`openclaw memory`

Manage semantic memory indexing, search, and promotion into MEMORY.md. Provided by the bundled memory-core plugin, available when plugins.slots.memory selects memory-core (the default). Other memory plugins expose their own CLI namespaces. Related: Memory concept, Dreaming, Memory config reference, Memory Wiki, wiki, Plugins.

`memory status`

openclaw memory status [--agent <id>] [--deep] [--index] [--fix] [--json] [--verbose]

Without --agent, runs for every agent in agents.entries; if no agent list is configured, falls back to the default agent.

Flag	Effect
`--deep`	Probe vector-store, embedding-provider, and semantic-search readiness (implies extra provider calls). Plain `memory status` stays fast and skips this; a complete persisted index is shown as `indexed (unprobed)`, while unknown vector/semantic state means it was not probed.
`--index`	Reindex if the store is dirty. Implies `--deep`.
`--fix`	Repair stale recall locks and normalize promotion metadata.
`--json`	Print JSON.
`--verbose`	Emit detailed per-phase logs.

If the Dreaming line stays off even with dreaming.enabled: true, or scheduled sweeps never seem to run, the managed dreaming cron depends on the default agent’s heartbeat firing to trigger reconciliation. See Dreaming for scheduling details. Status also lists any extra search paths from memory.search.extraPaths.

`memory index`

openclaw memory index [--agent <id>] [--force] [--verbose]

Same per-agent scoping as status. --force runs a full reindex instead of an incremental one. --verbose prints per-agent provider, model, sources, and extra-path details before showing indexing progress. The completion message reports the indexed file count. An empty corpus is a successful no-op: the command reports the resolved workspace path and that nothing was indexed, and leaves the missing memory/ directory for the first memory write to create.

`memory search`

openclaw memory search [query] [--query <text>] [--agent <id>] [--max-results <n>] [--min-score <n>] [--json]

Query: positional [query] or --query <text>. If both are set, --query wins. If neither is set, the command errors.
--agent <id>: defaults to the default agent (not the full agent list).
--max-results <n>: cap result count (positive integer).
--min-score <n>: filter out matches below this score.

If the index remains dirty after the bounded search-time refresh, human output warns that matches may be incomplete. With --json, the response adds stale: true, plus warning and action fields describing how to rebuild the index. Treat an empty results array as authoritative only when stale is absent.

`memory promote`

Rank short-term candidates from memory/YYYY-MM-DD.md and optionally append top entries to MEMORY.md.

openclaw memory promote [--agent <id>] [--limit <n>] [--min-score <n>] \
  [--min-recall-count <n>] [--min-unique-queries <n>] [--apply] [--include-promoted] [--json]

Flag	Default	Effect
`--limit <n>`		Max candidates to return/apply.
`--min-score <n>`	`0.75`	Minimum weighted promotion score.
`--min-recall-count <n>`	`3`	Minimum recall count required.
`--min-unique-queries <n>`	`3`	Minimum distinct query count required.
`--apply`	preview only	Append selected candidates to `MEMORY.md` and mark them promoted.
`--include-promoted`		Include candidates already promoted in previous cycles.
`--json`		Print JSON.

The CLI and scheduled dreaming sweep share the deep-phase defaults below. Explicit CLI flags override them for a one-off manual run. Ranking signals: recall frequency, retrieval relevance, query diversity, temporal recency, cross-day consolidation, and derived concept richness, drawn from both memory recalls and daily-ingestion passes, plus a light/REM phase reinforcement boost for repeated dreaming revisits. Before writing, promotion re-reads the live daily note, so edits or deletions to short-term snippets since ranking are respected instead of promoting from a stale snapshot.

`memory promote-explain`

Explain one promotion candidate’s score breakdown.

openclaw memory promote-explain <selector> [--agent <id>] [--include-promoted] [--json]

<selector> matches a candidate’s key (exact or substring), path, or snippet text.

`memory rem-harness`

Preview REM reflections, candidate truths, and deep-phase promotion output without writing anything.

openclaw memory rem-harness [--agent <id>] [--path <file-or-dir>] [--grounded] [--include-promoted] [--json]

--path <file-or-dir>: seed the harness from historical YYYY-MM-DD.md daily files instead of the live workspace.
--grounded: also render a grounded What Happened / Reflections / Possible Lasting Updates preview from the historical notes.

`memory rem-backfill`

Write grounded historical REM summaries into DREAMS.md for UI review. Reversible.

openclaw memory rem-backfill --path <file-or-dir> [--agent <id>] [--stage-short-term] [--json]
openclaw memory rem-backfill --rollback [--rollback-short-term] [--json]

--path <file-or-dir>: required unless --rollback/--rollback-short-term is set. Historical daily memory file(s) or directory to backfill from.
--stage-short-term: also seed grounded durable candidates into the live short-term promotion store so the normal deep phase can rank them.
--rollback: remove previously written grounded diary entries from DREAMS.md.
--rollback-short-term: remove previously staged grounded short-term candidates.

`memory session-backfill`

Distill retained session history through the same provenance and short-term staging pipeline used by dreaming. The default is a read-only preview, ordered from the oldest unprocessed day to the newest.

openclaw memory session-backfill --agent <id> [--from YYYY-MM-DD] [--to YYYY-MM-DD] \
  [--limit-days <n>] [--archive-files <path...>] [--rem | --apply] [--json]
openclaw memory session-backfill --agent <id> --rollback [--json]

Flag	Default	Effect
`--from YYYY-MM-DD`		Include messages on or after this day in the dreaming timezone.
`--to YYYY-MM-DD`		Include messages on or before this day in the dreaming timezone.
`--limit-days <n>`	`92`	Process at most this many hash-untracked days, oldest first.
`--archive-files <path...>`		Also inspect foreign transcript files as untrusted input; embedded owner metadata is not accepted.
`--rem`		Write deterministic grounded per-day previews to `DREAMS.md` only.
`--apply`	preview only	Drain all bounded batches, stage trusted candidates, and write reversible `DREAMS.md` diary blocks.
`--rollback`		Remove all grounded backfill candidates and shared backfill diary blocks, including `rem-backfill` artifacts.
`--json`		Print machine-readable per-day counts and top candidates.

The command reads the selected agent’s canonical session store, including retained SQLite transcript identities from session rotation. It uses the same tracked message hashes and per-run caps as live session ingestion, so repeated --apply runs skip already ingested messages. Owner and agent lines from the canonical store are eligible; tool output, web or non-owner input, and turns without trustworthy owner provenance are excluded. Foreign archive files have no authenticated owner-provenance contract, so their embedded ownership fields remain untrusted and cannot be staged. --apply drains the selected history to completion in one invocation while keeping each bounded batch in its own transaction. Human and JSON output report per-batch progress plus total batches, candidates, and staged entries. A successful apply followed immediately by preview therefore reports zero new candidates. It writes only the session corpus under memory/.dreams/, short-term staging state, and reversible diary entries in DREAMS.md. It never writes MEMORY.md or USER.md; durable promotion remains a separate memory promote or dreaming decision. --rem and --apply are mutually exclusive. Backfill rollback is intentionally shared with memory rem-backfill: both commands use the same grounded-only staging class and diary markers. Run session-backfill --rollback only when you intend to clear both commands’ grounded backfill artifacts from that workspace. Rollback also removes the tracked hashes added by session backfill and rewinds the affected transcript cursors, so the same candidates can be previewed and applied again.

Dreaming

Dreaming is the background memory consolidation system with three cooperative phases, run in order on one schedule: light (sort/stage short-term material), REM (reflect and surface themes), deep (promote durable facts into MEMORY.md). Only deep writes to MEMORY.md.

Enable with plugins.entries.memory-core.config.dreaming.enabled: true (default true); memory-core auto-manages the sweep cron job, no manual openclaw cron add required.
Toggle from chat with /dreaming on|off; inspect with /dreaming status (or /dreaming//dreaming help). on/off requires channel owner status or gateway operator.admin; status and help stay available to anyone who can invoke the command.
Human-readable phase output goes to DREAMS.md (or an existing dreams.md). By default (dreaming.storage.mode: "separate") each phase also writes a standalone report to memory/dreaming/<phase>/YYYY-MM-DD.md; set mode: "inline" to fold reports into the daily memory file instead, or "both" for both.
Scheduled and manual memory promote runs share the same deep-phase ranking signals and default thresholds; explicit CLI flags remain one-run overrides.
Scheduled runs fan out across every configured agent’s memory workspace.

Scheduled defaults (plugins.entries.memory-core.config.dreaming):

Key	Default
`frequency`	`0 3 * * *`
`phases.deep.minScore`	`0.75`
`phases.deep.minRecallCount`	`3`
`phases.deep.minUniqueQueries`	`3`
`phases.deep.recencyHalfLifeDays`	`14`
`phases.deep.maxAgeDays`	`30`
`phases.deep.maxPromotedSnippetTokens`	`160`

{
  "plugins": {
    "entries": {
      "memory-core": {
        "config": {
          "dreaming": {
            "enabled": true
          }
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

Full key list and phase details: Dreaming, Memory config reference.

SecretRef gateway dependency

If active memory remote API key fields are configured as SecretRefs, memory commands resolve them from the active gateway snapshot; if the gateway is unavailable, the command fails fast. This requires a gateway supporting the secrets.resolve method; older gateways return an unknown-method error.

CLI commands

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Technical reference

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Contributing

Memory

`openclaw memory`

`memory status`

`memory index`

`memory search`

`memory promote`

`memory promote-explain`

`memory rem-harness`

`memory rem-backfill`

`memory session-backfill`

Dreaming

SecretRef gateway dependency

​openclaw memory

​memory status

​memory index

​memory search

​memory promote

​memory promote-explain

​memory rem-harness

​memory rem-backfill

​memory session-backfill

​Dreaming

​SecretRef gateway dependency

​Related

`openclaw memory`

`memory status`

`memory index`

`memory search`

`memory promote`

`memory promote-explain`

`memory rem-harness`

`memory rem-backfill`

`memory session-backfill`

Dreaming

SecretRef gateway dependency

Related