OpenClaw routes every inbound message to a session based on where it came
from: DMs, group chats, cron jobs, etc. All session state is owned by the
gateway; UI clients query the gateway for session data.
How messages are routed
DM isolation
By default, all DMs share one session for continuity, which is fine for
single-user setups.
If multiple people can message your agent, enable DM isolation. Without it, all
users share the same conversation context, so Alice’s private messages would be
visible to Bob.
session.dmScope options:
If the same person contacts you from multiple channels, use
session.identityLinks to map their identities to one canonical peer id so
they share a session.
Dock linked channels
Dock commands move the current direct-chat session’s reply route to another
linked channel without starting a new session. See
Channel docking for examples, config, and
troubleshooting.
Verify your setup with openclaw security audit.
Session lifecycle
Sessions are reused until they expire under session.reset:
- Daily reset (default
mode: "daily") - new session at a configured local
hour (session.reset.atHour, default 4, 0-23) on the gateway host. Daily
freshness is based on when the current sessionId started, not on later
metadata writes.
- Idle reset (
mode: "idle") - new session after session.reset.idleMinutes
of inactivity. Idle freshness is based on the last real user/channel
interaction, so heartbeat, cron, and exec system events do not keep the
session alive.
- Manual reset - type
/new or /reset in chat. /new <model> also
switches the model.
When both daily and idle resets are configured, whichever expires first wins.
Heartbeat, cron, exec, and other system-event turns may write session metadata,
but those writes do not extend daily or idle reset freshness. When a reset
rolls the session, queued system-event notices for the old session are
discarded so stale background updates are not prepended to the first prompt in
the new session.
Sessions with an active provider-owned CLI session are not cut by the implicit
daily default. Use /reset or configure session.reset explicitly when those
sessions should expire on a timer.
Override the default per chat type or per channel:
resetByType supports direct (legacy alias dm), group, and thread.
Legacy top-level session.idleMinutes still works as a compatibility alias for
an idle-mode default when no session.reset/resetByType block is set.
Where state lives
- Runtime session rows:
~/.openclaw/agents/<agentId>/agent/openclaw-agent.sqlite
- Archived transcript files:
~/.openclaw/agents/<agentId>/sessions/
- Legacy row migration source:
~/.openclaw/agents/<agentId>/sessions/sessions.json
The session rows in the per-agent SQLite database keep separate lifecycle
timestamps:
sessionStartedAt: when the current sessionId began; daily reset uses this.lastInteractionAt: last user/channel interaction that extends idle lifetime.updatedAt: last store-row mutation; useful for listing and pruning, but not
authoritative for daily/idle reset freshness.
During migration from older installs, gateway startup and openclaw doctor --fix import legacy sessions.json rows and hot transcript JSONL history into
SQLite automatically. Rows without sessionStartedAt are resolved from the
legacy transcript JSONL session header when available. If an older row also
lacks lastInteractionAt, idle freshness falls back to that session start time,
not to later bookkeeping writes. Use openclaw doctor --session-sqlite inspect --session-sqlite-all-agents and the Doctor migration
sequence when you want explicit
inspection or validation evidence.
Session maintenance
OpenClaw bounds session storage over time via session.maintenance, defaults
shown:
For production-sized maxEntries limits, Gateway runtime writes use a small
high-water buffer and clean back down to the configured cap in batches.
Session store reads do not prune or cap entries during Gateway startup, so
startup and isolated cron sessions do not pay for a full store cleanup.
openclaw sessions cleanup --enforce applies the cap immediately.
Gateway model-run probe sessions are short-lived by default. Rows matching
agent:*:explicit:model-run-<uuid> use fixed 24h retention, but cleanup is
pressure-gated: it only removes stale probe rows when session-entry
maintenance/cap pressure is reached, and runs before the broader stale-entry
age cutoff and entry cap. Normal direct, group, thread, cron, hook, heartbeat,
ACP, and sub-agent sessions do not inherit this 24h retention.
Maintenance preserves durable external conversation pointers, including group
sessions and thread-scoped chat sessions, while still allowing synthetic cron,
hook, heartbeat, ACP, and sub-agent entries to age out.
If you previously used DM isolation and later returned session.dmScope to
main, preview stale peer-keyed DM rows with
openclaw sessions cleanup --dry-run --fix-dm-scope. Applying the same flag
retires those old direct-DM rows and keeps their transcripts as deleted
archives.
Preview any maintenance run with openclaw sessions cleanup --dry-run.
Inspecting sessions
Further reading
