openclaw/docs/cli/transcripts.md

summary, read_when, title

summary	read_when	title
CLI reference for `openclaw transcripts` (list, show, and export stored transcripts)	You want to read stored transcript summaries from the terminal You need the path to a transcripts markdown summary You are debugging the core transcripts storage layout	Transcripts CLI

openclaw transcripts

Inspector and export command for transcripts written by the transcripts agent tool. Capture, import, and summarization run through that tool, not this CLI.

Canonical transcript state lives in the shared SQLite database at $OPENCLAW_STATE_DIR/state/openclaw.sqlite. show and path explicitly materialize user-facing artifacts under the state directory:

$OPENCLAW_STATE_DIR/transcripts/YYYY-MM-DD/<session>/
  metadata.json
  transcript.jsonl
  summary.json
  summary.md

These files are exports, not a second runtime store. OpenClaw does not read them back during capture, summarization, or listing. Default state directory is ~/.openclaw; override with OPENCLAW_STATE_DIR. The date directory comes from the session start time; the session directory is a filesystem-safe slug derived from the session id.

Commands

openclaw transcripts list
openclaw transcripts show <session>
openclaw transcripts show YYYY-MM-DD/<session>
openclaw transcripts path <session>
openclaw transcripts path YYYY-MM-DD/<session>
openclaw transcripts path <session> --dir
openclaw transcripts path <session> --metadata
openclaw transcripts path <session> --transcript
openclaw transcripts list --json
openclaw transcripts show <session> --json
openclaw transcripts path <session> --json

Command	Description
list	List stored sessions.
show <session>	Print and materialize summary.md.
path <session>	Materialize and print the summary.md path.
path <session> --dir	Materialize all artifacts and print their directory.
path <session> --metadata	Materialize and print metadata.json.
path <session> --transcript	Materialize and print transcript.jsonl.
--json	Print machine-readable output (any subcommand).

<session> accepts either a bare session id or a date-qualified selector (YYYY-MM-DD/<session>). Use the qualified form when the same session id occurs on more than one day, for example openclaw transcripts show 2026-05-22/standup. Default session ids include a timestamp and random suffix; give a session a fixed id only when that id is unique within the day.

Output

list prints one tab-separated line per session: selector, start time, title, summary path.

2026-05-22/standup  2026-05-22T09:00:00.000Z  Weekly standup  /Users/user/.openclaw/transcripts/2026-05-22/standup/summary.md

The selector is the safest value to pass back to show or path.

list --json returns objects with sessionId, selector, date, title, startedAt, stoppedAt, source, path, summaryPath, hasSummary.

show --json returns the stored session metadata, selector, session directory, summary path, and summary Markdown text.

path --json returns the selected path and whether that artifact could be materialized. Metadata and transcript exports always exist for a stored session; a summary path reports exists: false until the session has a summary.

Many sessions per day

Sessions group by date, then by session id. Ten meetings on one day become ten sibling folders:

~/.openclaw/transcripts/2026-05-22/
  transcript-2026-05-22T09-00-00-000Z-a1b2c3d4/
  transcript-2026-05-22T10-30-00-000Z-b2c3d4e5/
  standup/

Use default generated ids for automation. Use a fixed id like standup only when it will not repeat on the same date.

Missing summaries

Live sessions store and materialize summary.md when the session stops; imported transcripts do so immediately after import. A session can appear in list without a summary while capture is still active, if a provider failed during stop, or if metadata was stored before any utterances arrived.

Use path <session> --transcript to inspect the raw append-only transcript, or run the transcripts tool's summarize action to regenerate the Markdown summary.

Upgrading the legacy file store

OpenClaw releases that predate the SQLite store wrote canonical runtime state directly beneath $OPENCLAW_STATE_DIR/transcripts/. Run:

openclaw doctor --fix

Doctor imports the complete legacy tree into SQLite, verifies row counts and ordering, records migration receipts, and moves the verified source tree to a timestamped transcripts.migrated-* archive. Runtime commands do not fall back to the legacy files. Keep the archive until you have verified the imported sessions and any exports you rely on.

Configuration

Capture is opt-in (live sources can join and record meeting audio). Enable it with:

{
  "transcripts": {
    "enabled": true
  }
}

• enabled (default false): turn the tool on. Configure auto-start sources with transcripts.autoStart. Each entry is enabled by being present; omit an entry to disable that source. discord-voice is the bundled auto-start-capable source and requires guildId and channelId:

{
  "transcripts": {
    "enabled": true,
    "autoStart": [
      {
        "providerId": "discord-voice",
        "guildId": "1234567890",
        "channelId": "2345678901"
      }
    ]
  }
}