memory-distiller 🧠

The subconscious of your OpenClaw agent. Automatically distills fleeting conversation moments into permanent wisdom.

Most agents wake up blank. memory-distiller changes that — it automatically identifies what's worth remembering during each conversation, writes it to persistent memory files, and creates a true learning loop. Your agent gets smarter every session.

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Why You Need It

OpenClaw natively has MEMORY.md and memory/YYYY-MM-DD.md, but updating them requires manual effort.

The problem: You correct the agent, it says "got it", and makes the same mistake next session.

memory-distiller closes this loop: - Automatically scans conversations for "worth remembering" signals - Applies a quality gate to filter out one-time, temporary information - Writes structured entries to memory files automatically

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How It Fits With proactive-agent

Skill	Role	Responsibility
proactive-agent	Butler	Real-time detail capture (WAL), proactive behaviors, Heartbeat
memory-distiller	Historian	Post-conversation reflection, distilling lessons into long-term memory

One line: proactive-agent owns the present. memory-distiller owns the future.

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Trigger Conditions

Auto-Triggers (scan every user message for these signals)

Type	Signal Words	Example
🔴 Correction	"wrong", "not right", "no, I meant", "actually", "stop doing"	"No, that command is wrong"
💚 Preference	"I prefer", "always use", "don't use", "from now on", "by default"	"Always send reports as attachments"
💡 Insight	"the issue was", "turns out", "the key is", "got it", "solved"	"Turns out Feishu doesn't render Markdown"
📌 Explicit	"remember this", "save this", "note that", "write this down"	"Remember this config"

Manual Trigger

When the user says any of the following, immediately distill the session:

"remember this" / "save this" / "note that"
"write down what we just learned" / "distill this session"

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Quality Gate (All 4 Must Pass)

Before writing anything, check these 4 gates:

1. Durability — Will this still be valuable in 24 hours? (Skip one-time context)
2. Generality — Is this a reusable rule, or a one-off special case? (Prefer rules)
3. Novelty — Does MEMORY.md already contain this? (Avoid duplicates; update if stale)
4. Actionability — Can this guide future behavior? (Skip vague impressions; only concrete rules)

Don't record (examples): - "Today we researched LangChain" → one-time, no guidance value - "User is in Shanghai" → already in USER.md, duplicate

Do record (examples): - "clawhub install only accepts slugs, not GitHub URLs" → actionable rule - "Feishu chat does NOT render Markdown — long reports must be sent as attachments or doc links" → prevents repeated mistakes

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Memory Write Format

Where to Write

Content Type	Target File
Today's new discoveries, lessons	memory/YYYY-MM-DD.md
Important rules, persistent preferences	MEMORY.md (relevant section)
User personal info / preferences	USER.md

Entry Format

### 🧠 Auto-Learned [YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM]
- **Type:** Correction / Preference / Insight / Explicit
- **Trigger:** One sentence explaining what triggered this
- **Rule:** Specific, actionable rule that can directly guide future behavior

Example:

### 🧠 Auto-Learned [2026-03-02 00:30]
- **Type:** Correction
- **Trigger:** User corrected the install command format
- **Rule:** `clawhub install` only accepts slugs (e.g. claw-multi-agent), not GitHub URLs

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Execution Flow

User message arrives
    ↓
Scan for trigger signals (Correction / Preference / Insight / Explicit)
    ↓
Signal detected?
    ├─ No  → Reply normally, no action
    └─ Yes → Apply quality gate
                ↓
            All 4 gates pass?
                ├─ No  → Discard, reply normally
                └─ Yes → Distill into structured memory entry
                            ↓
                        Write to target file
                            ↓
                        Reply normally
                        (silent unless explicitly triggered)

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Behavioral Rules

When to Notify the User

• Auto-triggered → Write silently, do NOT say "I've noted that" — don't interrupt the flow
• Explicitly triggered → Confirm with one line: "✅ Noted." + brief summary of what was recorded

When NOT to Record

• User says "suppose...", "hypothetically...", "for example..." → hypothetical, skip
• System errors, network timeouts → environment issues, not learnable rules
• Content already fully documented in MEMORY.md → don't duplicate; update if stale

Privacy Filter

Never write the following to any memory file, even if the user asks: - Passwords, tokens, API keys - Personal identification info (ID numbers, bank accounts, etc.) - Sensitive information about third parties

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Installation

npx clawhub@latest install memory-distiller

Zero configuration. Restart your OpenClaw session after installation.

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Recommended Pairing

Skill	Purpose
proactive-agent	Real-time WAL protocol + proactive behaviors
memory-distiller	Post-conversation automatic experience distillation (this skill)

Together: never lose present details, never repeat past mistakes.

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Design Philosophy

Inspired by Claudeception (a Claude Code self-learning plugin), redesigned from scratch for OpenClaw's architecture and memory model.

Core belief:

An agent should never be tripped up by the same problem twice.

Every correction is a learning opportunity. memory-distiller ensures none of them go to waste.

Academic foundation: Voyager (2023), CASCADE (2024), SEAgent (2025), Reflexion (2023) — all point to the same conclusion: agents that persist and reflect on their learning dramatically outperform those that start fresh every time.

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Designed with 🐝 claw-multi-agent — 3 parallel agents, 28s