OpenClaw Auto-Dream — Intelligent Memory Consolidation

Automate the review, consolidation, and pruning of agent memory files. Inspired by how human brains consolidate memories during sleep — the agent periodically "dreams" to organize what it knows.

Architecture

Daily logs (memory/YYYY-MM-DD.md)  ──► Dream cycle ──► MEMORY.md (curated)
        raw, append-only                  │                 structured, pruned
                                          │
                                          ├─ Extract: pull valuable insights
                                          ├─ Merge: integrate into MEMORY.md sections
                                          ├─ Deduplicate: remove redundancy
                                          └─ Prune: archive or delete stale entries

Setup

1. Create the cron job

Schedule a recurring dream cycle. Recommended: once daily during low-activity hours.

Use the cron tool to create:
- schedule: { kind: "cron", expr: "0 4 * * *", tz: "<user timezone>" }
- payload: { kind: "agentTurn", message: <content of references/dream-prompt.md> }
- sessionTarget: "isolated"
- name: "auto-memory-dream"

Adjust the cron expression to the user's preference:

• 0 4 * * * — daily at 4 AM (recommended)
• 0 */12 * * * — every 12 hours (high-activity agents)
• 0 4 * * 1 — weekly on Monday (low-activity agents)

2. Configure MEMORY.md structure (optional)

If MEMORY.md doesn't exist or lacks structure, create it with recommended sections. Read references/memory-template.md for the template.

3. Verify

After setup, confirm:

• Cron job created and enabled
• MEMORY.md exists with section headers
• memory/ directory exists

Dream Cycle Workflow

When the dream cycle fires (via cron or manual trigger), the isolated agent session executes this workflow:

Phase 1: Scan

1. List all memory/YYYY-MM-DD.md files
2. Identify files from the last 7 days that haven't been consolidated (check for <!-- consolidated --> marker at file end)
3. Read each unconsolidated daily file

Phase 2: Extract

For each daily file, identify:

• Decisions made — choices, commitments, direction changes
• People & relationships — new contacts, relationship updates, preferences learned
• Facts & preferences — user preferences, technical details, account info
• Projects & milestones — progress, blockers, completions
• Lessons learned — mistakes, insights, things that worked
• Open threads — unresolved tasks, pending items

Skip: routine greetings, small talk, repeated information, transient debugging logs.

Phase 3: Merge

1. Read current MEMORY.md
2. For each extracted item:
   • Find the matching section in MEMORY.md
   • If exists: update/append to that section
   • If new category: create a section
3. Deduplicate — if an insight already exists in MEMORY.md (same meaning, different words), keep the better-worded version
4. Update the _Last updated: YYYY-MM-DD_ line at the top

Phase 4: Prune

Review existing MEMORY.md entries:

• Remove entries that are clearly outdated (superseded by newer info)
• Archive entries older than 90 days with no recent references → move to memory/archive.md
• Merge similar entries into single concise entries
• Keep MEMORY.md under 500 lines (warn if approaching)

Phase 5: Mark

Add <!-- consolidated --> marker to each processed daily file so it's not re-processed.

Manual Trigger

User can trigger a dream cycle anytime:

• "Run memory maintenance"
• "Consolidate my memories"
• "Dream now"

When triggered manually, run the same workflow as the cron job but in the current session.

Safety Rules

• Never delete daily log files — they are the source of truth
• Never remove entries marked with ⚠️ PERMANENT in MEMORY.md
• Secrets and tokens: only consolidate if they already exist in MEMORY.md; never create new secret entries during consolidation
• Diff review: when pruning more than 5 entries in one cycle, list what was removed at the end of the run
• Backup before major changes: if MEMORY.md will change by more than 30%, create memory/MEMORY.md.bak first

Metrics

After each dream cycle, append a summary to memory/dream-log.md:

## YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM UTC
- Files scanned: N
- New entries added: N
- Entries updated: N
- Entries pruned: N
- MEMORY.md size: N lines