards everything changed since.
- Settings only. Content and redirections are untouched.
- Deleting the pre-import backup removes the ability to undo that import.
Related abilities
- Create Rank Math Settings Backup — do this first
- List Rank Math Settings Backups — find the key
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