OpenClaw Workspace Skill

Overview

OpenClaw workspace files form the agent's "soul and memory" — they are injected into the system prompt on every turn (or on relevant turns), giving the agent its identity, behavioral rules, environmental knowledge, and long-term memory. Managing these files well is critical: bloat wastes tokens, redundancy creates confusion, and stale content leads to bad decisions.

Token budget: 20,000 chars per file, ~150,000 chars total across all bootstrap files.

File Inventory

Security rule: MEMORY.md must NEVER be loaded in group chats or sub-agent sessions — it contains private context that should not leak.

For full details on each file's design, anti-patterns, and section structure, see references/workspace-files.md.

Workspace Paths

Config key: agents.defaults.workspace or per-agent agents.list[].workspace.

Workflow: Audit Existing Workspace

Use when workspace files may be bloated, stale, or redundant.

1. Read all active files — AGENTS.md, SOUL.md, TOOLS.md, USER.md, IDENTITY.md, HEARTBEAT.md, BOOT.md, MEMORY.md
2. Check character counts:

   wc -c ~/.openclaw/workspace/AGENTS.md
   wc -c ~/.openclaw/workspace/SOUL.md
   wc -c ~/.openclaw/workspace/TOOLS.md
   wc -c ~/.openclaw/workspace/USER.md
   wc -c ~/.openclaw/workspace/IDENTITY.md
   wc -c ~/.openclaw/workspace/MEMORY.md
   # Or all at once:
   wc -c ~/.openclaw/workspace/*.md
   

3. Flag files over 10,000 chars — prime candidates for trimming or offloading to docs/
4. Check for redundancy — same fact in SOUL.md and AGENTS.md? Same tool note in TOOLS.md and MEMORY.md?
5. Check for staleness — outdated SSH hosts, old tool names, deprecated rules, historical context that's no longer needed
6. Check MEMORY.md discipline — should contain curated facts, lessons learned, decisions, and critical rules — not raw session summaries or task-specific notes
7. Propose targeted edits — trim, move to docs/, or restructure

See references/optimization-guide.md for specific optimization strategies.

Workflow: Set Up New Workspace

Use when creating a workspace for a new agent from scratch.

File creation order (matters for boot sequence to work):

1. SOUL.md — persona and values first; everything else follows from identity
2. AGENTS.md — boot sequence, safety rules, checklist table
3. IDENTITY.md — name, emoji, avatar
4. USER.md — human profile and preferences (main agent only)
5. TOOLS.md — environment-specific notes (add as you discover env details)
6. MEMORY.md — start minimal; only truly universal iron laws
7. HEARTBEAT.md — periodic health checks (optional, add when needed)
8. BOOT.md — startup hooks (optional, only if hooks.internal.enabled = true)
9. BOOTSTRAP.md — first-run onboarding (optional; delete after first successful startup)

Minimal viable workspace: AGENTS.md + SOUL.md + TOOLS.md. Everything else is optional.

BOOTSTRAP.md note: If creating a BOOTSTRAP.md, include a self-deletion instruction at the end:

## Final Step
Delete this file: exec `rm ~/.openclaw/workspace/BOOTSTRAP.md`

Workflow: Memory Distillation

Use periodically (weekly or monthly) to keep MEMORY.md lean.

1. Read all recent daily logs: memory/YYYY-MM-DD.md files from the past period
2. Identify candidates for promotion to MEMORY.md:
   • Rules violated more than once (recurring mistakes)
   • Hard-won discoveries that aren't in skills docs
   • Env-specific facts that should always be in context (not left to memory_search recall)
3. Check what's already in MEMORY.md — avoid duplicates
4. Draft additions — use iron-law format: concise, action-oriented, unambiguous
5. Archive old daily logs — move files older than 30 days to memory/archive/ or delete
6. Check MEMORY.md total size — keep under 10,000 chars; if larger, review for rules that are now stable enough to move to a skill's SKILL.md instead

Do NOT put in MEMORY.md:

• Long narratives or session summaries
• Things already covered in skill docs
• Anything specific to a single past task
• Episodic or task-specific memories (store those via memory_search/SQLite instead)

Workflow: Add or Update a Checklist

Use when adding a new high-risk operation type or updating an existing checklist.

1. Create or edit checklists/<operation-name>.md
2. Structure:

   # Checklist: <Operation Name>
   
   ## Pre-flight
   - [ ] Step 1
   - [ ] Step 2
   
   ## Execution
   - [ ] Step 3
   
   ## Verification
   - [ ] Confirm outcome
   - [ ] Log result in memory
   

3. Register in AGENTS.md — add a row to the checklists table:

   | <Operation description> | `checklists/<filename>.md` |
   

4. Keep checklists short — if a checklist exceeds ~50 lines, it's probably trying to be documentation; move narrative content to docs/ and keep only the actionable steps

Workflow: Update TOOLS.md

Use when adding a new tool, device, or environment capability.

TOOLS.md = environment-specific cheat sheet. It should contain:

• SSH hosts and common commands for this specific machine
• TTS provider, voice IDs, and any quirks
• Camera IDs or device names for this setup
• Node device IDs or names
• Any local aliases or shortcuts that aren't obvious

Do NOT put in TOOLS.md:

• General skill documentation (use skill SKILL.md files)
• Things that are the same across all environments
• Installation instructions (use docs/)

Format conventions:

# TOOLS.md - Local Notes

## SSH
- Main server: `ssh user@hostname`

## TTS
- Provider: Edge
- Voice: zh-CN-XiaoxiaoNeural

## Cameras
- Living room: node-id `abc123`, device `camera-0`

Common Issues

File exceeds token limit

Symptom: File is over 20,000 chars; OpenClaw may truncate it. Fix: Audit for content that belongs in docs/ (loaded on demand) instead of the bootstrap file. Move detailed references, historical context, and long examples out. Keep only what needs to be on every turn.

MEMORY.md leaking to groups

Symptom: Agent shares private context in group chats or Discord. Fix: Ensure MEMORY.md boot step in AGENTS.md is gated: "Main session only: Read MEMORY.md". Verify the agent's boot sequence explicitly checks session type before loading.

Boot sequence not loading files

Symptom: Agent doesn't know about content in SOUL.md, USER.md, or MEMORY.md at session start. Fix: Check that AGENTS.md boot sequence explicitly names each file to read. The agent won't auto-load files — it follows the boot sequence instructions in AGENTS.md. Verify hooks.internal.enabled = true in config if using BOOT.md.

MEMORY.md growing too large

Symptom: File approaches or exceeds 10,000 chars; reading it on every turn wastes significant context. Fix: Run memory distillation workflow. Move stable rules that have been incident-free for months into relevant skill SKILL.md files. Delete rules that are no longer relevant.

Workspace changes not taking effect

Symptom: Agent still uses old content after editing a workspace file. Fix: Workspace files are read at session start per the boot sequence. Restart the gateway or start a new session for changes to take effect.

Reference Files