OpenClaw Dreaming Setup — Memory Consolidation Config

Configure and manage OpenClaw Dreaming — background memory consolidation, auto-promotion to MEMORY.md, dream diary

Security Scan

The instructions and requirements are internally consistent: this is an instruction-only helper for configuring OpenClaw's Dreaming/memory features and it does not request unrelated credentials, installs, or suspicious behavior.

Purpose & Capability

Name/description match the content: SKILL.md shows how to enable Dreaming, configure schedules, check status, run manual promotion/backfill, and read/write the stated memory files. All requested operations (editing openclaw.json, restarting gateway, reading workspace files) are expected for this purpose.

Instruction Scope

Runtime instructions reference only OpenClaw configuration, CLI commands (openclaw memory ...), and local workspace paths (~/openclaw-data/...). There are no instructions to read unrelated system files, exfiltrate data, or call external endpoints. Commands that modify state (restart gateway, apply promotions) are explicit and within scope.

Install Mechanism

No install spec and no code files — instruction-only — so nothing will be written or downloaded during install. This is the lowest-risk install mechanism for this kind of task.

Credentials

No environment variables, credentials, or external API tokens are requested. The configuration edits and CLI usage described are proportional to enabling and managing Dreaming.

Persistence & Privilege

always is false and the skill is user-invocable; it does not request permanent platform presence or attempt to modify other skills' configs. The operations it recommends affect only OpenClaw configuration and its own memory files.

Assessment

This skill is an instruction-only guide for configuring OpenClaw Dreaming and appears coherent with that purpose. Before applying changes: (1) verify the examples against your actual openclaw.json structure and adjust paths/timezone/frequency as needed, (2) back up openclaw-data workspace files (MEMORY.md, DREAMS.md, openclaw.json) before running promotions or restarting the gateway, (3) use preview/--json or dry-run commands (e.g., openclaw memory promote without --apply, rem-harness previews) to inspect what will change, and (4) because the skill source is unknown, prefer to copy-paste and review the config snippets manually rather than applying them blindly. If you need stronger assurance, confirm the skill author or use an official OpenClaw docs reference for these operations.

OpenClaw Dreaming Setup

Configure and manage OpenClaw's Dreaming system — the background memory consolidation that promotes short-term notes into long-term MEMORY.md.

When to Use

• User wants to enable/configure Dreaming for automatic memory consolidation
• Checking dreaming status, phase health, or promotion history
• Troubleshooting blocked dreaming or heartbeat issues
• Managing dream diary (DREAMS.md)
• Manual memory promotion or backfill

What is Dreaming?

Dreaming automatically:

1. Light phase — stages recent daily notes and session transcripts
2. REM phase — extracts patterns and recurring themes
3. Deep phase — promotes strong signals into MEMORY.md

It runs as a background cron job tied to heartbeat.

Quick Setup

Enable Dreaming

Add to openclaw.json:

{
  plugins: {
    entries: {
      "memory-core": {
        config: {
          dreaming: {
            enabled: true,
            // Optional: custom schedule (default: 03:00 daily)
            frequency: "0 3 * * *",
            timezone: "Asia/Jerusalem",
          },
        },
      },
    },
  },
}

Then restart gateway: openclaw gateway restart

With Skill Workshop (recommended combo)

{
  plugins: {
    entries: {
      "memory-core": {
        config: {
          dreaming: {
            enabled: true,
          },
        },
      },
      "skill-workshop": {
        enabled: true,
        config: {
          autoCapture: true,
          approvalPolicy: "pending",
          reviewMode: "hybrid",
        },
      },
    },
  },
}

With Active Memory

{
  plugins: {
    entries: {
      "active-memory": {
        enabled: true,
        config: {
          enabled: true,
          agents: ["main"],
          allowedChatTypes: ["direct"],
          modelFallback: "zai/glm-5-turbo",
          queryMode: "recent",
          promptStyle: "balanced",
          timeoutMs: 15000,
        },
      },
      "memory-core": {
        config: {
          dreaming: { enabled: true },
        },
      },
    },
  },
}

Commands Reference

Check Status

# Via slash command (in chat)
/dreaming status

# Via CLI
openclaw memory status --deep

Manual Promotion

# Preview what would be promoted
openclaw memory promote

# Apply promotion
openclaw memory promote --apply

# Limit candidates
openclaw memory promote --limit 5

# Explain why a specific topic would/wouldn't promote
openclaw memory promote-explain "claw-earn wallet"

Dream Diary

# View dream diary
cat ~/openclaw-data/workspace/DREAMS.md

# View specific phase reports
ls ~/openclaw-data/workspace/memory/dreaming/
cat ~/openclaw-data/workspace/memory/dreaming/deep/2026-04-24.md

REM Harness (preview without writing)

# Preview REM reflections
openclaw memory rem-harness

# Preview as JSON
openclaw memory rem-harness --json

Historical Backfill

# Preview grounded diary from past notes
openclaw memory rem-harness --path memory/2026-04-23.md --grounded

# Apply backfill
openclaw memory rem-backfill --path memory/2026-04-23.md

# Stage for deep promotion
openclaw memory rem-backfill --path memory/2026-04-23.md --stage-short-term

# Rollback if needed
openclaw memory rem-backfill --rollback

Dreaming Phase Model

Phase	Purpose	Writes to MEMORY.md?
Light	Sort and stage recent notes	No
REM	Extract patterns and themes	No
Deep	Promote strong candidates	Yes

Deep ranking signals:

• Frequency (0.24) — how often the topic appears
• Relevance (0.30) — retrieval quality
• Query diversity (0.15) — different contexts
• Recency (0.15) — time-decayed freshness
• Consolidation (0.10) — multi-day recurrence
• Conceptual richness (0.06) — tag density

Troubleshooting

Problem	Check
Dreaming never runs	heartbeat.every must be > 0 (e.g., 30m)
Status shows "blocked"	Default agent needs heartbeat enabled
No promotions	Need more daily notes and variety
MEMORY.md growing too fast	Adjust minScore threshold

Heartbeat dependency

Dreaming rides the default agent's heartbeat. If heartbeat is broken:

1. Check agents.defaults.heartbeat.every — must be positive (e.g., "30m")
2. Don't override heartbeat on a specific agent without including the default
3. /dreaming status will say "blocked" if heartbeat is missing

Important Notes

• Dreaming is opt-in and disabled by default
• Default schedule: 03:00 daily (configurable via frequency)
• Only grounded memory snippets are promoted, not diary entries
• DREAMS.md is for human reading; MEMORY.md is for the agent
• Promotion is reversible via --rollback