Memory Router

OpenClaw skill that auto-tiers bloated MEMORY.md, generates smart per-session manifests, and routes only what matters — 70-85% context reduction with zero de...

Never lose context. Never forget decisions. Never repeat mistakes.

The memory problem is the single biggest reason agents feel dumb over time. Not the models. Not the prompts. Memory management.

MemoryRouter fixes it with one tool, zero dependencies, zero setup.

The Problem — In 30 Seconds

Agent memory files grow unbounded. After a week, you've got thousands of lines across dozens of files. Every session loads everything — even when the user asks "what's the weather?"

That's tokens burned on irrelevant memories, every interaction, forever.

Then compaction kicks in and details vanish.

The bottleneck isn't the model. It's what the model gets to see.

Why Memory Fails

Failure Mode	Cause	Fix
Forgets everything	Loads irrelevant files, context window fills up	Smart manifest — load only what matters
Repeats mistakes	Lessons not captured or loaded	Entity index + audit for conflicts
Repeats work	No session state persistence	WAL protocol — write state before responding
Slow responses	Loads 50+ files when only 3 matter	Token budgeting — cap context window
Duplicates everywhere	No automated cleanup	--audit finds high-similarity pairs

The Architecture

text

┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│              MEMORYROUTER ⚡                          │
├──────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│                                                      │
│  ┌──────────────┐    ┌──────────────┐               │
│  │  AUTO-TIER   │    │  MANIFEST    │               │
│  │  MEMORY.md   │ →  │  GENERATOR   │               │
│  │              │    │              │               │
│  │ Core (always │    │ Required:    │               │
│  │ loaded)      │    │ MEMORY.md    │               │
│  │ + Archive    │    │ Recent logs  │               │
│  │ (on demand)  │    │ Boosted:     │               │
│  └──────────────┘    │ entity files │               │
│                      └──────┬───────┘               │
│                             │                        │
│              ┌──────────────▼──────────────┐         │
│              │  ENTITY RESOLUTION          │         │
│              │  "alice" → preferences.md,         │         │
│              │  notes.md, decisions.md│         │
│              └──────────────┬──────────────┘         │
│                             │                        │
│              ┌──────────────▼──────────────┐         │
│              │  TOKEN BUDGET FILTER        │         │
│              │  20K budget → 7 files       │         │
│              │  100K budget → 16 files     │         │
│              └──────────────┬──────────────┘         │
│                             │                        │
│              ┌──────────────▼──────────────┐         │
│              │  AGENT LOADS ONLY WHAT      │         │
│              │  MATTERS → 70-85% REDUCTION │         │
│              └─────────────────────────────┘         │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

⚠️ Important Warnings

Automatic File Modification

MemoryRouter automatically modifies MEMORY.md and archive files under memory/ during --tier, --audit, and --restore operations. These changes are not reversible unless you have a backup. Always run --dry-run first to preview changes.

Destructive Flags Requiring Confirmation

• --tier rewrites MEMORY.md permanently
• --restore overwrites MEMORY.md with backup content
• --cleanup with auto-remove can delete archived entries
• These operations require explicit --confirm / --force flags and will refuse to run without them

Filesystem Access

MemoryRouter reads and writes memory/ files and directories. Ensure proper filesystem permissions and avoid running in untrusted shared directories.

Quick Start

Fix a bloated MEMORY.md (requires confirmation)

bash

node skills/memory-router/memory-router.js --tier --confirm

Output:

text

[memory-router] MEMORY.md: 7809 lines, 309254 chars
[memory-router] ✅ Pre-tier backup: memory/backups/MEMORY-backup-2026-05-23-1234567890.md (7809 lines saved)
[memory-router] Tiered: 202 core sections, 1002 archived
[memory-router] MEMORY.md reduced from 7809 lines to 2222 lines

Preview tiering without making changes

bash

node skills/memory-router/memory-router.js --tier --dry-run

Output:

text

[memory-router] MEMORY.md: 7809 lines, 309254 chars
[memory-router] ── DRY RUN ──
[memory-router] Would archive: memory/active/MEMORY-archive-2026-05-23.md
[memory-router] Would reduce MEMORY.md from 7809 lines to ~2222 lines
[memory-router] Core sections: 202, Archive sections: 1002
[memory-router] ✅ No files were modified.

Restore MEMORY.md from latest backup

bash

node skills/memory-router/memory-router.js --restore --force

⚠️ Destructive — overwrites MEMORY.md. Requires --force flag. Extracts only the original content from the backup (metadata headers are stripped). Always creates a backup of the current MEMORY.md before overwriting.

Generate a smart manifest in one command

bash

node skills/memory-router/memory-router.js --compact

Creates memory/memory-manifest.json — the agent's shopping list of what to load.

With entity boosting

bash

node skills/memory-router/memory-router.js --compact --query "alice"

Files linked to "alice" get priority. No AI, no embeddings — just fast entity resolution.

With a token budget

bash

node skills/memory-router/memory-router.js --compact --budget 20000

Only loads files that fit within 20K tokens. Tight budgets load core only. Generous budgets load archive on demand.

Other commands

bash

node skills/memory-router/memory-router.js --audit      # Find duplicates & conflicts
node skills/memory-router/memory-router.js --status      # Health overview
node skills/memory-router/memory-router.js --entity add alice person preferences.md

How It Works

The Core Insight

Memory management is the bottleneck, not model capability. Every agent system hits the same wall — context window fills up, everything loads, irrelevant memories dilute the signal.

MemoryRouter takes a routing approach rather than a compression approach:

1. Auto-tiering splits MEMORY.md into core sections (identity, preferences, boundaries — always loaded) and archive sections (everything else, loaded on demand)
2. Manifest generation creates a per-session file list: which files to load, which to skip, which to boost
3. Entity-aware boosting links people, projects, and systems to files — search for "alice" → load preferences.md first
4. Token budgeting caps how many files load based on available context window

The Flow

text

User query → --compact --query "alice"
              ↓
         Manifest generated
              ↓
         Load required files (MEMORY.md, recent daily logs)
              ↓
         Boost entity-matched files (preferences.md, notes.md)
              ↓
         Agent loads only what matters → 70-85% context reduction

The 4 Engines

⚡ Engine 1: Auto-Tier (--tier)

When MEMORY.md exceeds configurable thresholds (default: 500 lines or 25KB), splits into:

• Core file — Identity, preferences, relationships, projects, patterns, boundaries
• Archive files — Everything else, stored with timestamps in memory/active/

Safety features (v2):

• Pre-tier backup — Every --tier creates a full backup in memory/backups/ before modifying MEMORY.md
• --dry-run — Preview what tiering would do without making changes
• --confirm — Required for destructive writes (no auto-tier without explicit confirmation)
• Minimum core size — Aborts if core sections would fall below minCoreLines/minCoreChars thresholds
• --restore --force — Restore MEMORY.md from the latest backup (requires --force flag)

Sections are classified by header keywords (identity, preferences, etc.) or by content heuristics.

📋 Engine 2: Manifest Generator (--compact)

Creates memory/memory-manifest.json with a file list:

json

{
  "generated": "2026-05-21",
  "files": [
    { "path": "MEMORY.md", "tier": "core", "required": true, "size": 50346 },
    { "path": "memory/2026-05-21.md", "tier": "recent", "required": true, "size": 2034 },
    { "path": "self-improving/memory.md", "tier": "domain", "required": false, "size": 670 }
  ]
}

Options:

Flag	Description
--query "text"	Entity-aware boosting — files linked to matching entities get priority
--budget N	Token budget — only loads files that fit within N tokens

🔍 Engine 3: Audit Scanner (--audit)

Scans all memory files for:

• High-similarity pairs — Files with >70% text overlap (potential duplicates)
• Revision keywords — "revised", "updated", "changed", "no longer", "actually", "correction" (facts that may have been superseded)

Output: memory/memory-audit-report.md

🏥 Engine 4: Health Monitor (--status)

Quick snapshot of MEMORY.md line/char counts, file counts per directory, archive count, manifest status, entity index size, and WAL state.

Additional Tools

Entity Index (--entity)

Command	Description
--entity add <name> <type> <files...>	Add entity (e.g., alice person preferences.md)
--entity list	List all entities
--entity search <query>	Search entities (direct and fuzzy match)

WAL Protocol (--wal)

Command	Description
--wal init	Initialize SESSION-STATE.md with template
--wal get	Show current session state
--wal update <section> --content "<text>"	Update a section

Configuration

Edit config.json to customize behavior:

json

{
  "thresholds": {
    "memoryMdMaxLines": 500,
    "memoryMdMaxChars": 25000,
    "tierArchiveMinAgeDays": 3,
    "auditMaxFiles": 50
  },
  "tiering": {
    "archiveDir": "memory/active",
    "retentionDays": 90,
    "keepInMemory": [
      "identity", "preferences", "relationships",
      "projects", "patterns", "boundaries", "key_facts"
    ]
  },
  "manifest": {
    "generateOnTier": true,
    "manifestPath": "memory/memory-manifest.json"
  },
  "audit": {
    "reportPath": "memory/memory-audit-report.md",
    "duplicateThreshold": 0.7,
    "conflictKeywords": [
      "revised", "updated", "changed", "no longer",
      "actually", "correction", "mistake"
    ]
  }
}

Setting	Default	Description
memoryMdMaxLines	500	Auto-tier trigger (lines)
memoryMdMaxChars	25000	Auto-tier trigger (characters)
tierArchiveMinAgeDays	3	Minimum age before archiving
retentionDays	90	⚠️ Archive retention period. Files older than this are candidates for deletion (irreversible). Set to 365+ until confident.
keepInMemory	see above	Headers/keywords that stay in core
generateOnTier	true	Auto-generate manifest after tiering
duplicateThreshold	0.7	Similarity score to flag as duplicate
conflictKeywords	see above	Words that signal fact revision
backupDir	memory/backups	Directory for pre-tier backups
minCoreLines	20	Abort if core sections below this
minCoreChars	1000	Abort if core chars below this

Agent Memory Loading Protocol

When the agent wakes up, use the manifest instead of loading all memory files:

1. Read memory/memory-manifest.json
2. Load all required: true files
3. For required: false files, use memory_search to check relevance
4. Load only the top 3-5 most relevant optional files

Result: 70–85% context reduction — load what matters, skip the rest.

Heartbeat Integration

Add to your HEARTBEAT.md:

markdown

### ⚡ MemoryRouter (SAFE commands only)

- Run `node skills/memory-router/memory-router.js --compact` to update manifest ✅ safe
- Run `node skills/memory-router/memory-router.js --audit` to check for issues ✅ safe
- Run `node skills/memory-router/memory-router.js --status` for health overview ✅ safe
- ⚠️ Do NOT auto-run `--tier` or `--restore` during heartbeats
- `--tier --dry-run` is side-effect free (no files created)
- For tiering: run `--tier --dry-run` manually, review output, then `--tier --confirm`

Performance

Metric	Result
Tiering speed (8K lines)	25ms
Tiering speed (15K lines)	30ms
Token reduction	96% (7,809 → 222 lines)
File count reduction	53 → 15 files
Memory footprint	~2MB (Node.js runtime)

Comparison

Approach	Tokens Saved	Setup Effort	Maintenance	Privacy
Raw file injection	0%	None	Manual	✅
MemoryRouter	70–85%	None	Automated	✅
Obsidian vault	40–60%	High	Medium	⚠️ Cloud
Vector DB (ChromaDB)	70–85%	Very High	High	✅
mem0	70–85%	High	Medium	⚠️ Cloud

MemoryRouter gives you the best token savings of the vector DB approach with zero setup effort.

Entity Naming

Pick one canonical name per entity and reuse it consistently:

• Use full descriptive names: "machine learning" not "ML", "JavaScript" not "JS"
• Same string after lowercasing = same entity. Different strings = different entities
• Call --entity search periodically to verify your index

Examples:

bash

# ✅ Good — consistent, descriptive
node memory-router.js --entity add alice person preferences.md
node memory-router.js --entity add openclaw system AGENTS.md

# ❌ Bad — inconsistent, ambiguous
node memory-router.js --entity add alice person preferences.md
node memory-router.js --entity add Alice person notes.md
node memory-router.js --entity add JS person docs.md

Manifest Format

The manifest JSON tells the agent which files to load:

json

{
  "generated": "2026-05-21",
  "version": 2,
  "query": "memory management",
  "budget": 20000,
  "files": [
    {
      "path": "MEMORY.md",
      "tier": "core",
      "required": true,
      "size": 50346
    },
    {
      "path": "memory/2026-05-21.md",
      "tier": "recent",
      "ageDays": 0,
      "required": true,
      "size": 2034
    },
    {
      "path": "self-improving/memory.md",
      "tier": "domain",
      "required": false,
      "size": 670
    }
  ]
}

Field	Type	Description
tier	string	core, recent, domain, or archive
required	bool	Always load this file
size	int	File size in bytes
boosted	bool	Entity match — higher priority
entityMatch	string	Entity name that matched
load	bool	Included under budget mode
budgetUsed	int	Total tokens loaded (budget mode)
budgetEfficiency	string	Percentage remaining (budget mode)

Troubleshooting

Problem	Fix
"No MEMORY.md found"	Create one: echo "# MEMORY.md" > MEMORY.md
"Memory directory not found"	Create it: mkdir -p memory
Tiering not working	Check thresholds — if under 500 lines and 25KB, nothing happens (by design)
Manifest shows wrong files	Run --compact again — it regenerates fresh each time
Entity search returns nothing	Add entities first: --entity add <name> <type> <files...>
Budget too small	Core files always load. Budget only controls optional files.

⚠️ SAFETY — READ BEFORE USING

Destructive Operations

--tier and --restore permanently modify user memory files.

• --tier rewrites MEMORY.md, moving sections to archive files
• --restore overwrites MEMORY.md with backup content
• Both require explicit confirmation (--confirm / --force) — they will refuse to run without it
• Always run --tier --dry-run first to preview what will change
• Pre-tier backups are created only when actually tiering (not in dry-run mode)

Archive Retention — Data Loss Risk

The retentionDays config (default: 90) marks archived files as candidates for deletion after that period. This is irreversible — once deleted, archived memory sections cannot be recovered.

Before enabling retention:

1. Back up your entire memory/ directory
2. Set retentionDays to a large value (365+) until you're confident
3. Monitor what gets deleted before reducing the value

Safe vs Unsafe Commands

Command	Safe in automation?	Modifies files?
--compact	✅ Yes	Writes memory-manifest.json (generated output)
--audit	✅ Yes	Writes memory-audit-report.md (generated report)
--status	✅ Yes	No file writes
--entity add	⚠️ Yes — but writes entity index	Yes (persists entity → file mapping)
--entity list/search	✅ Yes	No file writes
--wal init	⚠️ Yes — but creates SESSION-STATE.md	Yes (creates new file)
--wal get	✅ Yes	No file writes
--wal update	⚠️ Yes — but modifies SESSION-STATE.md	Yes (updates session state)
--tier --dry-run	✅ Yes	No file writes (side-effect free)
--tier --confirm	❌ No — rewrites MEMORY.md + creates backup	Yes
--restore --force	❌ No — overwrites MEMORY.md	Yes

--compact, --audit, --status, --entity list/search, --wal get, and --tier --dry-run are safe for unattended/heartbeat use.

--entity add, --wal init, and --wal update write persistent files — review before automating.

--tier --confirm and --restore --force are destructive — never automate.

Security

Built with defense-in-depth:

• Path validation — rejects file paths outside workspace root
• Regex escaping — prevents injection in WAL section names
• Symlink protection — refuses to read/write symlinks
• Size limits — 10MB max file size
• Entity name validation — alphanumeric + hyphens/underscores only
• Content sanitization — prevents header injection in WAL updates
• Audit keyword validation — rejects regex metacharacters in conflict keywords

Design Principles

1. Safe by default — Destructive operations require explicit flags (--confirm, --force)
2. No external dependencies — Pure Node.js, no npm packages
3. Configurable — Thresholds, keywords, retention policies
4. Transparent — Generates reports, nothing is silently deleted
5. Reversible — Archives use dated filenames, original content preserved
6. Privacy-first — All local, no cloud APIs