Restart Recovery

Make OpenClaw agent workflows restart-safe using checkpoint files, idempotent step tracking, wake/resume handoff, and stale-checkpoint monitoring. Use when users ask to recover from restarts, preserve progress across updates/config restarts, or implement checkpoint → restart → wake → resume patterns.

Implement restart-safe execution with this sequence:

1. checkpoint
2. restart
3. wake
4. resume from file

Use bundled scripts

• Use scripts/checkpoint_tool.py for deterministic checkpoint lifecycle:
  • start, update, resume, complete, list
• Use scripts/checkpoint_selfcheck.py for stale unfinished checkpoint alerts without LLM/tool-token usage.

Required operating rules

• Write checkpoints before any restart-prone operation (config patch/apply, update, service restart, long multi-step jobs).
• Use atomic file writes (.tmp then rename).
• Track completed and remaining steps explicitly.
• Include an idempotency key per workflow to avoid duplicate side effects after resume.
• Never write secrets/tokens to checkpoint files.
• Acquire a resume lock before continuing unfinished work.

Recommended checkpoint location

• Per agent: memory/checkpoints/*.json
• Shared/default workspace flows: memory/checkpoints/*.json at workspace root

Startup instruction to add in AGENTS.md

Add this exact section:

md

## Restart-safe workflow rule
On startup, check `memory/checkpoints/*.json` for unfinished workflows. If found, acquire resume lock, validate checkpoint schema/hash, and continue from the last completed idempotent step.

No-LLM stale checkpoint monitor

Use host scheduler (launchd/systemd/cron), not LLM cron jobs.

• Run every 10 minutes.
• Alert only when unfinished checkpoints are older than threshold.
• Log to local file for audit.

Suggested execution flow

1. checkpoint_tool.py start before risky step.
2. Perform step.
3. checkpoint_tool.py update --complete <step> --step <next>.
4. If restart happens, wake session/process.
5. On startup/re-entry, checkpoint_tool.py resume and continue.
6. checkpoint_tool.py complete when done.

Validation checklist

• Simulate mid-work restart and verify resume from last completed step.
• Confirm idempotency (no duplicate sends/writes/actions).
• Confirm stale-check script only alerts after threshold.
• Confirm old checkpoint cleanup policy (expiry).