clawvault

ClawVault 🐘

An elephant never forgets. Structured memory for OpenClaw agents.

Built for OpenClaw. Canonical install: npm CLI + hook install + hook enable.

Security & Transparency

What this skill does:

• Reads/writes markdown files in your vault directory (CLAWVAULT_PATH or auto-discovered)
• repair-session reads and modifies OpenClaw session transcripts (~/.openclaw/agents/) — creates backups before writing
• Provides an OpenClaw hook pack (hooks/clawvault/handler.js) with lifecycle events (gateway:startup, gateway:heartbeat, command:new, session:start, compaction:memoryFlush, cron.weekly). Hook is opt-in and must be installed/enabled.
• observe --compress makes LLM API calls (Gemini Flash by default) to compress session transcripts into observations

Environment variables used:

• CLAWVAULT_PATH — vault location (optional, auto-discovered if not set)
• OPENCLAW_HOME / OPENCLAW_STATE_DIR — used by repair-session to find session transcripts
• GEMINI_API_KEY — used by observe for LLM compression (optional, only if using observe features)

No cloud sync — all data stays local. No network calls except LLM API for observe compression.

This is a full CLI tool, not instruction-only. It writes files, registers hooks, and runs code.

Auditability: the published ClawHub skill bundle includes SKILL.md, HOOK.md, and hooks/clawvault/handler.js so users can inspect hook behavior before enabling it.

Install (Canonical)

npm install -g clawvault
openclaw hooks install clawvault
openclaw hooks enable clawvault

# Verify and reload
openclaw hooks list --verbose
openclaw hooks info clawvault
openclaw hooks check
# restart gateway process

clawhub install clawvault can install skill guidance, but does not replace explicit hook pack installation.

Recommended Safe Install Flow

# 1) Review package metadata before install
npm view clawvault version dist.integrity dist.tarball repository.url

# 2) Install CLI + qmd dependency
npm install -g clawvault@latest
npm install -g github:tobi/qmd

# 3) Install hook pack, but DO NOT enable yet
openclaw hooks install clawvault

# 4) Review hook source locally before enabling
node -e "const fs=require('fs');const p='hooks/clawvault/handler.js';console.log(fs.existsSync(p)?p:'hook file not found in current directory')"
openclaw hooks info clawvault

# 5) Enable only after review
openclaw hooks enable clawvault
openclaw hooks check

Setup

# Initialize vault (creates folder structure + templates)
clawvault init ~/my-vault

# Or set env var to use existing vault
export CLAWVAULT_PATH=/path/to/memory

# Optional: shell integration (aliases + CLAWVAULT_PATH)
clawvault shell-init >> ~/.bashrc

Quick Start for New Agents

# Start your session (recover + recap + summary)
clawvault wake

# Capture and checkpoint during work
clawvault capture "TODO: Review PR tomorrow"
clawvault checkpoint --working-on "PR review" --focus "type guards"

# End your session with a handoff
clawvault sleep "PR review + type guards" --next "respond to CI" --blocked "waiting for CI"

# Health check when something feels off
clawvault doctor

Reality Checks Before Use

# Verify runtime compatibility with current OpenClaw setup
clawvault compat

# Verify qmd is available
qmd --version

# Verify OpenClaw CLI is installed in this shell
openclaw --version

ClawVault currently depends on qmd for core vault/query flows.

Current Feature Set

Memory Graph

ClawVault builds a typed knowledge graph from wiki-links, tags, and frontmatter:

# View graph summary
clawvault graph

# Refresh graph index
clawvault graph --refresh

Graph is stored at .clawvault/graph-index.json — schema versioned, incremental rebuild.

Graph-Aware Context Retrieval

# Default context (semantic + graph neighbors)
clawvault context "database decision"

# With a profile preset
clawvault context --profile planning "Q1 roadmap"
clawvault context --profile incident "production outage"
clawvault context --profile handoff "session end"

# Auto profile (used by OpenClaw hook)
clawvault context --profile auto "current task"

Context Profiles

Profile	Purpose
default	Balanced retrieval
planning	Broader strategic context
incident	Recent events, blockers, urgent items
handoff	Session transition context
auto	Hook-selected profile based on session intent

OpenClaw Compatibility Diagnostics

# Check hook wiring, event routing, handler safety
clawvault compat

# Strict mode for CI
clawvault compat --strict

Core Commands

Wake + Sleep (primary)

clawvault wake
clawvault sleep "what I was working on" --next "ship v1" --blocked "waiting for API key"

Store memories by type

# Types: fact, feeling, decision, lesson, commitment, preference, relationship, project
clawvault remember decision "Use Postgres over SQLite" --content "Need concurrent writes for multi-agent setup"
clawvault remember lesson "Context death is survivable" --content "Checkpoint before heavy work"
clawvault remember relationship "Justin Dukes" --content "Client contact at Hale Pet Door"

Quick capture to inbox

clawvault capture "TODO: Review PR tomorrow"

Search (requires qmd installed)

# Keyword search (fast)
clawvault search "client contacts"

# Semantic search (slower, more accurate)
clawvault vsearch "what did we decide about the database"

Context Death Resilience

Wake (start of session)

clawvault wake

Sleep (end of session)

clawvault sleep "what I was working on" --next "finish docs" --blocked "waiting for review"

Checkpoint (save state frequently)

clawvault checkpoint --working-on "PR review" --focus "type guards" --blocked "waiting for CI"

Recover (manual check)

clawvault recover --clear
# Shows: death time, last checkpoint, recent handoff

Handoff (manual session end)

clawvault handoff \
  --working-on "ClawVault improvements" \
  --blocked "npm token" \
  --next "publish to npm, create skill" \
  --feeling "productive"

Recap (bootstrap new session)

clawvault recap
# Shows: recent handoffs, active projects, pending commitments, lessons

Auto-linking

Wiki-link entity mentions in markdown files:

# Link all files
clawvault link --all

# Link single file
clawvault link memory/2024-01-15.md

Folder Structure

vault/
├── .clawvault/           # Internal state
│   ├── last-checkpoint.json
│   └── dirty-death.flag
├── decisions/            # Key choices with reasoning
├── lessons/              # Insights and patterns
├── people/               # One file per person
├── projects/             # Active work tracking
├── handoffs/             # Session continuity
├── inbox/                # Quick captures
└── templates/            # Document templates

Best Practices

1. Wake at session start — clawvault wake restores context
2. Checkpoint every 10-15 min during heavy work
3. Sleep before session end — clawvault sleep captures next steps
4. Use types — knowing WHAT you're storing helps WHERE to put it
5. Wiki-link liberally — [[person-name]] builds your knowledge graph

Checklist for AGENTS.md

## Memory Checklist
- [ ] Run `clawvault wake` at session start
- [ ] Checkpoint during heavy work
- [ ] Capture key decisions/lessons with `clawvault remember`
- [ ] Use wiki-links like `[[person-name]]`
- [ ] End with `clawvault sleep "..." --next "..." --blocked "..."`
- [ ] Run `clawvault doctor` when something feels off

Append this checklist to existing memory instructions. Do not replace your full AGENTS.md behavior unless you intend to.

Session Transcript Repair (v1.5.0+)

When the Anthropic API rejects with "unexpected tool_use_id found in tool_result blocks", use:

# See what's wrong (dry-run)
clawvault repair-session --dry-run

# Fix it
clawvault repair-session

# Repair a specific session
clawvault repair-session --session <id> --agent <agent-id>

# List available sessions
clawvault repair-session --list

What it fixes:

• Orphaned tool_result blocks referencing non-existent tool_use IDs
• Aborted tool calls with partial JSON
• Broken parent chain references

Backups are created automatically (use --no-backup to skip).

Troubleshooting

• qmd not installed — install qmd, then confirm with qmd --version
• No ClawVault found — run clawvault init or set CLAWVAULT_PATH
• CLAWVAULT_PATH missing — run clawvault shell-init and add to shell rc
• Too many orphan links — run clawvault link --orphans
• Inbox backlog warning — process or archive inbox items
• "unexpected tool_use_id" error — run clawvault repair-session
• OpenClaw integration drift — run clawvault compat
• Hook enable fails / hook not found — run openclaw hooks install clawvault, then openclaw hooks enable clawvault, restart gateway, and verify via openclaw hooks list --verbose
• Graph out of date — run clawvault graph --refresh
• Wrong context for task — try clawvault context --profile incident or --profile planning

Stability Snapshot

• Typecheck passes (npm run typecheck)
• Test suite passes (449/449)
• Cross-platform path handling hardened for Windows in:
  • qmd URI/document path normalization
  • WebDAV path safety and filesystem resolution
  • shell-init output expectations
• OpenClaw runtime wiring validated by clawvault compat --strict (requires local openclaw binary for full runtime validation)

Integration with qmd

ClawVault uses qmd for search:

# Install qmd
bun install -g github:tobi/qmd

# Alternative
npm install -g github:tobi/qmd

# Add vault 

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