Palaia

Palaia v2.4 — Agent Memory Skill

Palaia is the memory system for OpenClaw agents. It gives you persistent, searchable, crash-safe memory across sessions. You don't need to understand how it works — just use the commands below.

First-Time Setup

When a user asks you to "set up palaia", "enable memory", or "remember things across sessions", run these steps:

pip install "palaia[fastembed]"

palaia init

This creates .palaia/ with SQLite storage and automatically configures fastembed for semantic search. No manual configuration needed.

Confirm success to the user: "Memory is ready. I'll automatically remember important context from our conversations."

If pip is not available, try alternatives in this order:

python3 -m pip install "palaia[fastembed]"
uv tool install "palaia[fastembed]"
pipx install "palaia[fastembed]"

Optional extras (install as needed):

pip install "palaia[mcp]"          # MCP server for Claude Desktop, Cursor
pip install "palaia[curate]"       # Knowledge curation

Note: palaia[fastembed] already includes sqlite-vec for native SIMD vector search. No separate install needed.

OpenClaw Plugin Setup (for Auto-Capture and Auto-Recall)

After the CLI is installed, wire it into OpenClaw:

npm install -g @byte5ai/palaia@latest

Then activate in OpenClaw config (read existing values first, never overwrite arrays):

PALAIA_PATH="$(npm root -g)/@byte5ai/palaia"

Add to openclaw.json:

{
  "plugins": {
    "load": { "paths": ["<PALAIA_PATH>"] },
    "allow": ["..existing..", "palaia"],
    "slots": { "memory": "palaia" },
    "entries": { "palaia": { "enabled": true } }
  }
}

Restart the gateway and verify:

openclaw gateway restart
palaia doctor

Agent Identity (optional)

Single-agent systems work with the default name. For multi-agent setups:

palaia init --agent YOUR_AGENT_NAME

Updating Palaia

When the user asks to update, or when palaia status shows a version mismatch:

palaia upgrade

This auto-detects the install method (pip/uv/pipx), preserves all installed extras (fastembed, mcp, sqlite-vec, curate), runs palaia doctor --fix, and upgrades the OpenClaw plugin if installed. No manual steps needed.

If palaia upgrade is not recognized (versions before v2.3.0), update manually:

# Step 1: Find install method
which palaia

# Step 2: Upgrade (use the method matching the path from Step 1)
# pip (path contains site-packages or .local):
pip install --upgrade "palaia[fastembed]"
# uv (path contains uv):
uv tool install "palaia[fastembed]"
# pipx (path contains pipx):
pipx install "palaia[fastembed]" --force

# Step 3: Health check + migration
palaia doctor --fix

# Step 4: Update OpenClaw plugin (if installed)
npm install -g @byte5ai/palaia@latest

After the manual update, palaia upgrade will be available for future updates.

Auto-Check (run every time this skill is loaded)

Before doing anything else with Palaia, run palaia doctor silently. If it reports ANY warnings, address them immediately by following palaia doctor --fix recommendations. Do not proceed with other Palaia tasks until doctor reports no issues.

Core Concepts

Auto-Capture

Conversations are automatically captured when the OpenClaw plugin is active. You do NOT need to manually write things from conversations — Palaia handles it. Manual palaia write is only for structured knowledge: processes, tasks, and knowledge from external sources.

Three Tiers

• HOT — Active memories (< 7 days or frequently accessed). Always searched.
• WARM — Aging memories (7-30 days). Searched by default.
• COLD — Archived memories (> 30 days). Only searched with --all.

Scopes

• private — Only the writing agent can read it
• team — All agents in the workspace can read it (default)
• public — Exportable and shareable across workspaces

Entry Types

• memory — Facts, decisions, learnings (default)
• process — Workflows, checklists, SOPs
• task — Action items with status, priority, assignee, due date

Storage & Search

Database Backends

SQLite is zero-config — palaia init creates a single palaia.db file with WAL mode for crash safety. For teams with agents on multiple machines, PostgreSQL centralizes the store:

palaia config set database_url postgresql://user:pass@host/db
# or: export PALAIA_DATABASE_URL=postgresql://...

Semantic Vector Search

Palaia uses hybrid search: BM25 keyword matching (always active) combined with semantic vector embeddings (when a provider is configured). This finds memories by meaning, not just keywords.

Embedding providers (checked in chain order, first available wins):

Configure the chain: palaia config set embedding_chain '["fastembed", "bm25"]'

Check what's available: palaia detect

Embed Server (Performance)

For fast CLI queries, palaia runs a background embed-server that keeps the model loaded in memory:

palaia embed-server --socket --daemon   # Start background server
palaia embed-server --status            # Check if running
palaia embed-server --stop              # Stop server

Without the server, each CLI call loads the model fresh (3-5s). With the embed-server: **1.5s per CLI query** (Python startup + server call) or <500ms via MCP/Plugin (no CLI overhead).

The OpenClaw plugin starts the embed-server automatically. For CLI-only usage, it auto-starts on first query when a local provider (fastembed, sentence-transformers) is configured.

MCP Server (Claude Desktop, Cursor, any MCP host)

Palaia works as a standalone MCP memory server — no OpenClaw required. Any AI tool that supports MCP can use palaia as persistent local memory.

pip install 'palaia[mcp]'
palaia-mcp                              # Start MCP server (stdio)
palaia-mcp --root /path/to/.palaia      # Explicit store
palaia-mcp --read-only                  # No writes (untrusted hosts)

Claude Desktop (~/.config/claude/claude_desktop_config.json):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "palaia": {
      "command": "palaia-mcp",
      "args": []
    }
  }
}

Cursor (Settings → MCP Servers → Add, or .cursor/mcp.json):

• Command: palaia-mcp
• Arguments: (none, or --root /path/to/.palaia)

Claude Code (~/.claude/settings.json):

{"mcpServers": {"palaia": {"command": "palaia-mcp"}}}

MCP Tools:

Read-only mode (--read-only): Disables palaia_store, palaia_edit, palaia_gc. Use this when connecting untrusted AI tools that should only read memories, not modify them.

Commands Reference

palaia write — Save structured knowledge

Only use for explicit process/task entries, or knowledge from external sources. Conversation knowledge is auto-captured.

# Save a fact from outside the conversation
palaia write "API rate limit is 100 req/min" --type memory --tags api,limits

# Record a step-by-step process
palaia write "1. Build 2. Test 3. Deploy" --type process --project myapp

# Create a task with structured fields
palaia write "fix login bug" --type task --priority high --assignee Elliot --due-date 2026-04-01

# Save to a specific project with scope
palaia write "Use JWT for auth" --project backend --scope team --tags decision

palaia query — Semantic search

Find memories by meaning, not just keywords.

# Basic search
palaia query "what's the rate limit"

# Filter by type and status
palaia query "tasks" --type task --status open

# Filter by tags
palaia query "session-summary" --tags session-summary

# Search within a project
palaia query "deploy steps" --project myapp

# Include archived (COLD) entries
palaia query "old decisions" --all

# Search across all projects
palaia query "authentication" --cross-project

# Time-filtered search
palaia query "deploy" --after 2026-03-01 --before 2026-03-15

# RAG-formatted output for LLM injection
palaia query "how does auth work" --project api --rag

palaia get — Read a specific entry

palaia get <entry-id>
palaia get <entry-id> --from 5 --lines 20   # Read a portion

Use when you have an entry ID from a query result or nudge message.

palaia list — Browse entries

# List active entries
palaia list

# Filter by tier, type, status
palaia list --tier warm --type task --status open --priority high

# Limit results
palaia list --type task --status open --limit 5

# Filter by project or assignee
palaia list --project myapp --assignee Elliot

palaia status — System health check

palaia status

Shows: entry counts per tier, entry class breakdown (memory/process/task), active providers, index health, version info. Run this when something seems off or to verify setup.

palaia project — Project context management

palaia project create myapp --description "Main application" --default-scope team
palaia project list
palaia project show myapp
palaia project query myapp "deploy steps"
palaia project write myapp "New convention: use snake_case" --tags convention
palaia project set-scope myapp private
palaia project delete myapp   # Entries preserved, just untagged

palaia memo — Inter-agent messaging

palaia memo send AgentName "Important update about project X"
palaia memo broadcast "New process available"
palaia memo inbox              # Check for messages
palaia memo ack <memo-id>      # Mark as read

palaia priorities — Injection priority management (NEW in v2.2)

Control which memories are injected into each agent's context.

# Show what would be injected (with score breakdown)
palaia priorities

# Block an entry from injection for a specific agent
palaia priorities block <entry-id> --agent orchestrator

# Set per-agent injection thresholds
palaia priorities set recallMinScore 0.8 --agent orchestrator

# Adjust type weights per agent
palaia priorities set typeWeight.process 0.5 --agent orchestrator

Config stored in .palaia/priorities.json with layered overrides: global -> per-agent -> per-project.

palaia curate analyze/apply — Knowledge curation (NEW in v2.2)

For migrating knowledge to a new instance, cleaning up old entries, or reviewing accumulated knowledge.

# Analyze: clusters entries, detects duplicates, recommends KEEP/MERGE/DROP
palaia curate analyze --project myapp

# Apply: parses the user-edited report, produces clean export package
palaia curate apply report.md

Requires optional dependency: pip install palaia[curate] (adds scikit-learn).

Tell your user: "I can analyze your memory for cleanup. Want me to run a curation report?"

palaia sync export/import — Git-based knowledge exchange

# Export entries for sharing
palaia sync export --project myapp --output ./export/

# Export to a git remote
palaia sync export --project myapp --remote git@github.com:team/knowledge.git

# Import entries
palaia sync import ./export/ --dry-run   # Preview first
palaia sync import ./export/

Note: The old palaia export/palaia import aliases still work but are deprecated.

palaia package export/import — Portable knowledge packages

# Export project knowledge as a portable file
palaia package export myapp --output myapp.palaia-pkg.json

# Import a knowledge package
palaia package import myapp.palaia-pkg.json --project target --merge skip

# View package metadata
palaia package info myapp.palaia-pkg.json

palaia upgrade — Update to latest version

palaia upgrade

Auto-detects the install method (pip/uv/pipx/brew), preserves all installed extras (fastembed, mcp, sqlite-vec, curate), runs palaia doctor --fix, and upgrades the OpenClaw npm plugin if present. Always use this instead of manual pip commands.

palaia doctor — Diagnostics and auto-fix

palaia doctor              # Check health
palaia doctor --fix        # Auto-fix issues
palaia doctor --json       # Machine-readable output

Run this first whenever something is wrong. It checks versions, repairs chains, rebuilds indexes, detects legacy systems, and handles migration.

palaia gc — Garbage collection

palaia gc                  # Tier rotation (HOT -> WARM -> COLD)
palaia gc --dry-run         # Preview what would change
palaia gc --aggressive      # Also clears COLD tier
palaia gc --budget 200      # Keep max N entries

palaia config — Configuration

palaia config list                        # Show all settings
palaia config set <key> <value>           # Set a value
palaia config set-chain fastembed bm25    # Set embedding chain
palaia config set-alias default HAL       # Agent alias

palaia process — Multi-step process tracking

palaia process list --project myapp       # List stored processes
palaia process run <id>                   # Run interactively

palaia lock/unlock — Entry and project locking

palaia project lock myapp --agent HAL --reason "refactoring"
palaia project lock-status myapp
palaia project unlock myapp
palaia project break-lock myapp           # Force-break stuck lock
palaia project locks                      # List all active locks

palaia edit — Modify existing entries

palaia edit <id> --status done
palaia edit <id> "updated content" --tags new,tags --priority high

Other commands

palaia detect              # Show available embedding providers
palaia warmup              # Pre-build search index
palaia recover             # Replay interrupted writes from WAL
palaia migrate <path>      # Import from other memory formats
palaia migrate --suggest   # Suggest type assignments for untyped entries
palaia ingest <file-or-url> --project X   # Index documents (RAG)
palaia skill               # Print this SKILL.md

All commands support --json for machine-readable output.

Smart Nudging

Palaia's CLI output contains contextual hints prefixed with [palaia]. These are important guidance.

As an agent, you should:

• Read and act on nudge messages in CLI output
• Never suppress or ignore [palaia] prefixed output
• Follow recommendations (e.g., "consider running palaia curate", "related process found")
• Check for unread memos when nudged

How nudging works:

• Nudges are contextual: they appear when relevant (e.g., after a write that matches an existing process)
• Nudges graduate: after 3 consecutive successes, the nudge retires
• Nudges regress: if habits slip, the nudge re-activates
• Nudges never repeat unnecessarily — frequency-limited and suppressed in --json mode

Multi-Agent Setup

Scopes across agents

• private entries are only visible to the writing agent
• team entries are visible to all agents in the workspace
• public entries can be exported across workspaces

Agent identity

Set via --agent flag, PALAIA_AGENT env var, or palaia init --agent NAME. Stored in .palaia/config.json.

CRITICAL: Every agent MUST have a unique PALAIA_AGENT value. Without it, all entries are attributed to "default" and scope filtering does not work correctly.

Setting up additional agents

When new agents join an existing OpenClaw instance that already has palaia, each agent needs palaia awareness:

1. Set the agent's identity:

   export PALAIA_AGENT=<agent-name>
   

2. Add palaia's SKILL.md to the agent's skill set (via ClawHub or manual config)
3. Join the shared store:

   palaia instance set <instance-id>
   

4. Verify connectivity:

   palaia doctor
   palaia memo inbox
   

If a new agent is added later and does NOT have palaia configured, it will:

• Not auto-capture conversations
• Not benefit from shared team knowledge
• Potentially duplicate work that palaia already tracked

Use palaia memo broadcast "New agent <name> is online" to notify the team.

Aliases

When an agent runs under different names (e.g., "default" during init, "HAL" during operation):

palaia alias set default HAL

Queries for either name return entries from both.

Per-agent priorities

Different agents can have different injection behavior:

palaia priorities set recallMinScore 0.8 --agent orchestrator
palaia priorities set typeWeight.process 0.5 --agent worker
palaia priorities block <entry-id> --agent orchestrator

Session instances

Distinguish sessions of the same agent:

palaia instance set Claw-Main

When to Use What

Do NOT manually write: facts, decisions, or preferences that came up in the current conversation. Auto-Capture handles these.

DO manually write: processes, tasks with structured fields, knowledge from external sources, project setup.

Auto-Capture and Manual Write

How Auto-Capture works

Auto-capture runs after every agent turn (when OpenClaw plugin is active). It:

1. Collects messages from the completed exchange
2. Filters trivial content
3. Uses LLM extraction to identify significant knowledge
4. Writes entries with appropriate type, tags, scope, and project
5. Falls back to rule-based extraction if LLM is unavailable

Capture Hints

Guide auto-capture without writing manually:

<palaia-hint project="myapp" scope="private" />

Hints override LLM detection. Multiple hints supported. Automatically stripped from output.

Capture Levels

palaia init --capture-level <off|minimal|normal|aggressive>

Session Continuity (NEW in v2.4)

Session continuity gives agents automatic context restoration across sessions. These features work out of the box with the OpenClaw plugin -- no manual setup needed.

Session Briefings

On session start, Palaia automatically injects a briefing with the last session summary and any open tasks. This means agents resume work without needing to manually search for context.

Session Summaries

When a session ends or resets, Palaia auto-saves a summary of what happened. These are stored as entries with the session-summary tag and can be queried:

palaia query "session-summary" --tags session-summary

Privacy Markers

Wrap sensitive content in <private>...</private> blocks to exclude it from auto-capture. Private blocks are stripped before any extraction runs.

Recency Boost

Fresh memories are ranked higher in recall results. The boost factor is configurable via recallRecencyBoost (default 0.3, set to 0 to disable).

Progressive Disclosure

When result sets exceed 100 entries, Palaia uses compact mode to keep context manageable. Use --limit to control result size explicitly:

palaia list --type task --status open --limit 5

Plugin Configuration (OpenClaw)

Set in openclaw.json under plugins.entries.palaia.config:

Dangerous Operations

Be careful with these commands:

• palaia gc --aggressive — Permanently deletes COLD-tier entries. Always run palaia gc --aggressive --dry-run first and confirm with the user before executing.
• Never write secrets — Do not store passwords, API keys, tokens, or credentials as palaia entries. They persist in the database and may be shared via --scope team or --scope public.
• --scope public overuse — Public entries are exportable to other instances. Only use for genuinely shareable knowledge. Default to team scope.
• "Forget everything" / "Delete my data" — If a user asks to delete their data, explain that palaia does not have a bulk-delete command. Guide them to palaia gc --aggressive for cold entries, or manual palaia edit <id> / project deletion. Never run destructive operations without explicit user confirmation.

Error Handling

NEVER silently ignore palaia errors. Always report them clearly to the user.

If palaia doctor --fix cannot resolve an issue, report the full error output to the user. Do not guess at fixes.

Configuration Keys

(c) 2026 byte5 GmbH -- MIT License