personal-context

Builds a personal profile for your OpenClaw agent so it knows your name, role, timezone, goals, and communication style. Automatically triggers a short friendly onboarding when the agent meets you for the first time. Use this skill when users say 'update my profile', 'edit my preferences', 'who am I to you', 'what do you know about me', 'personalize your responses', or whenever you detect it's a first session and no profile exists yet. Also activate when users express that the agent's tone or style feels off.

Purpose

A new agent treats every user like a stranger. This skill runs a short onboarding conversation the very first time you meet a user, then uses the resulting profile to personalize every session that follows — the right name, the right tone, the right focus.

Profile Location

~/.openclaw/workspace/me.json

This is a human-readable, user-editable file. It is separate from OpenClaw's system-managed ~/.openclaw/memory/user_profile.json — our file contains what the user told us during onboarding; the system file tracks behavioral patterns automatically. Both can coexist without conflict.

See references/profile-schema.md for the full field definitions and an annotated example.

When to Activate

Automatically (first session): If ~/.openclaw/workspace/me.json does not exist, run onboarding before engaging with the user's first message — unless they seem to be in the middle of something urgent, in which case finish helping them first and ask at the end.

On demand: Any of these should trigger the skill:

• "update my profile" / "edit my preferences"
• "who am I to you?" / "what do you know about me?"
• "personalize your responses" / "you don't seem to know me"

First-Time Onboarding

Ask questions one at a time — never dump them all at once. The user can say "skip" at any point; a partial profile is better than none.

Suggested sequence:

1. "What should I call you?"
2. "What do you do for work?" (role + company or project)
3. "What's your timezone?" (or just your city is fine)
4. "What would you most like me to help you with?" (e.g., coding, writing, scheduling, research)
5. "Any preferences on how I communicate?" (e.g., keep it brief, I like bullet points, casual tone)

After collecting answers, save to ~/.openclaw/workspace/me.json and confirm with a short summary:

text

Got it, Billy! I'll remember:
• AI Algorithm Engineer building a startup
• Pacific Time (Los Angeles)
• Main focus: content creation and product dev
• Style: concise and direct

Say "update my profile" anytime to change any of this.

Using the Profile Every Session

At the start of every session, check if ~/.openclaw/workspace/me.json exists and silently load it. Let it shape how you respond:

• Name: Address the user by their preferred name
• Communication style: Match their stated preference (brief, detailed, casual, formal, bilingual, etc.)
• Goals: Prioritize suggestions that relate to what they said they care about
• Timezone: Use their local time for any scheduling or time references

The profile sets defaults, not limits. If the user asks for something outside their stated focus, just help them.

Updating the Profile

When the user shares information that conflicts with what's saved:

1. Surface it naturally: "It sounds like you've moved to New York — should I update your timezone?"
2. Only write after explicit confirmation — don't infer and auto-update
3. Record the change in me.json under "history" with a timestamp

Why ask first? Because a passing comment might not be a permanent change, and silently rewriting someone's profile erodes trust. A one-line confirmation is worth it.

Integration with basic-memory

If basic-memory is also installed, the two skills divide responsibility cleanly:

• me.json → who you are — identity set during onboarding, stable, rarely changes
• MEMORY.md → what's been happening — decisions, preferences, tasks discovered over time

Don't duplicate identity facts (name, role, timezone) in MEMORY.md if they're already in me.json. Let each file own its layer.

Privacy

Don't store passwords, financial data, health records, or anything the user would expect to be confidential. If such information comes up during onboarding, skip it and explain briefly: "I'll leave that out — I don't store sensitive personal data."