Session Memory & Summarization

Session Memory & Summarization Skill

Provides automatic conversation continuity across sessions by loading recent memory at session start and generating AI summaries during compaction.

What It Does

• Memory Loading: Injects the latest AI summary AND the last 10 raw message turns verbatim so you resume exactly where you left off
• AI Summarization: Generates concise summaries when approaching token limits, written to daily memory files
• Raw Continuity: Stores the last N exact interactions alongside the summary so nothing is lost in translation
• Seamless Experience: No manual intervention required — just natural conversation flow

Hooks

session:start

Runs when a new session begins. Loads the most recent daily memory file and injects two context blocks:

1. AI summary block — distilled summaries from today + yesterday (up to 6000 chars)
2. Recent messages block — last 10 raw user/assistant turns, verbatim, so the AI can resume mid-conversation with exact phrasing and decisions intact

session:compact:before

Runs before automatic compaction (20+ messages OR 60% of token limit). Does two things:

1. Generates an AI summary via agent.generateSummary() and prepends it to today's memory file
2. Captures the last 10 user/assistant turns as a JSON block at the end of the file (under <!-- recent_messages_block -->) — this is what session:start reads back next session

Installation

clawhub install session-context

Or manually:

cd ~/.openclaw/workspace/skills
git clone https://github.com/thomasmarcel/openclaw-skill-session-context.git session-context
openclaw skills enable session-context

Requirements

• OpenClaw ≥ 0.29.0
• Workspace with memory/ directory (created automatically)
• Access to agent's LLM for summarization

Configuration

Customize thresholds in hooks/session/compact:before/handler.js:

return (
  msgCount >= 20 ||           // minimum messages before summarizing
  tokenCount > maxTokens * 0.6 // trigger at 60% of token limit
);

Adjust how many raw messages to preserve:

// In both handler files:
const MAX_RECENT_MESSAGES = 10;  // last N user/assistant turns to preserve verbatim

Adjust summary context size:

// In hooks/session/start/handler.js:
const MAX_SUMMARY_CHARS = 6000;  // cap on AI summary injected at session start

Memory Structure

memory/
  2026-04-03.md  # daily files — summaries at top, recent_messages block at bottom
  2026-04-04.md

Each file has this structure:

## HH:MM:SS
<AI summary of the session>

---

## Earlier timestamp
<earlier summary>

<!-- recent_messages_block -->
[{"role":"user","content":"..."},
 {"role":"assistant","content":"..."},
 ...]

The <!-- recent_messages_block --> section is always at the end and replaced each compaction with the latest N turns.

How It Works

1. During a conversation: As token usage grows, OpenClaw monitors session size.
2. Before compaction: The session:compact:before hook checks thresholds. If met:
   • Generates an AI summary and prepends it to memory/YYYY-MM-DD.md
   • Captures the last 10 raw message turns as a JSON block at the end of the file
3. Compaction proceeds: Older messages are pruned.
4. Next session: The session:start hook loads the file and injects both:
   • The AI summary (for high-level context)
   • The raw recent messages (to resume exactly where you left off)

License

MIT