Closes #146939. Related: #140984. ## What Problem This Solves Fixes `memory_get` returning a different file from `memory_search` when an explicitly owned multi-agent roster relies on inherited workspace paths. ## User Impact Search results and subsequent reads agree on the agent's workspace without requiring a per-agent workspace pin. Explicit workspace overrides remain authoritative. No files move, no index reset or storage migration is required, and Markdown containment and read limits are unchanged. For explicitly owned rosters, an unpinned first agent no longer implicitly reads the parent workspace merely because it appears first. A valid retained migration owner and sole-agent inheritance still follow canonical behavior. Raw reader inputs without explicit ownership keep their existing legacy behavior. ## Why This Change Was Made The prior path repair in #140984 deliberately deferred workspace-ownership alignment. This PR proposes only that bounded alignment: core and explicitly owned memory-host reads share the compatibility-owner decision through a pure internal helper. The existing private path bridge avoids importing the full agent runtime. The original config object is preserved for retained migration-owner lookup; optional legacy reader IDs remain accepted. ### Maintainer choices — proposed, not previously approved 1. **Accept explicit-roster alignment (recommended and implemented).** Search's canonical workspace ownership is authoritative for reads too. Alternatively, retain the mismatch and require explicit workspace pins; this PR does not silently change search to match the old getter. 2. **Preserve legacy reader compatibility (implemented).** Inputs without `ownership: "explicit"` retain first-agent/default-marker inheritance. Broader normalization of those inputs is intentionally deferred, rather than changing the shipped reader contract in this fix. 3. **Keep adjacent policy out of scope (recommended).** No context-limit merging changes, shared-system-agent workspace redesign, public SDK entrypoint, or broader path allowlist. Those require separate decisions. ClawSweeper's source review supports this direction but requests a compatibility decision; it is not maintainer approval. Please review the ownership choice before merge. Rollback is reverting this change; the issue's explicit-workspace-pin mitigation remains available. ## Evidence ### After-fix real Gateway proof — September 13, 2026 Built candidate `be5a589a0ee148b54c51f6876ef5281ee9b29cb5`, Node 26.8.1/macOS. Used a loopback-only Gateway, registered Memory Core tools through HTTP `POST /tools/invoke`, synthetic files and real on-disk SQLite state, `provider: none`, and vectors disabled. No test-helper imports, provider calls, or production configuration/state changes. | Setup | Actual search → get result | | --- | --- | | Fresh explicit two-agent roster, neither agent pinned; parent contains a decoy | main: `USER.md`, `status=ok`, `Orchid proof main`; other: `USER.md`, `status=ok`, `Orchid proof other` | | Fresh setup, parent traversal for each agent | `MEMORY_PATH_NOT_ALLOWED` | | Installed 2026.9.3, existing explicit workspace pins | main/other: `USER.md`, `status=ok`, matching `Orchid upgrade main` / `Orchid upgrade other` | | Same shipped-created state after candidate Doctor migration and candidate Gateway startup | Both agents return those same markers with `status=ok` | For each agent, passed the search result's path/start line/inclusive line count into `memory_get`. Stopped the shipped Gateway before switching binaries. Candidate initially refused the older session-identity database; followed its supported `doctor --fix --non-interactive` instruction (exit 0, both agent databases v19→v20), then repeated the actual HTTP flow. Both existing workspace pins were preserved exactly, and SHA-256 checks showed all three synthetic `USER.md` files unchanged. Doctor did change normal config metadata/defaults; the whole config was **not** unchanged. All proof Gateways were stopped. This is fresh-runtime and shipped-created-state/Doctor migration proof, **not** an installer, `openclaw update` driver, or live-user upgrade test. Retained legacy-owner shapes beyond these fixtures remain covered by focused tests, not claimed as live proof. The schema migration belongs to the candidate's existing upgrade path; this six-file patch introduces no schema or embedding-metadata changes. Maintainer acceptance of explicit-roster read-root alignment remains required. CI at this evidence update: the model-login catalog timing case in [large-26](https://github.com/openclaw/openclaw/actions/runs/34761804381/job/103735936253) failed, making the aggregate gate red. Its fixture disables memory and uses one pinned agent without explicit ownership; likely unrelated, but no matching base failure was verified. No CI pass is claimed. - Focused validation: 162 tests passed across six files (one existing skipped test), including the real-manager tool regression and package-boundary contracts. - Final-head `node scripts/check-changed.mjs` passed: core and test types, core/extension lint, formatting, dead-export scans, package/SDK boundaries, and runtime import-cycle checks. `git diff --check` passed. - Full `pnpm build` passed in 3m26s, including plugin SDK exports, CLI bootstrap imports, built plugin-loading checks, and Control UI build. After that build, the only patch change moved an unchanged re-export below imports for lint; the rebase added only unrelated ACP tests. The repository-wide test suite was not run. - Tests-first reproduction on upstream main: both roster orders returned the parent decoy through `memory_get` after real SQLite-backed `memory_search` found the agent marker. - The regression exercises both agents, both roster orders, returned path/line readback, and rejection of parent traversal. It uses temporary files and databases with embeddings disabled; no provider request or private installation data. - Compatibility coverage includes explicit workspace overrides, retained/removed migration owners, ignored legacy markers under explicit ownership, optional legacy IDs, sole/duplicate agents, and absent/empty rosters. Existing legacy path, file-reader, core ownership, and package-boundary coverage is retained. - Independent clean-context P0–P3 source review found no actionable findings. The repository Auto Review CLI was also attempted but could not authenticate; no successful CLI review is claimed. AI-assisted implementation and review. Maintainer approval remains required; no merge or automatic repair authority is inferred from the issue labels. --- ## Maintainer addendum — September 14, 2026 The ownership choices proposed above are accepted. This addendum records the final shared legacy-data owner, the preserved durable runtime default, and the refreshed proof. Earlier evidence remains tied to its stated revision. ### Problem Memory search finds an agent's file, but `memory_get` returns the parent's different file as success. ### Fix and impact Search and explicit memory reads now share one lightweight legacy-data owner. The two existing cached facts stay with the agent owner. Raw reader behavior, optional IDs, workspace pins, home/profile handling, and extra paths remain supported. No schema, migration, config key, protocol, or dependency changes. Owner decision: explicit-roster reads must return the searched workspace's file, never a different parent file. This ends the explicit-roster exception retained in #140984. To retain the parent as an agent's workspace, configure that workspace explicitly. Legacy data ownership remains separate from the durable runtime default, preserving #146246. Production growth is reduced from 46 to 38 net lines: - `agent-roster.ts` moves existing roster readers into a lightweight module and owns the shared data decision. - `agent-scope-config.ts` shrinks by 96 lines while preserving public exports and both cache lifetimes. - Memory-host `config-utils.ts` adds eight net lines to preserve raw-reader compatibility and use the shared owner for explicit inputs. - `openclaw-runtime-paths.ts` adds the one export needed by that call. ### Evidence - Main ` |
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| THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.md | ||
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| vitest.config.ts | ||
OpenClaw 🦞 — Your assistant, on your devices, in your chats
OpenClaw is an open-source AI assistant that runs on your own computer and meets you in the channels you already use: Discord, iMessage, Slack, Teams, Telegram, WhatsApp, and 20+ more, plus native apps for macOS, iOS, Android, Windows, and Linux. One Gateway runs it as a personal assistant on a laptop or as a shared team deployment; configuration is the only difference.
Yours, with no catch. State, memory, and credentials live on your hardware. Models and agent harnesses (Claude, Codex, local models) are plugins you can swap without changing anything else. Your prompts go to the model provider and chat platforms you configure, plus any diagnostics export you enable yourself; by default OpenClaw itself phones home for nothing but a daily version check, anonymous feature statistics are opt-in, and update.checkOnStart: false disables both (what OpenClaw sends). OpenClaw is stewarded by the OpenClaw Foundation, an independent 501(c)(3), and has no paid tier, hosted service, or token. The architecture case — trusted gateway, untrusted execution, deterministic policy — is in Why OpenClaw.
Website · Docs · Getting started · Why OpenClaw · Showcase · FAQ · Vision · DeepWiki
Install
The installer supports macOS, Linux, and Windows. It provisions a supported Node.js runtime when needed.
# macOS / Linux / WSL2
curl -fsSL https://openclaw.ai/install.sh | bash
# Windows PowerShell
iwr -useb https://openclaw.ai/install.ps1 | iex
Already manage Node.js? Install the published package instead (Node 24.16+ or 26.1+; Node 26 recommended):
npm install -g openclaw@latest --allow-scripts=openclaw
That command is for npm 12 or npm 11.16+. On npm 11.15 and earlier, omit
--allow-scripts=openclaw. See the
installation guide for the lifecycle script
contract, Docker, Nix, and other deployment paths.
Quick start
On a fresh install, the installer scripts start onboarding automatically. Complete the wizard they open. If you installed the package directly with npm, pnpm, or Bun, run:
openclaw onboard --install-daemon
After onboarding:
openclaw gateway status
openclaw dashboard
Onboarding verifies model access, creates the workspace, and configures the Gateway. The last command opens the Control UI; send a message there to confirm the assistant is working. See the getting started guide for channel setup and troubleshooting.
How it fits together
- The Gateway is the local control plane for sessions, tools, events, and channel connections.
- The Control UI, CLI, and TUI connect to the Gateway.
- Channels bring the assistant to WhatsApp, Telegram, Slack, Discord, Google Chat, Signal, iMessage, and other messaging services.
- Companion apps and nodes add voice, Canvas, camera, screen, and device-local actions on supported platforms.
OpenClaw works with hosted and local model providers. Its tools, skills, and plugins extend what an assistant can do.
Security
Treat inbound messages as untrusted input. DM-capable channels pair unknown senders by default; approve a pairing request with openclaw pairing approve <channel> <code>.
Tools run on the host for the main session unless you configure sandboxing. Read the security guide, exposure runbook, and sandboxing guide before connecting other users or exposing the Gateway remotely.
Documentation
| Goal | Start here |
|---|---|
| Configure models and auth | Models · Model providers |
| Connect a messaging service | Channels |
| Add tools, skills, and plugins | Tools · Skills · Plugins · ClawHub |
| Run apps and device nodes | Platforms · Nodes |
| Use the CLI and chat commands | CLI reference · Slash commands |
| Configure or operate the Gateway | Configuration · Architecture · Updating · Release channels |
Development
The repository is a pnpm workspace. Plain npm install at the repository root is not supported.
git clone https://github.com/openclaw/openclaw.git
cd openclaw
pnpm install
pnpm build
pnpm ui:build
See CONTRIBUTING.md for the contribution workflow and the source setup guide for the development loop.
Governance
OpenClaw is developed in the open by the OpenClaw Foundation, an independent 501(c)(3). The Foundation employs the core team and signs releases. Donors and infrastructure sponsors support the Foundation; none of them own or direct the project. OpenAI is a donor, not an owner.
Community
See CONTRIBUTING.md for maintainers and contribution guidelines; AI-assisted PRs are welcome.
Use the issue chooser for bugs and feature requests, ask setup questions in Discord, and report vulnerabilities through SECURITY.md. New capabilities usually belong in plugins built on the plugin SDK and shared through ClawHub.
OpenClaw was built for Molty, a space lobster AI assistant, by Peter Steinberger and the community. Explore the project lore, soul.md, Peter's site, Star History, and @openclaw.
Special thanks to Mario Zechner for his support and for pi, and to Adam Doppelt for the lobster.bot domain.
Donors and sponsors
The Foundation is funded by donors including Amazon, Lobster Computer Company, Offline Holdings, OpenAI, Red Hat, and the University of Michigan, with infrastructure support from Blacksmith, Convex, GitHub, NVIDIA, and Vercel.
Contributors
Thanks to all clawtributors:
License
MIT © OpenClaw Foundation. See THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.md for incorporated or adapted code.