Self-improving Agent Memory Upgrade (SurrealDB)

A comprehensive knowledge graph memory system with semantic search, episodic memory, working memory, automatic context injection, and per-agent isolation.

Security Scan

The skill appears to implement the advertised SurrealDB-based agent memory features, but it includes high-risk behaviors (reading workspace files and sending them to OpenAI, scheduled jobs that can run autonomously, and an opt-in curl|sh installer) and some documentation inconsistencies that warrant extra scrutiny before installing.

Purpose & Capability

The declared binaries (surreal, python3), the required env vars (OPENAI_API_KEY plus SurrealDB connection creds), and the included scripts and gateway/ui integration are consistent with a local SurrealDB-backed memory system that extracts embeddings and injects context. Nothing here appears unrelated to the stated goal of a knowledge-graph memory.

Instruction Scope

The runtime instructions explicitly tell the skill to read workspace files (MEMORY.md and memory/YYYY-MM-DD.md) and send their contents to OpenAI for extraction/embeddings, and to auto-inject selected facts into agent system prompts. Those behaviors are central to the feature but are high-risk (potential secret leakage, system-prompt influence). The docs claim most high-impact actions are opt-in (cron disabling, source-patching requires --apply), but several scripts and gateway handlers can run shell commands and perform source changes if invoked, so a careful audit and opt-in gating are required.

Install Mechanism

There is no registry install spec, but the repository includes scripts/ install.sh and a gateway method that will run a network installer (curl -sSf https://install.surrealdb.com | sh) if the user triggers the install action. The project documents this as opt-in and provides a manual installation path, which mitigates but does not eliminate risk (curl|sh remains a high-risk operation).

Credentials

Requested env vars (OPENAI_API_KEY, SURREAL_USER, SURREAL_PASS, SURREAL_URL) map to embedding/LLM calls and connecting to a local SurrealDB instance. No unrelated cloud or third-party credentials are requested. OPENAI_API_KEY is appropriately the primary credential given the embedding/extraction behavior.

Persistence & Privilege

The skill does not set always:true and does not request unusual platform privileges. However it registers cron jobs and offers an auto-injection feature that modifies the agent system prompt on each turn — a powerful capability. The docs claim cron jobs are isolated in background sessions in recent changelogs, but other docs describe them as running in the main session; this inconsistency should be resolved before enabling scheduled behavior.

Scan Findings in Context

[system-prompt-override] expected: The skill intentionally implements 'memory_inject' which appends context to the system prompt; the static scanner flagged 'system-prompt-override' because auto-injection affects the system prompt. This behavior is central to the skill but is sensitive and should be opt-in and tightly controlled.

What to consider before installing

This skill implements a powerful local memory system but includes several high-risk operations that you must consciously opt into. Before installing or enabling features: - Audit your memory files (MEMORY.md and memory/*.md) and remove any secrets (API keys, passwords, private tokens). The extraction job sends those files to OpenAI. - Prefer manual installation of SurrealDB; avoid the curl | sh installer unless you fully trust the source. The installer is documented as opt-in but the gateway exposes an 'install' action that will run it if you click it. - Keep SurrealDB bound to 127.0.0.1 and change default credentials (root/root) before exposing any network access. - Do not enable auto-injection until you review the knowledge graph contents and start with a small max_facts limit (3–5). Auto-injection modifies the system prompt and can significantly change agent behavior. - Verify how cron jobs run on your platform: the changelog claims jobs run in isolated background sessions, but some documentation (SECURITY.md) still describes main-session cron behavior. Confirm the current runtime behavior (sessionTarget) before enabling scheduled extraction or relation discovery. - If you plan to apply the code patches to OpenClaw, run the provided integrate-openclaw.sh in dry-run mode and keep a git backup of your OpenClaw source; only apply with --apply after manual review. Given these caveats, the skill is coherent with its purpose but carries non-trivial operational and privacy risks; proceed only after the checks above.

SurrealDB Knowledge Graph Memory v2.2

A comprehensive knowledge graph memory system with semantic search, episodic memory, working memory, automatic context injection, and per-agent isolation — enabling every agent to become a continuously self-improving AI.

Description

Use this skill for:

• Semantic Memory — Store and retrieve facts with confidence-weighted vector search
• Episodic Memory — Record task histories and learn from past experiences
• Working Memory — Track active task state with crash recovery
• Auto-Injection — Automatically inject relevant context into agent prompts
• Outcome Calibration — Facts gain/lose confidence based on task outcomes
• Self-Improvement — Scheduled extraction and relation discovery make every agent smarter over time

Triggers: "remember this", "store fact", "what do you know about", "memory search", "find similar tasks", "learn from history"

Security: This skill reads workspace memory files and sends their content to OpenAI for extraction. It registers two background cron jobs and (optionally) patches OpenClaw source files. All behaviors are opt-in or documented. See SECURITY.md for the full breakdown before enabling.

Required: OPENAI_API_KEY, surreal binary, python3 ≥3.10

---

🔄 Self-Improving Agent Loop

This is the core concept: every agent equipped with this skill improves itself automatically, with no manual intervention required. Two scheduled cron jobs — knowledge extraction and relationship correlation — run on a fixed schedule and continuously grow the knowledge graph. Combined with auto-injection, the agent gets progressively smarter with each conversation.

The Cycle

[Agent Conversation]
       ↓  stores important facts via knowledge_store_sync
[Memory Files]  ← agent writes to MEMORY.md / daily memory/*.md files
       ↓  every 6 hours — extraction cron fires
[Entity + Fact Extraction]  ← LLM reads files, extracts structured facts + entities
       ↓  facts stored with embeddings + agent_id tag
[Knowledge Graph]  ← SurrealDB: facts, entities, mentions
       ↓  daily at 3 AM — relation discovery cron fires
[Relationship Correlation]  ← AI finds semantic links between facts
       ↓  relates_to edges created between connected facts
[Richer Knowledge Graph]  ← facts are no longer isolated; they form a web
       ↓  on every new message — auto-injection reads the graph
[Context Window]  ← relevant facts + relations + episodes injected automatically
       ↓
[Better Responses]  ← agent uses accumulated knowledge to respond more accurately
       ↑  new insights written back to memory files → cycle repeats

What Each Scheduled Job Does

Job 1 — Knowledge Extraction (every 6 hours)

Script: scripts/extract-knowledge.py extract

• Reads MEMORY.md and all memory/YYYY-MM-DD.md files in the workspace
• Uses an LLM (GPT-4) to extract structured facts, entities, and key concepts
• Hashes file content to skip unchanged files — only processes diffs
• Stores each fact with:
  • A vector embedding (OpenAI text-embedding-3-small) for semantic search
  • A confidence score (defaults to 0.9)
  • An agent_id tag so facts stay isolated to the right agent
  • source metadata pointing back to the originating file
• Result: raw conversational knowledge becomes searchable, structured memory

Job 2 — Relationship Correlation (daily at 3 AM)

Script: scripts/extract-knowledge.py discover-relations

• Queries the graph for facts that have no relationships yet ("isolated facts")
• Batches them and asks an LLM to identify semantic connections between them
• Creates relates_to edges in SurrealDB linking related facts
• Result: isolated facts become a connected knowledge web — the agent can now traverse relationships, not just keyword-match
• Over time, the graph evolves from a flat list into a rich semantic network

Job 3 — Deduplication (daily at 4 AM)

Script: scripts/extract-knowledge.py dedupe --threshold 0.92

• Compares all facts using vector similarity (cosine distance)
• Facts above the threshold (92% similar) are flagged as duplicates
• Keeps the higher-confidence fact, removes the duplicate
• Prevents extraction from creating bloat over time
• Result: a clean, non-redundant knowledge base

Job 4 — Reconciliation (weekly, Sundays at 5 AM)

Script: scripts/extract-knowledge.py reconcile --verbose

• Applies time-based confidence decay to aging facts
• Prunes facts that have decayed below minimum confidence
• Cleans orphaned entities with no linked facts
• Consolidates near-duplicate entities
• Result: the knowledge graph stays healthy, relevant, and pruned of stale information

Why This Makes Agents Self-Improving

When auto-injection is enabled, every new conversation starts with the most relevant slice of the accumulated knowledge graph. As the agent:

1. Has conversations → writes insights to memory files
2. Extraction job fires → converts those insights into structured facts
3. Relation job fires → connects those facts to existing knowledge
4. Next conversation → auto-injection pulls in richer, more connected context

...the agent effectively gets smarter with every cycle. It learns from its own outputs, grounds future responses in its accumulated history, and avoids repeating mistakes (via episodic memory and outcome calibration).

OpenClaw Cron Jobs (Required)

The skill requires 5 cron jobs for full self-improving operation. All run as isolated background sessions with no delivery:

Job Name	Schedule	What it runs
Memory Knowledge Extraction	Every 6 hours (0 */6 * * *)	extract-knowledge.py extract — extracts facts from memory files
Memory Relation Discovery	Daily at 3 AM (0 3 * * *)	extract-knowledge.py discover-relations — AI-powered relationship finding
Memory Deduplication	Daily at 4 AM (0 4 * * *)	extract-knowledge.py dedupe --threshold 0.92 — removes duplicate/near-duplicate facts
Memory Reconciliation	Weekly Sun 5 AM (0 5 * * 0)	extract-knowledge.py reconcile --verbose — prunes stale facts, applies confidence decay, cleans orphans

All jobs use sessionTarget: "isolated" with delivery: none. They run in fully isolated background sessions and never fire into the main agent session. A bottom-right corner toast notification appears in the Control UI when each job starts and completes.

Setup commands (run after installation):

# 1. Knowledge Extraction — every 6 hours
openclaw cron add \
  --name "Memory Knowledge Extraction" \
  --cron "0 */6 * * *" \
  --agent main --session isolated --no-deliver \
  --timeout-seconds 300 \
  --message "Run memory knowledge extraction. Execute: cd SKILL_DIR && source .venv/bin/activate && python3 scripts/extract-knowledge.py extract"

# 2. Relation Discovery — daily at 3 AM
openclaw cron add \
  --name "Memory Relation Discovery" \
  --cron "0 3 * * *" --exact \
  --agent main --session isolated --no-deliver \
  --timeout-seconds 300 \
  --message "Run memory relation discovery. Execute: cd SKILL_DIR && source .venv/bin/activate && python3 scripts/extract-knowledge.py discover-relations"

# 3. Deduplication — daily at 4 AM
openclaw cron add \
  --name "Memory Deduplication" \
  --cron "0 4 * * *" --exact \
  --agent main --session isolated --no-deliver \
  --timeout-seconds 120 \
  --message "Run knowledge graph deduplication. Execute: cd SKILL_DIR && source .venv/bin/activate && python3 scripts/extract-knowledge.py dedupe --threshold 0.92"

# 4. Reconciliation — weekly on Sundays at 5 AM
openclaw cron add \
  --name "Memory Reconciliation" \
  --cron "0 5 * * 0" --exact \
  --agent main --session isolated --no-deliver \
  --timeout-seconds 180 \
  --message "Run knowledge graph reconciliation. Execute: cd SKILL_DIR && source .venv/bin/activate && python3 scripts/extract-knowledge.py reconcile --verbose"

Replace SKILL_DIR with your actual skill path.

To check job status:

openclaw cron list

Adding Cron Jobs for a New Agent

When spawning a new agent that should self-improve, register its own extraction job:

# OpenClaw cron add (via Koda) — example for a 'scout-monitor' agent
# Schedule: every 6h, extract facts tagged to scout-monitor
python3 scripts/extract-knowledge.py extract --agent-id scout-monitor

The --agent-id flag ensures extracted facts are isolated to that agent's pool and don't pollute the main agent's knowledge. Each agent self-improves independently while still reading shared scope='global' facts.

---

Features (v2.2)

Feature	Description
Semantic Facts	Vector-indexed facts with confidence scoring
Episodic Memory	Task histories with decisions, problems, solutions, learnings
Working Memory	YAML-based task state that survives crashes
Outcome Calibration	Facts used in successful tasks gain confidence
Auto-Injection	Relevant facts/episodes injected into prompts automatically
Entity Extraction	Automatic entity linking and relationship discovery
Confidence Decay	Stale facts naturally decay over time
Agent Isolation	Each agent has its own scoped memory pool; scope='global' facts are shared across all agents
Self-Improving Loop	Scheduled extraction + relation discovery automatically grow the graph

---

Agent Isolation (v2.2)

Each agent in OpenClaw has its own scoped memory pool. Facts are tagged with agent_id on write; all read queries filter to (agent_id = $agent_id OR scope = 'global').

How it works

Agent A (main)          Agent B (scout-monitor)
   ┌──────────┐              ┌──────────┐
   │ 391 facts│              │   0 facts│   ← isolated pools
   └──────────┘              └──────────┘
         ↑                         ↑
         └──── scope='global' ─────┘   ← shared facts visible to both

Storing facts

All knowledge_store / knowledge_store_sync calls accept agent_id:

# Stored to scout-monitor's pool only
mcporter call surrealdb-memory.knowledge_store \
    content="API is healthy at /ping" \
    agent_id='scout-monitor'

# Stored globally (visible to all agents)
mcporter call surrealdb-memory.knowledge_store \
    content="Project uses Python 3.12" \
    agent_id='main' scope='global'

Auto-injection (agent-aware)

With references/enhanced-loop-hook-agent-isolation.md applied to src/agents/enhanced-loop-hook.ts, the enhanced loop automatically extracts the agent ID from the session key and passes it to memory_inject. No manual configuration needed — each agent's auto-injection is silently scoped to its own facts.

Extraction (agent-aware)

Pass --agent-id to extract-knowledge.py so cron-extracted facts are correctly tagged:

python3 scripts/extract-knowledge.py extract --agent-id scout-monitor

Default is "main". Update cron jobs accordingly for non-main agents.

Backward compatibility

Existing facts without an explicit agent_id are treated as owned by "main". Nothing is lost on upgrade to v2.2.

---

Dashboard UI

The Memory tab in the Control dashboard provides a two-column layout:

Left Column: Dashboard

• 📊 Statistics — Live counts of facts, entities, relations, and archived items
• Confidence Bar — Visual display of average confidence score
• Sources Breakdown — Facts grouped by source file
• 🏥 System Health — Status of SurrealDB, schema, and Python dependencies
• 🔗 DB Studio — Quick link to SurrealDB's web interface

Right Column: Operations

• 📥 Knowledge Extraction

  • Extract Changes — Incrementally extract facts from modified files
  • Find Relations — Discover semantic relationships between existing facts
  • Full Sync — Complete extraction + relation discovery
  • Progress bar with real-time status updates

• 🔧 Maintenance

  • Apply Decay — Reduce confidence of stale facts
  • Prune Stale — Archive facts below threshold
  • Full Sweep — Complete maintenance cycle

• 💡 Tips — Quick reference for operations

When the system needs setup, an Installation section appears with manual controls.

---

Prerequisites

1. SurrealDB installed and running:

   # Install (one-time)
   ./scripts/install.sh
   
   # Start server
   surreal start --bind 127.0.0.1:8000 --user root --pass root file:~/.openclaw/memory/knowledge.db
   

2. Python dependencies (use the skill's venv):

   cd /path/to/surrealdb-memory
   python3 -m venv .venv
   source .venv/bin/activate
   pip install surrealdb openai pyyaml
   

3. OpenAI API key for embeddings (set in OpenClaw config or environment)

4. mcporter configured with this skill's MCP server

MCP Server Setup

Add to your config/mcporter.json:

{
  "servers": {
    "surrealdb-memory": {
      "command": ["python3", "/path/to/surrealdb-memory/scripts/mcp-server-v2.py"],
      "env": {
        "OPENAI_API_KEY": "${OPENAI_API_KEY}",
        "SURREAL_URL": "http://localhost:8000",
        "SURREAL_USER": "root",
        "SURREAL_PASS": "root"
      }
    }
  }
}

---

MCP Tools (11 total)

Core Tools

Tool	Description
knowledge_search	Semantic search for facts
knowledge_recall	Get a fact with full context (relations, entities)
knowledge_store	Store a new fact
knowledge_stats	Get database statistics

v2 Tools

Tool	Description
knowledge_store_sync	Store with importance routing (high importance = immediate write)
episode_search	Find similar past tasks
episode_learnings	Get actionable learnings from history
episode_store	Record a completed task episode
working_memory_status	Get current task state
context_aware_search	Search with task context boosting
memory_inject	Intelligent context injection for prompts

memory_inject Tool

The memory_inject tool returns formatted context ready for prompt injection:

# Scoped to a specific agent (returns only that agent's facts + global facts)
mcporter call surrealdb-memory.memory_inject \
    query="user message" \
    max_facts:7 \
    max_episodes:3 \
    confidence_threshold:0.9 \
    include_relations:true \
    agent_id='scout-monitor'

Output:

## Semantic Memory (Relevant Facts)
📌 [60% relevant, 100% confidence] Relevant fact here...

## Related Entities
• Entity Name (type)

## Episodic Memory (Past Experiences)
✅ Task: Previous task goal [similarity]
   → Key learning from that task

---

Auto-Injection (Enhanced Loop Integration)

When enabled, memory is automatically injected into every agent turn:

1. Enable in Mode UI:

   • Open Control dashboard → Mode tab
   • Scroll to "🧠 Memory & Knowledge Graph" section
   • Toggle "Auto-Inject Context"
   • Configure limits (max facts, max episodes, confidence threshold)

2. How it works:

   • On each user message, memory_inject is called automatically
   • Relevant facts are searched based on the user's query
   • If average fact confidence < threshold, episodic memories are included
   • Formatted context is injected into the agent's system prompt
   • v2.2: With references/enhanced-loop-hook-agent-isolation.md applied, the active agent's ID is automatically extracted from the session key and passed as agent_id — each agent's injection is silently scoped to its own facts

3. Configuration (in Mode settings):

   Setting	Default	Description
   Auto-Inject Context	Off	Master toggle
   Max Facts	7	Maximum semantic facts to inject
   Max Episodes	3	Maximum episodic memories
   Confidence Threshold	90%	Include episodes when below this
   Include Relations	On	Include entity relationships

---

CLI Commands

# Activate venv
source .venv/bin/activate

# Store a fact
python scripts/memory-cli.py store "Important fact" --confidence 0.9

# Search
python scripts/memory-cli.py search "query"

# Get stats
python scripts/knowledge-tool.py stats

# Run maintenance
python scripts/memory-cli.py maintain

# Extract from files (incremental)
python scripts/extract-knowledge.py extract

# Extract for a specific agent
python scripts/extract-knowledge.py extract --agent-id scout-monitor

# Force full extraction (all files, not just changed)
python scripts/extract-knowledge.py extract --full

# Discover semantic relationships
python scripts/extract-knowledge.py discover-relations

---

Database Schema (v2)

Tables

• fact — Semantic facts with embeddings and confidence
• entity — Extracted entities (people, places, concepts)
• relates_to — Relationships between facts
• mentions — Fact-to-entity links
• episode — Task histories with outcomes
• working_memory — Active task snapshots

Key Fields (fact)

• content — The fact text
• embedding — Vector for semantic search
• confidence — Base confidence (0-1)
• success_count / failure_count — Outcome tracking
• scope — global, client, or agent
• agent_id — Which agent owns this fact (v2.2)

Key Fields (episode)

• goal — What was attempted
• outcome — success, failure, abandoned
• decisions — Key decisions made
• problems — Problems encountered (structured)
• solutions — Solutions applied (structured)
• key_learnings — Extracted lessons

---

Confidence Scoring

Effective confidence is calculated from:

• Base confidence (0.0–1.0)
• + Inherited boost from supporting facts
• + Entity boost from well-established entities
• + Outcome adjustment based on success/failure history
• - Contradiction drain from conflicting facts
• - Time decay (configurable, ~5% per month)

---

Maintenance

Automated — OpenClaw Cron (as deployed)

The self-improving loop runs via 4 registered OpenClaw cron jobs:

Every 6h     → extract-knowledge.py extract            (extract facts from memory files)
Daily 3 AM   → extract-knowledge.py discover-relations  (find relationships between facts)
Daily 4 AM   → extract-knowledge.py dedupe              (remove duplicate facts)
Weekly Sun   → extract-knowledge.py reconcile            (prune stale, decay, clean orphans)

See the "OpenClaw Cron Jobs (Required)" section above for setup commands.

To verify they're active:

openclaw cron list

To manually trigger any job:

cd SKILL_DIR && source .venv/bin/activate
python3 scripts/extract-knowledge.py extract
python3 scripts/extract-knowledge.py discover-relations
python3 scripts/extract-knowledge.py dedupe --threshold 0.92
python3 scripts/extract-knowledge.py reconcile --verbose

Manual (UI)

Use the Maintenance section in the Memory tab:

• Apply Decay — Reduce confidence of stale facts
• Prune Stale — Archive facts below 0.3 confidence
• Full Sweep — Run complete maintenance cycle

---

Files

Scripts

File	Purpose
mcp-server-v2.py	MCP server with all 11 tools
mcp-server.py	Legacy v1 MCP server
episodes.py	Episodic memory module
working_memory.py	Working memory module
memory-cli.py	CLI for manual operations
extract-knowledge.py	Bulk extraction from files (supports --agent-id)
knowledge-tools.py	Higher-level extraction
schema-v2.sql	v2 database schema
migrate-v2.py	Migration script

Integration

File	Purpose
openclaw-integration/gateway/memory.ts	Gateway server methods
openclaw-integration/ui/memory-view.ts	Memory dashboard UI
openclaw-integration/ui/memory-controller.ts	UI controller

---

Troubleshooting

"Connection refused" → Start SurrealDB: surreal start --bind 127.0.0.1:8000 --user root --pass root file:~/.openclaw/memory/knowledge.db

"No MCP servers configured" → Ensure mcporter is run from a directory containing config/mcporter.json with the surrealdb-memory server defined

Memory injection returning null → Check that OPENAI_API_KEY is set in the environment → Verify SurrealDB is running and schema is initialized

Empty search results → Run extraction from the UI or via CLI: python3 scripts/extract-knowledge.py extract

"No facts to analyze" on relation discovery → This is normal if all facts are already related — the graph is well-connected. Run extraction first if the graph is empty.

Progress bar not updating → Ensure the gateway has been restarted after UI updates → Check browser console for polling errors

Facts from wrong agent appearing → Check that agent_id is being passed correctly to all store/search calls → Verify references/enhanced-loop-hook-agent-isolation.md is applied for auto-injection scoping

---

Migration from v1 / v2.1

# Apply v2 schema (additive, won't delete existing data)
./scripts/migrate-v2.sh

# Or manually:
source .venv/bin/activate
python scripts/migrate-v2.py

All existing facts without an agent_id are treated as owned by "main" — backward compatible.

---

Stats

Check your knowledge graph via UI (Dashboard section) or CLI:

mcporter call surrealdb-memory.knowledge_stats

Example output:

{
  "facts": 379,
  "entities": 485,
  "relations": 106,
  "episodes": 3,
  "avg_confidence": 0.99
}

---

v2.2 — Agent isolation, self-improving loop, cron-based extraction & relationship correlation