OpenClaw Memory Resilience

Configure OpenClaw agent memory to survive compaction and session restarts. Use when: (1) setting up a new OpenClaw agent or workspace, (2) agents are forgetting instructions or context between sessions, (3) configuring the pre-compaction memory flush, (4) setting up the file archival pattern for memory/archive/, (5) diagnosing why an agent forgot something, or (6) tuning compaction headroom and context pruning. Covers Layer 1 (gateway compaction config) and Layer 3 (file architecture) of the three-layer memory defense.

Covers the two highest-impact layers of memory durability for OpenClaw agents.

The Four Memory Layers (quick reference)

Layer	What it is	Survives compaction?
Bootstrap files (SOUL.md, AGENTS.md, etc.)	Injected from disk at every session start	Yes — reloaded from disk
Session transcript (JSONL on disk)	Conversation history	Lossy — summarized on compaction
LLM context window	What the model currently sees	No — fixed size, overflows
Retrieval index (memory_search / QMD)	Searchable index over memory files	Yes — rebuilt from files

Core rule: If it's not written to a file, it doesn't exist after compaction.

Three Failure Modes

• Failure A — Instruction only existed in conversation, never written to a file. Most common.
• Failure B — Compaction summarized it away. Lossy. Nuance lost.
• Failure C — Session pruning trimmed old tool results. Temporary, lossless.

Diagnostic: Forgot a preference? → Failure A. Forgot what a tool returned? → Failure C. Forgot the whole thread? → Failure B.

Layer 1: Gateway Compaction Config

Apply via gateway config.patch. This is a global default — applies to all agents:

json

{
  "agents": {
    "defaults": {
      "compaction": {
        "mode": "safeguard",
        "reserveTokensFloor": 40000,
        "memoryFlush": {
          "enabled": true,
          "softThresholdTokens": 4000,
          "systemPrompt": "Session nearing compaction. Store durable memories now.",
          "prompt": "Write any lasting notes to memory/YYYY-MM-DD.md; reply with NO_REPLY if nothing to store."
        }
      },
      "contextPruning": {
        "mode": "cache-ttl",
        "ttl": "1h"
      }
    }
  }
}

See references/config-explained.md for why each value is set the way it is.

Layer 3: File Architecture

See references/file-architecture.md for the full pattern — bootstrap files, daily notes, archival, and QMD indexing.

Context Footer Standard

Add to every agent's SOUL.md. This gives you real-time visibility into context fill and compaction count — the single fastest way to know when to act before you hit the bad compaction path.

markdown

## Context Management (Auto-Applied)
**Every response:** fetch live status via `session_status`, append footer: `🧠 [used]/[total] ([%]) | 🧹 [compactions]`
- Auto-clear: **85% context** OR **6 compactions**
- Warn: **70% context** OR **4 compactions**
- Before clearing: file critical info to memory, then reset

See references/context-footer.md for why this matters and how to tune the thresholds.

Diagnosing Problems

Run /context list in any OpenClaw session to see:

• Which bootstrap files loaded and at what size
• Whether any files are TRUNCATED (over per-file limit)
• Total injected chars vs raw chars

If a file shows TRUNCATED: reduce it or raise bootstrapMaxChars in config. If a file is missing entirely: check the workspace path in agent config.