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Documentation Index

Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.openclaw.ai/llms.txt

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Dreaming is the background memory consolidation system in memory-core. It helps OpenClaw move strong short-term signals into durable memory while keeping the process explainable and reviewable.
Dreaming is opt-in and disabled by default.

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What dreaming writes

Dreaming keeps two kinds of output:
  • Machine state in memory/.dreams/ (recall store, phase signals, ingestion checkpoints, locks).
  • Human-readable output in DREAMS.md (or existing dreams.md) and optional phase report files under memory/dreaming/<phase>/YYYY-MM-DD.md.
Long-term promotion still writes only to MEMORY.md.

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Phase model

Dreaming uses three cooperative phases:
PhasePurposeDurable write
LightSort and stage recent short-term materialNo
DeepScore and promote durable candidatesYes (MEMORY.md)
REMReflect on themes and recurring ideasNo
These phases are internal implementation details, not separate user-configured “modes.”
Light phase ingests recent daily memory signals and recall traces, dedupes them, and stages candidate lines.
  • Reads from short-term recall state, recent daily memory files, and redacted session transcripts when available.
  • Writes a managed ## Light Sleep block when storage includes inline output.
  • Records reinforcement signals for later deep ranking.
  • Never writes to MEMORY.md.
Deep phase decides what becomes long-term memory.
  • Ranks candidates using weighted scoring and threshold gates.
  • Requires minScore, minRecallCount, and minUniqueQueries to pass.
  • Rehydrates snippets from live daily files before writing, so stale/deleted snippets are skipped.
  • Appends promoted entries to MEMORY.md.
  • Writes a ## Deep Sleep summary into DREAMS.md and optionally writes memory/dreaming/deep/YYYY-MM-DD.md.
REM phase extracts patterns and reflective signals.
  • Builds theme and reflection summaries from recent short-term traces.
  • Writes a managed ## REM Sleep block when storage includes inline output.
  • Records REM reinforcement signals used by deep ranking.
  • Never writes to MEMORY.md.

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Session transcript ingestion

Dreaming can ingest redacted session transcripts into the dreaming corpus. When transcripts are available, they are fed into the light phase alongside daily memory signals and recall traces. Personal and sensitive content is redacted before ingestion.

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Dream Diary

Dreaming also keeps a narrative Dream Diary in DREAMS.md. After each phase has enough material, memory-core runs a best-effort background subagent turn and appends a short diary entry. It uses the default runtime model unless dreaming.model is configured. If the configured model is unavailable, Dream Diary retries once with the session default model.
This diary is for human reading in the Dreams UI, not a promotion source. Dreaming-generated diary/report artifacts are excluded from short-term promotion. Only grounded memory snippets are eligible to promote into MEMORY.md.
There is also a grounded historical backfill lane for review and recovery work:
  • memory rem-harness --path ... --grounded previews grounded diary output from historical YYYY-MM-DD.md notes.
  • memory rem-backfill --path ... writes reversible grounded diary entries into DREAMS.md.
  • memory rem-backfill --path ... --stage-short-term stages grounded durable candidates into the same short-term evidence store the normal deep phase already uses.
  • memory rem-backfill --rollback and --rollback-short-term remove those staged backfill artifacts without touching ordinary diary entries or live short-term recall.
The Control UI exposes the same diary backfill/reset flow so you can inspect results in the Dreams scene before deciding whether the grounded candidates deserve promotion. The Scene also shows a distinct grounded lane so you can see which staged short-term entries came from historical replay, which promoted items were grounded-led, and clear only grounded-only staged entries without touching ordinary live short-term state.

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Deep ranking signals

Deep ranking uses six weighted base signals plus phase reinforcement:
SignalWeightDescription
Frequency0.24How many short-term signals the entry accumulated
Relevance0.30Average retrieval quality for the entry
Query diversity0.15Distinct query/day contexts that surfaced it
Recency0.15Time-decayed freshness score
Consolidation0.10Multi-day recurrence strength
Conceptual richness0.06Concept-tag density from snippet/path
Light and REM phase hits add a small recency-decayed boost from memory/.dreams/phase-signals.json.

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Scheduling

When enabled, memory-core auto-manages one cron job for a full dreaming sweep. Each sweep runs phases in order: light → REM → deep. The sweep includes the primary runtime workspace and any configured agent workspaces, deduped by path, so subagent workspace fan-out does not exclude the main agent’s DREAMS.md and memory state. Default cadence behavior:
SettingDefault
dreaming.frequency0 3 * * *
dreaming.modeldefault model

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Quick start

{
  "plugins": {
    "entries": {
      "memory-core": {
        "config": {
          "dreaming": {
            "enabled": true
          }
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

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Slash command

/dreaming status
/dreaming on
/dreaming off
/dreaming help

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CLI workflow

openclaw memory promote
openclaw memory promote --apply
openclaw memory promote --limit 5
openclaw memory status --deep
Manual memory promote uses deep-phase thresholds by default unless overridden with CLI flags.

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Key defaults

All settings live under plugins.entries.memory-core.config.dreaming.
​
enabled
boolean
default:"false"
Enable or disable the dreaming sweep.
​
frequency
string
default:"0 3 * * *"
Cron cadence for the full dreaming sweep.
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model
string
Optional Dream Diary subagent model override. Use a canonical provider/model value when also setting a subagent allowedModels allowlist.
dreaming.model requires plugins.entries.memory-core.subagent.allowModelOverride: true. To restrict it, also set plugins.entries.memory-core.subagent.allowedModels. Trust or allowlist failures stay visible instead of falling back silently; the retry only covers model-unavailable errors.
Phase policy, thresholds, and storage behavior are internal implementation details (not user-facing config). See Memory configuration reference for the full key list.

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Dreams UI

When enabled, the Gateway Dreams tab shows:
  • current dreaming enabled state
  • phase-level status and managed-sweep presence
  • short-term, grounded, signal, and promoted-today counts
  • next scheduled run timing
  • a distinct grounded Scene lane for staged historical replay entries
  • an expandable Dream Diary reader backed by doctor.memory.dreamDiary

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Dreaming never runs: status shows blocked

If openclaw memory status reports Dreaming status: blocked, the managed cron exists but the default agent heartbeat is not firing. Check that heartbeat is enabled for the default agent and that its target is not none, then run openclaw memory status --deep again after the next heartbeat interval.