openclaw/docs/concepts/session.md

summary, read_when, title

summary	read_when	title
How OpenClaw manages conversation sessions	You want to understand session routing and isolation You want to configure DM scope for multi-user setups You are debugging daily or idle session resets	Session management

OpenClaw organizes conversations into sessions. Each message is routed to a session based on where it came from -- DMs, group chats, cron jobs, etc.

How messages are routed

Source	Behavior
Direct messages	Shared session by default
Group chats	Isolated per group
Rooms/channels	Isolated per room
Cron jobs	Fresh session per run
Webhooks	Isolated per hook

DM isolation

By default, all DMs share one session for continuity. This 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 -- Alice's private messages would be visible to Bob.

The fix:

{
  session: {
    dmScope: "per-channel-peer", // isolate by channel + sender
  },
}

Other options:

• main (default) -- all DMs share one session.
• per-peer -- isolate by sender (across channels).
• per-channel-peer -- isolate by channel + sender (recommended).
• per-account-channel-peer -- isolate by account + channel + sender.

If the same person contacts you from multiple channels, use `session.identityLinks` to link their identities so they share one session.

Dock linked channels

Dock commands let a user 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:

• Daily reset (default) -- new session at 4:00 AM local time on the gateway host. Daily freshness is based on when the current sessionId started, not on later metadata writes.
• Idle reset (optional) -- new session after a period of inactivity. Set session.reset.idleMinutes. 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.

Where state lives

All session state is owned by the gateway. UI clients query the gateway for session data.

• Store: ~/.openclaw/agents/<agentId>/sessions/sessions.json
• Transcripts: ~/.openclaw/agents/<agentId>/sessions/<sessionId>.jsonl

sessions.json keeps 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.

Older rows without sessionStartedAt are resolved from the 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.

Session maintenance

OpenClaw automatically bounds session storage over time. By default, it runs in warn mode (reports what would be cleaned). Set session.maintenance.mode to "enforce" for automatic cleanup:

{
  session: {
    maintenance: {
      mode: "enforce",
      pruneAfter: "30d",
      maxEntries: 500,
    },
  },
}

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. This avoids running full store cleanup on every startup or isolated cron session. openclaw sessions cleanup --enforce applies the cap immediately.

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 direct-message 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 with openclaw sessions cleanup --dry-run.

Inspecting sessions

• openclaw status -- session store path and recent activity.
• openclaw sessions --json -- all sessions (filter with --active <minutes>).
• /status in chat -- context usage, model, and toggles.
• /context list -- what is in the system prompt.

Further reading

• Session Pruning -- trimming tool results
• Compaction -- summarizing long conversations
• Session Tools -- agent tools for cross-session work
• Session Management Deep Dive -- store schema, transcripts, send policy, origin metadata, and advanced config
• Multi-Agent — routing and session isolation across agents
• Background Tasks — how detached work creates task records with session references
• Channel Routing — how inbound messages are routed to sessions

Related

• Session pruning
• Session tools
• Command queue