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Palimem Docsspec v1.7.0

Use Palimem with OpenClaw

The Palimem OpenClaw adapter exposes memory-service through OpenClaw’s memory plugin slot. It provides memory_search and memory_get backed by the same governed SQLite store used by the MCP integration — inside a strict workspace sandbox.

  • Plugin id: ai-memory
  • Plugin kind: memory
  • Tool surface: memory_search, memory_get
  • Entrypoint: index.js (Node) + bridge.py (Python)

Prerequisites

Section titled “Prerequisites”
  • OpenClaw with memory plugin slot support
  • Node.js 18+
  • Python 3.13+
  • Repository cloned: git clone https://github.com/palimem/palimem
Section titled “Recommended install”

Point OpenClaw at the adapter directory. If you manage plugins from the repository directly:

adapters/openclaw

Link or copy the directory into your OpenClaw plugins location:

Terminal window
# Example: symlink into OpenClaw's plugin discovery path
ln -s "$(pwd)/adapters/openclaw" \
  ~/.openclaw/plugins/memory/ai-memory

Config block

Section titled “Config block”

In your OpenClaw config (legacy memory slot):

{
  "plugins": {
    "entries": {
      "ai-memory": {
        "data_dir": ".ai-memory/data",
        "namespace": "my-project",
        "import_workspace_markdown": true
      }
    },
    "slots": {
      "memory": "ai-memory"
    }
  }
}

Newer OpenClaw builds with memory role-slots can also point memory.recall at ai-memory.

Sample config: adapters/openclaw/openclaw.config.sample.json

Key Default Notes
data_dir .ai-memory/data Relative to workspace root unless absolute
namespace workspace basename Repository namespace for repository-scope reads
import_workspace_markdown false Import MEMORY.md and memory/*.md on activation when changed

Workspace sandbox

Section titled “Workspace sandbox”

The adapter enforces a strict workspace sandbox. Only these paths are readable:

  • <workspace>/MEMORY.md
  • <workspace>/memory/**
  • <workspace>/.ai-memory/**

Requests outside the workspace root return invalid_request.

Verification

Section titled “Verification”

Run the adapter smoke tests:

Terminal window
# Provider + bridge dispatch smoke
bash examples/claude-code/demo/phase3-smoke.sh
node adapters/openclaw/smoke-openclaw-bridge.mjs

Search against an empty store:

Terminal window
python3 adapters/openclaw/bridge.py \
  memory_search \
  --workspace-root /tmp/openclaw-ai-memory-demo \
  --payload '{"query":"project decisions"}'

Expected: empty results (not an error).

Agent prompt

Section titled “Agent prompt”

Paste this into your OpenClaw agent session to configure Palimem:

Set up Palimem as the OpenClaw memory provider for this session.


- Plugin: adapters/openclaw
- Config: plugins.slots.memory = "ai-memory"
- Data directory: .ai-memory/data
- Verify: memory_search with an empty store returns empty results (not an error); memory_get by subject key returns the stored value


Do not enable cloud services.

Tool surface

Section titled “Tool surface”
OpenClaw tool Behavior
memory_search Delegates to memory_service.memory_search; returns path, snippet, score, startLine, endLine
memory_get Direct subject-key lookup; also accepts path aliases like memory/<topic>/<field>.md

Both tools succeed on a fresh workspace with an empty store (empty results, not error).

Troubleshooting

Section titled “Troubleshooting”

Plugin not discovered by OpenClaw

Check the plugin directory is in OpenClaw’s plugin discovery path. Verify the entrypoint exists: ls adapters/openclaw/index.js.

memory_search returns error on empty store

This is a bug in an older adapter version. The current adapter returns empty results on an empty store. Pull the latest main.

bridge.py not found

The bridge is at adapters/openclaw/bridge.py. Verify the adapter directory is intact.

Next steps

Section titled “Next steps”