Context Bridge

Context Bridge

Never lose project context again. Context Bridge creates persistent memory across agent sessions, letting you resume complex projects days or weeks later with full context of conversations, decisions, and progress.

When to Use

• Resuming work on a multi-day project
• Recalling what was decided in previous sessions
• Finding past conversation threads about a topic
• Bridging context after time away from a project
• Building institutional memory of your work
• Preventing repeated explanations to your agent
• Tracking decision history and reasoning
• Creating project narratives over time

The Problem This Solves

Agents forget between sessions. Every /new command wipes the slate clean. You waste time re-explaining context, re-sharing decisions, and re-establishing what you were working on.

Context Bridge remembers for you. It saves conversation threads, decisions, file changes, and reasoning - then reconstructs full context when you return.

Quick Start

Save Current Session Context

# Save context with a project name
echo "Save this session as: api-redesign" | openclaw agent

# Or save with description
echo "Save context: api-redesign - Switched from REST to GraphQL" | openclaw agent

Resume a Previous Session

# Resume specific project
echo "Resume context: api-redesign" | openclaw agent

# List available contexts
echo "List saved contexts" | openclaw agent

# Search contexts by keyword
echo "Find contexts about authentication" | openclaw agent

Core Commands

Save Context

# Save current session
echo "save context as project-name" | openclaw agent

# Save with description
echo "save context as project-name: brief description" | openclaw agent

# Auto-save on /new (if context-bridge hook enabled)
/new  # Automatically prompts to save current context

Resume Context

# Resume by project name
echo "resume context: project-name" | openclaw agent

# Resume latest session
echo "resume last context" | openclaw agent

# Resume with date
echo "resume context from yesterday" | openclaw agent

Query Contexts

# List all saved contexts
echo "list contexts" | openclaw agent

# Search by keyword
echo "find contexts about database migration" | openclaw agent

# Show context summary
echo "summarize context: project-name" | openclaw agent

# Show decision history
echo "what decisions were made in: project-name" | openclaw agent

What Gets Saved

Context Bridge captures comprehensive session data:

1. Conversation Thread

• Full message history (user + agent)
• Timestamp of each exchange
• Command sequences

2. Decisions Made

• Extracted decision points: "We decided to use X because Y"
• Reasoning and alternatives considered
• Trade-offs discussed

3. File Changes

• Files created, modified, deleted
• Diffs of code changes
• File paths and descriptions

4. Task Progress

• Tasks completed
• Tasks pending
• Blockers identified

5. Related Sessions

• Links to related contexts
• Conversation threads that reference this project
• Timeline of work

Context Storage

Contexts are stored in: ~/.openclaw/workspace/memory/contexts/

contexts/
├── api-redesign.json           # Main context data
├── api-redesign-sessions/      # Individual session logs
│   ├── 2026-03-04.json
│   ├── 2026-03-05.json
│   └── 2026-03-10.json
└── index.json                  # Search index

Context File Format

{
  "project": "api-redesign",
  "created": "2026-03-04T10:30:00Z",
  "updated": "2026-03-10T14:20:00Z",
  "description": "Migrating from REST to GraphQL API",
  "sessions": [
    {
      "date": "2026-03-04",
      "summary": "Initial GraphQL schema design",
      "messages": 45,
      "decisions": ["Use Apollo Server", "Code-first schema approach"],
      "files_changed": ["schema.ts", "resolvers.ts"]
    }
  ],
  "decisions": [
    {
      "decision": "Use Apollo Server over graphql-yoga",
      "reasoning": "Better TypeScript support and caching",
      "date": "2026-03-04T11:15:00Z",
      "alternatives": ["graphql-yoga", "express-graphql"]
    }
  ],
  "related_contexts": ["authentication-refactor", "database-migration"],
  "tags": ["graphql", "backend", "api"]
}

Advanced Features

Automatic Context Saving

Install the context-bridge hook to auto-save on session changes:

openclaw hooks enable context-bridge-autosave

Now every /new command prompts you to save the current session.

Context Templates

Create context templates for recurring project types:

# Save current context as template
echo "save as template: feature-development" | openclaw agent

# Use template for new project
echo "new context from template: feature-development, name: user-profiles" | openclaw agent

Context Merging

Combine multiple related sessions:

echo "merge contexts: api-redesign, auth-refactor into: backend-overhaul" | openclaw agent

Decision Timeline

View all decisions chronologically:

# Show all decisions for project
echo "decision timeline for: api-redesign" | openclaw agent

# Export decisions as markdown
echo "export decisions: api-redesign to decisions.md" | openclaw agent

Context Diff

See what changed between sessions:

echo "diff contexts: api-redesign from 2026-03-04 to 2026-03-10" | openclaw agent

Search & Discovery

Semantic Search

Context Bridge indexes conversation content for semantic search:

# Find contexts by topic
echo "find contexts about error handling" | openclaw agent

# Search within specific context
echo "search api-redesign for: rate limiting" | openclaw agent

Tag-Based Organization

# Add tags to context
echo "tag api-redesign with: backend, graphql, production" | openclaw agent

# Find all contexts with tag
echo "list contexts tagged: backend" | openclaw agent

Integration with Workspace

Context Bridge integrates with OpenClaw's workspace:

# Link context to workspace files
echo "associate api-redesign with ./src/api/" | openclaw agent

# Show context for current directory
echo "show context for current project" | openclaw agent

Manual Context Management

Via Command Line

# View context file
cat ~/.openclaw/workspace/memory/contexts/api-redesign.json | jq

# Search contexts with jq
find ~/.openclaw/workspace/memory/contexts/ -name "*.json" | \
  xargs jq -r '. | select(.tags | contains(["graphql"])) | .project'

# Backup contexts
tar -czf contexts-backup.tar.gz ~/.openclaw/workspace/memory/contexts/

Via Agent Skills

Context Bridge provides helper commands for the agent:

# Agent can call these internally
context-bridge save <project-name>
context-bridge load <project-name>
context-bridge list
context-bridge search <query>
context-bridge decisions <project-name>

Use Case Examples

Multi-Day Feature Development

# Day 1: Start feature
echo "I'm building a user authentication system" | openclaw agent
# ... work happens ...
echo "save context as: user-auth" | openclaw agent

# Day 3: Resume work
echo "resume context: user-auth" | openclaw agent
# Agent loads full conversation history, decisions, files changed

Project Retrospectives

# Generate project summary
echo "summarize context: user-auth including all decisions and challenges" | openclaw agent

# Export for team review
echo "export context: user-auth to user-auth-retrospective.md" | openclaw agent

Knowledge Base Building

# Find all authentication-related work
echo "find contexts about authentication" | openclaw agent

# Create knowledge base entry
echo "create knowledge base entry from contexts: user-auth, oauth-integration, 2fa-setup" | openclaw agent

Configuration

Context Bridge configuration in ~/.openclaw/config.yaml:

contextBridge:
  enabled: true
  autoSave: true  # Prompt to save on /new
  maxContexts: 100  # Keep last 100 contexts
  compressionThreshold: 30  # Compress contexts older than 30 days
  retentionDays: 365  # Delete contexts after 1 year
  indexing:
    enabled: true
    updateInterval: 3600  # Reindex every hour
  storage:
    directory: "~/.openclaw/workspace/memory/contexts/"
    format: "json"  # json or yaml

Privacy & Security

Local-Only Storage

All contexts are stored locally on your machine. Nothing is sent to external services.

Sensitive Data

Context Bridge can filter sensitive data:

contextBridge:
  filters:
    - "API_KEY"
    - "password"
    - "token"
    - "secret"

Matched patterns are redacted in saved contexts: API_KEY="[REDACTED]"

Encryption

Enable encryption for sensitive projects:

# Encrypt specific context
echo "encrypt context: api-redesign with password" | openclaw agent

# Decrypt when loading
echo "resume context: api-redesign" | openclaw agent
# Prompts for password

Troubleshooting

Context Not Saving

# Check permissions
ls -la ~/.openclaw/workspace/memory/contexts/

# Verify jq is installed
which jq

# Test manual save
echo '{"test": "context"}' > ~/.openclaw/workspace/memory/contexts/test.json

Context Not Loading

# Check context exists
ls ~/.openclaw/workspace/memory/contexts/ | grep project-name

# Validate JSON
jq . ~/.openclaw/workspace/memory/contexts/project-name.json

# Check logs
tail -f ~/.openclaw/logs/gateway.log | grep context-bridge

Large Contexts

If contexts become too large:

# Compress old sessions
echo "compress context: project-name older than 30 days" | openclaw agent

# Archive completed contexts
echo "archive context: project-name" | openclaw agent

Performance

Storage Optimization

• Contexts compressed after 30 days (configurable)
• Full-text search index for fast queries
• Lazy loading: Only loads active context into memory

Benchmarks

• Save context: ~100ms for typical session
• Load context: ~200ms including history
• Search: ~50ms across 100 contexts
• Storage: ~50KB per context (compressed)

Tips

• Save often: Use descriptive names: payment-integration-stripe not project1
• Add descriptions: Brief summaries help future searches
• Use tags: Organize related contexts with tags
• Link contexts: Reference related work for better navigation
• Review decisions: Periodically review decision logs to learn patterns
• Archive completed work: Keep active contexts manageable
• Export important contexts: Create markdown summaries for documentation
• Use templates: Standardize context structure for recurring project types
• Search semantically: Use natural language queries, not just keywords
• Merge related sessions: Combine fragmented work into cohesive contexts

Comparison to session-memory Hook

session-memory (bundled): Saves raw session data on /new
Context Bridge: Intelligent context reconstruction with:

• Semantic understanding of conversations
• Decision extraction and tracking
• Cross-session linking
• Search and discovery
• Timeline visualization
• Project-oriented organization

Context Bridge is built on top of session-memory but adds intelligence.

Future Roadmap

Coming features:

• Automatic context suggestions based on current work
• Visual timeline of project evolution
• Team context sharing (opt-in)
• Integration with external project management tools
• AI-powered context summaries
• Automatic decision documentation

Contributing

Context Bridge is open source. Contributions welcome:

• GitHub: [context-bridge repo]
• Issues: Feature requests and bug reports
• Docs: Help improve this guide

Skill Version: 1.0.0
Last Updated: March 2026
Author: HY
License: MIT
Category: Agent Frameworks / Productivity

Related Skills: session-memory, skill-creator, obsidian