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Dreaming

Dreaming is the background memory consolidation system in

text

memory-core

. It helps OpenClaw move strong short-term signals into durable memory while keeping the process explainable and reviewable.

note

Dreaming is **opt-in** and disabled by default.

What dreaming writes

Dreaming keeps two kinds of output:

Machine state in
text
memory/.dreams/
(recall store, phase signals, ingestion checkpoints, locks).
Human-readable output in
text
DREAMS.md
(or existing
text
dreams.md
) and optional phase report files under
text
memory/dreaming/<phase>/YYYY-MM-DD.md
.

Long-term promotion still writes only to

text

MEMORY.md

Phase model

Dreaming uses three cooperative phases:

Phase	Purpose	Durable write
Light	Sort and stage recent short-term material	No
Deep	Score and promote durable candidates	Yes ( text `MEMORY.md` )
REM	Reflect on themes and recurring ideas	No

These phases are internal implementation details, not separate user-configured "modes."

Session transcript ingestion

Dreaming can ingest redacted session transcripts into the dreaming corpus. When transcripts are available, they are fed into the light phase alongside daily memory signals and recall traces. Personal and sensitive content is redacted before ingestion.

Dream Diary

Dreaming also keeps a narrative Dream Diary in

text

DREAMS.md

. After each phase has enough material,

text

memory-core

runs a best-effort background subagent turn and appends a short diary entry. It uses the default runtime model unless

text

dreaming.model

is configured. If the configured model is unavailable, Dream Diary retries once with the session default model.

note

This diary is for human reading in the Dreams UI, not a promotion source. Dreaming-generated diary/report artifacts are excluded from short-term promotion. Only grounded memory snippets are eligible to promote into `MEMORY.md`.

There is also a grounded historical backfill lane for review and recovery work:

The Control UI exposes the same diary backfill/reset flow so you can inspect results in the Dreams scene before deciding whether the grounded candidates deserve promotion. The Scene also shows a distinct grounded lane so you can see which staged short-term entries came from historical replay, which promoted items were grounded-led, and clear only grounded-only staged entries without touching ordinary live short-term state.

Deep ranking signals

Deep ranking uses six weighted base signals plus phase reinforcement:

Signal	Weight	Description
Frequency	0.24	How many short-term signals the entry accumulated
Relevance	0.30	Average retrieval quality for the entry
Query diversity	0.15	Distinct query/day contexts that surfaced it
Recency	0.15	Time-decayed freshness score
Consolidation	0.10	Multi-day recurrence strength
Conceptual richness	0.06	Concept-tag density from snippet/path

Light and REM phase hits add a small recency-decayed boost from

text

memory/.dreams/phase-signals.json

Scheduling

When enabled,

text

memory-core

auto-manages one cron job for a full dreaming sweep. Each sweep runs phases in order: light → REM → deep.

Default cadence behavior:

Setting	Default
text `dreaming.frequency`	text `0 3 * * *`
text `dreaming.model`	default model

Quick start

```json} { "plugins": { "entries": { "memory-core": { "config": { "dreaming": { "enabled": true } } } } } } ``` ```json} { "plugins": { "entries": { "memory-core": { "config": { "dreaming": { "enabled": true, "timezone": "America/Los_Angeles", "frequency": "0 */6 * * *" } } } } } } ```

Slash command


text
/dreaming status
/dreaming on
/dreaming off
/dreaming help

CLI workflow

```bash} openclaw memory promote openclaw memory promote --apply openclaw memory promote --limit 5 openclaw memory status --deep ```


text
Manual `memory promote` uses deep-phase thresholds by default unless overridden with CLI flags.

Explain why a specific candidate would or would not promote:


text
```bash}
openclaw memory promote-explain "router vlan"
openclaw memory promote-explain "router vlan" --json
```

Preview REM reflections, candidate truths, and deep promotion output without writing anything:


text
```bash}
openclaw memory rem-harness
openclaw memory rem-harness --json
```

Key defaults

All settings live under

text

plugins.entries.memory-core.config.dreaming

Enable or disable the dreaming sweep. Cron cadence for the full dreaming sweep. Optional Dream Diary subagent model override. Use a canonical `provider/model` value when also setting a subagent `allowedModels` allowlist.

warning

`dreaming.model` requires `plugins.entries.memory-core.subagent.allowModelOverride: true`. To restrict it, also set `plugins.entries.memory-core.subagent.allowedModels`. Trust or allowlist failures stay visible instead of falling back silently; the retry only covers model-unavailable errors.

note

Phase policy, thresholds, and storage behavior are internal implementation details (not user-facing config). See [Memory configuration reference](/reference/memory-config#dreaming) for the full key list.

Dreams UI

When enabled, the Gateway Dreams tab shows:

current dreaming enabled state
phase-level status and managed-sweep presence
short-term, grounded, signal, and promoted-today counts
next scheduled run timing
a distinct grounded Scene lane for staged historical replay entries
an expandable Dream Diary reader backed by
text
doctor.memory.dreamDiary

OpenClaw Docs

Dreaming

note

What dreaming writes

Phase model

Session transcript ingestion

Dream Diary

note

Deep ranking signals

Scheduling

Quick start

Slash command

CLI workflow

Key defaults

warning

note

Dreams UI

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