Enabling active memory

Remember across conversations

For a personal or fully trusted agent, enable bounded recall across its other private conversations with one per-agent setting:

{  agents: {    entries: {      personal: {        memory: {          search: {            rememberAcrossConversations: true,          },        },      },    },  },}

The setting defaults on for personal installs: global session.dmScope must be unset or "main", and no binding may override session.dmScope. Any configured DM isolation defaults it off. An explicit true or false always wins. When enabled, OpenClaw indexes that agent's session transcripts and runs an Active Memory retrieval pass before eligible private replies. The pass can read relevant transcript excerpts from the same agent's other private conversations. It excludes the conversation already being answered.

The privacy boundary is fixed:

• private direct and persistent explicit UI conversations can recall one another
• groups and channels are neither recall sources nor recall destinations
• another agent's transcripts are never eligible
• unknown or archived transcripts without enough conversation metadata are rejected

This does not merge transcripts, change session keys or delivery routes, widen tools.sessions.visibility, or grant broader sessions_* tool access. Shared workspace memory (MEMORY.md and memory/*.md) keeps its existing behavior.

Active Memory must remain enabled. Retrieval adds a bounded blocking step to eligible replies. An intentional no-intent skip or an unavailable search adds a short hidden outcome note instead of recalled transcript context. This tells the main model that recall did not run or could not finish without exposing provider errors. Timeout and empty results keep their existing behavior. OpenClaw's built-in memory provider supports this protected transcript-recall path. Other memory providers keep their own recall behavior but do not automatically receive private transcript authorization. openclaw doctor reports an unsupported provider or missing memory_search tool.

Advanced Active Memory quick start

Paste into openclaw.json for an advanced safe default: plugin on, scoped to main, direct-message sessions only, model inherited from the session.

{  plugins: {    entries: {      "active-memory": {        enabled: true,        config: {          enabled: true,          mode: "escalate",          agents: ["main"],          allowedChatTypes: ["direct"],          modelFallback: "google/gemini-3-flash",          queryMode: "recent",          promptStyle: "balanced",          timeoutMs: 15000,          maxSummaryChars: 220,          persistTranscripts: false,          logging: true,        },      },    },  },}

plugins.entries.* (including active-memory.config) is in the no-restart config category: the Gateway reloads the plugin runtime automatically and no manual restart is needed. If you want to force a full restart anyway, run:

openclaw gateway restart

To inspect it live in a conversation:

/verbose on/trace on

What the key fields do:

• plugins.entries.active-memory.enabled: true turns the plugin on
• config.mode: "escalate" runs deep recall only for recall intent without a strong deterministic hit
• config.agents: ["main"] opts only the main agent in
• config.allowedChatTypes: ["direct"] scopes it to direct-message sessions (opt in groups/channels explicitly)
• config.model (optional) pins a dedicated recall model; unset inherits the current session model
• config.modelFallback is used only when no explicit or inherited model resolves
• config.fastMode optionally overrides fast mode for recall without changing the main agent
• config.promptStyle: "balanced" is the default for recent mode
• active memory still runs only for eligible interactive persistent chat sessions (see When it runs)