Your agent said it. Now you can prove it.

Zero-cost, full-fidelity backup of every conversation your OpenClaw agents ever had. Searchable, human-readable, and it never calls an LLM.

The Problem

OpenClaw's built-in memory system is great — it compresses conversations into curated MEMORY.md files. But what happens to the raw conversations?

• Agent said something important 3 days ago? Gone after compaction.
• Need to audit what your agent actually said? No record exists.
• Want to search for a specific quote across all sessions? Impossible.
• Agent's memory feels "off" and you can't figure out why? No trail to follow.

The built-in system remembers the highlights. This system remembers everything.

The Solution

OpenClaw Raw Memory System hooks into the Gateway and automatically backs up every agent conversation to human-readable Markdown files — with zero token cost.

Agent talks → Gateway writes JSONL → This plugin reads JSONL → Daily .md files
                                                                    ↓
                                                            Searchable by agents

What You Get

Quick Start

1. Install the Plugin

openclaw plugins install git:github.com/fredox-dev/openclaw-raw-memory-system

2. Enable and Restart

openclaw plugins enable openclaw-raw-memory-system
openclaw gateway restart

3. Verify It's Running

# Check plugin status
openclaw plugins inspect openclaw-raw-memory-system --runtime --json

# Backups appear here after a few minutes
ls ~/.openclaw/raw-memory-backup/

4. (Optional) Install the Search Skill

Copy the bundled skill to your workspace so agents can search raw conversations:

cp -r ~/.openclaw/plugins/openclaw-raw-memory-system/skill ~/.openclaw/workspace/skills/raw-memory

Agents can now search:

node ~/.openclaw/workspace/skills/raw-memory/scripts/search.js search --agent main --query "keyword"

That's it. The watcher starts automatically with the Gateway and backs up conversations every 10 minutes. No further configuration needed.

How It Works

Backup Structure

~/.openclaw/raw-memory-backup/
├── main/
│   ├── 2026-07-08.md
│   ├── 2026-07-09.md
│   └── 2026-07-10.md
├── pulse/
│   └── 2026-07-10.md
├── lumina/
│   └── 2026-07-10.md
└── ...

What a Backup File Looks Like

# RAW: 2026-07-08

--- 2026-07-08T09:15:32 | source:gateway ---
**User:** Help me check the weather

--- 2026-07-08T09:15:35 | source:gateway ---
**Alix:** Sure, let me check that for you

--- 2026-07-08T14:20:00 | source:gateway ---
**User:** Write an email to the client

Every message, every timestamp — preserved exactly as it happened.

Search Tool

When an agent discovers missing memory, it can search raw conversations:

# Search for keywords
node scripts/search.js search --agent main --query "keyword" --limit 3

# Search within date range
node scripts/search.js search --agent main --query "database" --from 2026-07-01 --to 2026-07-10

# Check backup status
node scripts/search.js status --agent main

Search features:

• Keyword matching: All keywords must appear (AND logic)
• Context window: 3 sentences before + target + 3 after = 7 sentences of context
• Date filtering: --from and --to for date ranges
• Sort order: Results sorted by timestamp, newest first

Configuration

All configuration is optional. The system auto-detects everything by default.

Environment Variables

Agent label pattern: RAW_MEMORY_AGENT_<AGENTID> where <AGENTID> is the agent ID uppercased. Works for any agent, not just the ones listed above.

See docs/CONFIGURATION.md for the full configuration guide.

Comparison

They complement each other: Built-in memory for daily use, raw backup for when you need the full picture.

Use Cases

• 🔍 Debugging Agent Behavior — "Why did my agent say that?"
• 📜 Compliance & Audit — "What did my agent promise to that client?"
• 🧩 Memory Recovery — "My agent forgot something important."
• 📊 Analytics — "How much does my agent actually talk?"

Documentation

• Architecture — System design and data flow
• Configuration — Full configuration reference
• Migration Guide — Migrating from v1.x

Credits

This project is a fork of openclaw-memory-system by oceanwh, originally created under the MIT License.

The v2.0 refactor was done by the Xylem Team to support the new OpenClaw plugin API (register(api) with registerHook()), remove all hardcoded values, and add full documentation.

All credit for the original concept and implementation goes to oceanwh. 🙏

License

MIT License — see LICENSE. Both the original work and this fork are released under MIT.