Memory Oracle

A structured, self-maintaining memory system for OpenClaw agents.

Why this exists

OpenClaw's built-in memory is markdown files + LLM discretion. This means:

• The agent decides whether to save (often doesn't)
• The agent decides whether to search (often doesn't)
• Compaction silently destroys chat-only instructions
• MEMORY.md becomes a dumping ground with no cleanup
• No structured search, no decay, no dedup

Memory Oracle fixes all of these with zero external dependencies (Python stdlib + SQLite).

Architecture

Two processes, mirroring the HEAVY/LIGHT pattern:

LIGHT process (every turn, zero tokens, zero API calls)

1. capture.py — Rule-based extraction runs AFTER each agent response. Parses the conversation turn for facts, decisions, preferences, tasks using bilingual (RU+EN) pattern matching. Writes to SQLite. If a fact's content hash already exists → bumps access_count instead.

2. recall.py — Three-slot retrieval runs BEFORE each agent response. Injects relevant context from SQLite using a budget of ~2000 tokens:

   • Slot 1 (10%): Guardrails — always present, immune to decay
   • Slot 2 (30%): Fresh facts from last 24h by importance
   • Slot 3 (60%): FTS5 search ranked by score = importance × recency × access_boost

3. checkpoint.py — Emergency save triggered by OpenClaw's pre-compaction hook. Dumps all hot-tier context to SQLite with source = "checkpoint" tag.

HEAVY process (cron, uses Claude API)

Runs nightly at 03:00 agent-local time:

1. consolidate.py — Sends today's daily log to Claude API (~2K tokens). Extracts structured facts that rule-based capture missed.

2. reflect.py — Analyzes the day's facts against MEMORY.md and prior reflections.

   • Light mode (daily): contradictions, new topics, priorities, stale candidates
   • Deep mode (weekly, Mondays): 7-day trend analysis, pattern detection, strategic rebalancing Outputs reflection.json with score modifications + YYYY-MM-DD-reflection.md digest.

3. maintenance.py — Applies decay, prunes dead facts, archives cold tier, re-renders MEMORY.md from top SQLite facts, vacuums DB.

Agent protocol

These rules go into your AGENTS.md or equivalent config:

## Memory Oracle Protocol

BEFORE responding to the user:
  Run: python3 ~/.openclaw/skills/memory-oracle/scripts/recall.py --query "<user message>"
  Inject the output into your context as relevant background.

AFTER responding to the user:
  Run: python3 ~/.openclaw/skills/memory-oracle/scripts/capture.py --turn "<full turn text>"

When the user says "remember this", "never forget", "this is critical":
  Run: python3 ~/.openclaw/skills/memory-oracle/scripts/capture.py --turn "<text>" --guardrail

When the user asks "what do you know about X":
  Run: python3 ~/.openclaw/skills/memory-oracle/scripts/recall.py --query "X" --verbose
  Show the facts with their scores, sources, and ages.

Every 10 turns (heartbeat):
  Run: python3 ~/.openclaw/skills/memory-oracle/scripts/capture.py --flush
  This forces extraction of any buffered context.

Installation

cd ~/.openclaw/skills/
git clone <repo-url> memory-oracle
cd memory-oracle
bash install.sh

The installer will:

1. Initialize SQLite database with FTS5 index
2. Import existing MEMORY.md and daily logs (if present)
3. Prompt you to optionally set up cron jobs for the HEAVY process
4. Print a snippet to paste into your AGENTS.md
5. Print a snippet to paste into your OpenClaw compaction config

Note: The installer does NOT auto-edit your AGENTS.md or OpenClaw config. You review and paste the snippets yourself.

Configuration

All thresholds live in config/settings.json. Key tunables:

• recall_budget_tokens: Total injection budget (default: 2000)
• decay_rate: Daily score decay multiplier (default: 0.05)
• archive_threshold: Score below which facts move to cold (default: 0.2)
• delete_threshold: Score below which cold facts are purged (default: 0.05)
• delete_min_age_days: Minimum age before deletion (default: 90)
• reflect_deep_day: Day of week for deep reflection, 0=Mon (default: 0)
• api_model: Model for HEAVY process (default: claude-sonnet-4-20250514)
• api_max_tokens: Max response tokens for LLM calls (default: 1000)

Uninstall / rollback

cd ~/.openclaw/skills/memory-oracle
bash uninstall.sh

The uninstaller will:

1. Export full memory state to JSON (for re-import if you reinstall)
2. Remove cron jobs (with confirmation)
3. Restore original MEMORY.md from the backup created during install
4. Optionally delete the SQLite database (asks with fact count shown)
5. Clean up reflection files and pending queue
6. Print remaining manual steps (AGENTS.md cleanup, compaction config)

Use --force to skip confirmations, --keep-db to keep the database while removing everything else.

Known issues & limitations

FTS5 not available on some systems. Minimal containers (Alpine) and old Debian/Ubuntu may lack FTS5. install.sh checks for this and prints fix instructions. Most systems with Python 3.8+ include FTS5.

Conflict with other memory skills. If you have memory-complete, continuity, or agent-brain installed, they may compete for MEMORY.md writes. Disable other memory plugins before installing: plugins.slots.memory = "none" in your OpenClaw config, or remove conflicting skills.

Cron unavailable in containers. Docker, sandboxed VPS, and some hosting environments block crontab. install.sh handles this gracefully — just run the HEAVY pipeline manually or via your own scheduler (systemd timer, supervisor, etc.):

python3 scripts/consolidate.py && python3 scripts/reflect.py --auto && python3 scripts/maintenance.py

Large existing MEMORY.md (>50KB). Import during init_db.py works but may create noisy low-confidence facts. After install, run python3 scripts/maintenance.py --stats and check the fact count. If too high, run python3 scripts/maintenance.py to let decay and pruning clean up naturally over a few days.

Rule-based capture misses implicit facts. Capture.py uses pattern matching — it catches ~70% of facts. The remaining 30% are caught by consolidate.py (HEAVY process) with LLM extraction. Without ANTHROPIC_API_KEY, only rule-based capture works.

File structure

memory-oracle/
├── SKILL.md              ← You are here
├── README.md             ← GitHub-friendly docs
├── LICENSE               ← MIT
├── install.sh            ← Bootstrap + cron setup
├── uninstall.sh          ← Safe rollback + export
├── scripts/
│   ├── init_db.py        ← Schema + migration from existing .md
│   ├── capture.py        ← LIGHT: rule-based extraction
│   ├── recall.py         ← LIGHT: 3-slot hybrid search
│   ├── checkpoint.py     ← Pre-compaction emergency save
│   ├── consolidate.py    ← HEAVY: LLM fact extraction
│   ├── reflect.py        ← HEAVY: adaptive reflection
│   ├── maintenance.py    ← HEAVY: decay, prune, re-render
│   └── migrate.py        ← Schema version management
├── config/
│   ├── settings.json     ← All tunables
│   └── patterns.json     ← Bilingual extraction rules
├── prompts/
│   ├── consolidate.txt   ← LLM extraction prompt
│   ├── reflect_light.txt ← Daily reflection prompt
│   └── reflect_deep.txt  ← Weekly reflection prompt
└── tests/
    ├── test_capture.py   ← Pattern matching tests
    └── test_recall.py    ← Ranking + budget tests

Graceful degradation

Every component is designed to fail safely:

• SQLite corrupted → recall falls back to grep over MEMORY.md
• API unreachable → consolidate/reflect queue to pending_queue.json, LIGHT continues
• Cron missed → next run processes all accumulated data
• Bad LLM output → stored in failed_reflections/, scores unchanged
• Low confidence reflection → stored but not applied, re-evaluated next cycle

Privacy & data flow

What stays local (always):

• SQLite database with all facts, scores, and access logs
• MEMORY.md, daily logs, SESSION-STATE.md
• Rule-based capture and recall (LIGHT process) — zero network calls

What is sent to Anthropic API (HEAVY process only):

• consolidate.py sends the text of today's daily log to Claude API for fact extraction
• reflect.py sends extracted facts (not raw logs) and current memory state for analysis
• Both require ANTHROPIC_API_KEY env var to be set
• If the API key is not set, HEAVY process is skipped entirely — LIGHT works alone

If you are not comfortable sending daily logs to an external LLM:

• Set api.model to a local model endpoint in config/settings.json
• Or simply don't set ANTHROPIC_API_KEY — the skill runs in LIGHT-only mode with rule-based capture and full recall, just without LLM-powered consolidation and reflection

Other privacy rules:

• MEMORY.md and recall output are NEVER loaded in group contexts
• Guardrails table is private-session only
• maintenance.py --export dumps full state to JSON for backup/migration

Author

• 🐙 github.com/Oleglegegg
• 💬 Telegram: @oleglegegg
• 🪙 Tip (USDT TRC-20): TMkk6SHacogyEtSepLPzh8qU12iPTsG8Y3