Willow Memory Health#

Audit an OpenClaw agent's memory files for four failure modes that silently degrade memory quality over time:

SignalWhat it meansSTALE / DEADFile hasn't been updated in 30+ / 90+ days — may no longer reflect current stateREDUNDANTTwo or more files cover the same subject (Jaccard similarity ≥ 0.55 on titles)DARKFile exists in memory but doesn't surface when searched — invisible to the agentCONTRADICTIONSame file contains opposing status words (e.g. "deployed" and "not deployed")

Trigger#

Use this skill when the user:

• Asks to audit, clean up, or review memory
• Reports that the agent "forgot" something that should be in memory
• Wants to know which memories are stale or duplicated
• Asks why a memory isn't being retrieved

Step 1 — Find the memory directory#

Ask for confirmation or infer from context. The memory directory is typically one of:

• <workspace>/memory/ — workspace-scoped memory files
• ~/.openclaw/agents/<agentId>/memory/ — agent-level memory

If neither is clear, ask: "Where are your memory files stored? (e.g. a memory/ folder in your workspace, or a path you specify)"

Step 2 — Run the diagnostic script#

Run the bundled script against the memory directory:

bash

python3 {baseDir}/scripts/memory_health.py --dir <memory-dir> --limit 50

Optional flags:

• --limit N — score only the N most recently modified files (default: 50)
• --qmd — enable DARK detection via qmd query (requires qmd CLI installed)
• --json — machine-readable output

If qmd is available and the user wants DARK detection:

bash

python3 {baseDir}/scripts/memory_health.py --dir <memory-dir> --limit 50 --qmd

Step 3 — Interpret the report#

The script prints a per-file table and a summary:

text

WILLOW MEMORY HEALTH — memory/ (50 files)
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
FILE                    BUCKET   FLAGS
MEMORY.md               HOT      OK
2026-04-16.md           HOT      OK
2026-03-01.md           WARM     REDUNDANT
2026-03-01b.md          WARM     REDUNDANT
2025-12-10.md           DEAD     STALE | DARK
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
SUMMARY
  Files scored   : 50
  HOT  (<7d)     : 12
  WARM (7–30d)   : 23
  STALE (30–90d) : 11
  DEAD (>90d)    : 4
  REDUNDANT pairs: 3
  DARK           : 2  (qmd search returned no match)
  CONTRADICTION  : 1

HOT/WARM — healthy, no action needed.

STALE — review and either update or archive. Suggest: "These files haven't been updated in 30–90 days. Want me to review them and mark outdated sections?"

DEAD — strong candidate for archiving. Ask the user: "These files are 90+ days old. Should I move them to an archive/ subfolder?"

REDUNDANT — two files covering the same subject. Suggest merging the newer into the older or vice versa. Show both filenames and ask which to keep.

DARK — file exists but qmd search can't find it. This usually means the QMD index is out of date. Suggest running qmd update or re-indexing: openclaw memory sync.

CONTRADICTION — file contains opposing status phrases. Show the specific pairs flagged (e.g. "deployed" vs "not deployed") and ask the user to clarify current state.

Step 4 — Offer cleanup options#

After reporting, offer numbered actions the user can pick:

1. Archive all DEAD files (move to memory/archive/)
2. Show REDUNDANT pairs for manual review
3. Update QMD index to fix DARK records ( qmd update)
4. Show CONTRADICTION files for editing
5. Skip — report only, no changes

Always confirm before moving or modifying files.

Step 5 — Execute with confirmation#

For each cleanup action:

• Show exactly which files will be moved or modified
• Confirm before proceeding
• Report what was done

After cleanup, offer to re-run the diagnostic to confirm the health score improved.

Memory writes#

If the user has opted into memory writes, append a dated summary to memory/YYYY-MM-DD.md:

text

## Memory health audit — {timestamp}
- Files scored: N
- DEAD archived: N files → memory/archive/
- REDUNDANT merged: N pairs
- DARK fixed: N (qmd update run)
- CONTRADICTION resolved: N files

Append-only. Do not overwrite existing entries.

Notes#

• MEMORY.md and undated files in memory/ are treated as evergreen — they are scored for REDUNDANT and CONTRADICTION but never flagged STALE/DEAD.
• Files outside the memory/YYYY-MM-DD.md naming convention use mtime for age calculation.
• DARK detection requires qmd CLI. If unavailable, the DARK column is skipped and noted in the report.
• This skill does not modify the QMD index directly — it reports and suggests; the user confirms all changes.