OpenClaw memory
https://docs.openclaw.ai/concepts/memory
Memory system of the viral OpenClaw personal agent: plain Markdown files (USER.md, MEMORY.md, daily memory/YYYY-MM-DD.md notes, DREAMS.md) with memory_search/memory_get tools, automatic pre-compaction flush and a 'dreaming' sweep that distils daily notes into long-term memory; pluggable engines (LanceDB, Honcho, wiki). spawned an ecosystem of memory plugins (memory-lancedb-pro, gbrain, MemClaw)
Active · Verified 2026-10-23 · fresh as of 2026-10-23 · 20 cited facts, 1 with a third-party source · 1 recorded change · Suggest a correction
At a glance
- Tier
- T3
- Section
- File-backed / editor paradigms
- Created
- 2025-11-24 repo fix
- Latest release
- last commit 2026-10-22 repo fix
- GitHub
- https://github.com/openclaw/openclaw (392751★) repo fix
- Pricing
- searched not found fix
- Funding
- searched not found fix
- Freshness
- 2026-10-23 fix
- Layer
- agent-infra repo fix
- Licensing
- open-source vendor fix
- SDK languages
- typescript registry fix
- Protocols
- mcp-client, openai-compatible vendor fix
- Developer activity
- OpenRank 859.76 (12-mo avg 788.49) · 3690 participants — 2026-09 third-party fix
Memory taxonomy
- storage
- file
- retrieval
- injection
- persistence
- long-term
- update
- agent-controlled
- unit
- fact
- governance
- editable
- conflict
- overwrite
When to use
Optimised for: searched not found
Anti-fit: searched not found
Pros & cons
Pros
searched not found
Cons
searched not found
Claims & capabilities
OpenClaw remembers things by writing plain Markdown files in your agent's workspace (default ~/.openclaw/workspace ). The model only remembers what gets saved to disk; there is no hidden state.
Technical surface
- API surface
- searched not found
- Backend storage
- searched not found
- Deployment
- searched not found
- Embedding model
- searched not found
- Multi-tenancy
- searched not found
- MCP
- searched not found
- A2A
- searched not found
- OpenTelemetry
- yes
Alternatives to OpenClaw memory → live options ranked by shared design, licence, hosting and MCP support
Similar systems
Other file-backed / editor paradigms in the catalog, ranked by inbound references.
- Cline .clinerules T2
Markdown rule files in a workspace .clinerules/ (or .cline/rules/) directory plus global rules in ~/Documents/Cline/Rules; workspace wins on conflict. Per-rule toggles, conditional rules via YAML 'paths' globs, and AGENTS.md / .cursorrules / .windsurfrules are also read.
- AGENTS.md T1
Open Markdown 'README for agents' at repo root; nested files in subprojects take precedence (closest wins). Holds build/test commands, conventions and PR rules. Stewarded by the Agentic AI Foundation (Linux Foundation); supported by Codex, Jules, Cursor, Copilot, Gemini CLI, Devin/Windsurf and others.
- Aider CONVENTIONS.md / .aider.conf.yml T2
CONVENTIONS.md (any name, loaded via --read or read: in config); .aider.conf.yml (home / git-root / cwd, last wins); .aiderignore (gitignore-syntax).
- Basic Memory T3
Local-first MCP memory where each memory is a Markdown note with observations and wikilink relations that form a traversable knowledge graph, indexed with SQLite (optional Postgres vectors), plus an optional hosted cloud. widely used MCP memory server with a paid cloud tier
- CLAUDE.md T1
CLAUDE.md files (managed, user, project, local scopes) concatenated into context at session start, with @imports and path-scoped .claude/rules/; complemented by Claude-written auto memory (MEMORY.md index). Project-root file re-injected after /compact.
- Cline Memory Bank T2
memory-bank/ directory of Markdown: projectBrief.md , productContext.md , activeContext.md , systemPatterns.md , techContext.md , progress.md . Loaded in full at start of every task. Compensates for context-window reset between sessions.
Sources (19 cited facts, 1 third-party)
Each fact links to the page it came from; the badge says who published it (how to read sources).
- What it is Framework vendor
- What it does & what's distinct Memory system of the viral OpenClaw personal agent: plain Markdown files (USER.md, MEMOR… vendor
- Claims / benefits OpenClaw remembers things by writing plain Markdown files in your agent's workspace (def… vendor
- Created 2025-11-24 repo
- Latest release last commit 2026-10-22 repo
- License MIT vendor
- GitHub https://github.com/openclaw/openclaw (392751★) repo
- Mindshare 392751 GitHub stars repo
- OTel yes vendor
- Project & sources https://docs.openclaw.ai/concepts/memory ; https://github.com/openclaw/openclaw vendor
- obs-opentelemetry yes vendor
- cost-prompt-caching yes vendor
- architecture-deployment-locus local vendor
- licensing-bucket open-source vendor
- positioning-platform-vs-product product vendor
- taxonomy-three-layer-rollup agent-infra repo
- developer-activity-opendigger {"activity":8994.31,"as_of":"2026-09","openrank_12mo":788.49,"openrank_current":859.76,"… third-party
- sdk-languages typescript registry
- protocol-support mcp-client,openai-compatible vendor
What changed
Changes to this record's lifecycle, licence, release, pricing and hosting facts, from the catalog's git history. Subscribe (Atom)
- 2026-10-23 Added to the catalog #222
Related systems
Referenced by (1)
- Mem0 integrates with — Mem0 docs have an OpenClaw integration page (Add long-term memory to OpenClaw agents using the Mem0 plugin with skills-based memory extraction and recall). (verified 2026-10-29)