OpenClaw

  • ID: openclaw
  • Store: ${OPENCLAW_STATE_DIR:-~/.openclaw}/agents/<agentId>/sessions/<sessionId>.jsonl — one append-only pi-format transcript per session, per agent
  • Read override: DEJA_OPENCLAW_ROOT (agents root), OPENCLAW_STATE_DIR (OpenClaw's own state override, also honored)
  • Format: JSONL, append-cheap incremental parse from offset

OpenClaw's agent runtime is pi-lineage, so transcripts share pi's line shape:

a {"type":"session"} header (id, timestamp, optional cwd) followed by

{"type":"message"} entries whose message.content is a block array. The

shared pi parser handles both; when the header carries a cwd, it becomes

the project key, otherwise sessions attribute to openclaw-<agentId>.

Skipped in the sessions directory: sessions.json (store metadata),

compaction checkpoints (<id>.checkpoint.<uuid>.jsonl), and archived

transcripts (.deleted/.reset/.bak suffixes). Newer OpenClaw builds can

keep session *metadata* in SQLite; transcripts stay JSONL files, which is all

deja reads. Format verified against openclaw source

(src/config/sessions/paths.ts, artifacts.ts, src/transcripts/store.ts).

  • MCP: deja install openclaw wires deja into openclaw.json under

mcp.servers (OpenClaw's own layout, not the common mcpServers root).

Live-verified: openclaw mcp probe deja reports the tools and the agent

calls recall mid-turn.

  • Resume: openclaw chat --session <key>. OpenClaw addresses a

conversation by key (agent:<id>:<name>); the uuid its transcript is named

after opens nothing, and the mapping lives in sessions.json beside the

transcripts. deja reads the key from there. Live-verified: the terminal UI

came up on agent:main:main with that session's history, and a run through

openclaw agent --session-id answered from it.

  • Handoff: paste.

Last verified: 2026-07-23

deja reads this format and nineteen others, and turns what it finds into memory your agents can search. See the harness matrix for what is wired where, or install it and search your own history.