openclaw/docs/cli/migrate.md

summary, read_when, title

summary	read_when	title
CLI reference for importing state from another agent system	You want to migrate from Hermes or another agent system into OpenClaw You are adding a plugin-owned migration provider	Migrate

openclaw migrate

Import state from another agent system through a plugin-owned migration provider.

openclaw migrate list
openclaw migrate hermes --dry-run
openclaw migrate hermes
openclaw migrate apply hermes --yes
openclaw migrate apply hermes --include-secrets --yes
openclaw onboard --flow import
openclaw onboard --import-from hermes --import-source ~/.hermes

Safety model

openclaw migrate is preview-first. The provider returns an itemized plan before anything changes, including conflicts, skipped items, and sensitive items. JSON plans, apply output, and migration reports redact nested secret-looking keys such as API keys, tokens, authorization headers, cookies, and passwords.

openclaw migrate apply <provider> previews the plan and prompts before changing state unless --yes is set. In non-interactive mode, apply requires --yes. With --json and no --yes, apply prints the JSON plan and does not mutate state.

Apply creates and verifies an OpenClaw backup before applying the migration. If no local OpenClaw state exists yet, the backup step is skipped and the migration can continue. To skip a backup when state exists, pass both --no-backup and --force.

Apply mode refuses to continue when the plan has conflicts. Review the plan, then rerun with --overwrite if replacing existing targets is intentional. Providers may still write item-level backups for overwritten files in the migration report directory.

Secrets are never imported by default. Use --include-secrets to import supported credentials.

Hermes

The bundled Hermes provider detects Hermes state at ~/.hermes by default. Use --from <path> when Hermes lives elsewhere.

The Hermes migration can import:

• default model configuration from config.yaml
• configured model providers and custom OpenAI-compatible endpoints from providers and custom_providers
• MCP server definitions from mcp_servers or mcp.servers
• SOUL.md and AGENTS.md into the OpenClaw agent workspace
• memories/MEMORY.md and memories/USER.md by appending them to workspace memory files
• memory config defaults for OpenClaw file memory, plus archive/manual-review items for external memory providers such as Honcho
• skills with a SKILL.md file from skills/<name>/
• per-skill config values from skills.config
• supported API keys from .env, only with --include-secrets

Archive-only Hermes state is copied into the migration report for manual review, but it is not loaded into live OpenClaw config or credentials. This preserves opaque or unsafe state such as plugins/, sessions/, logs/, cron/, mcp-tokens/, auth.json, and state.db without pretending OpenClaw can execute or trust it automatically.

Supported Hermes .env keys include OPENAI_API_KEY, ANTHROPIC_API_KEY, OPENROUTER_API_KEY, GOOGLE_API_KEY, GEMINI_API_KEY, GROQ_API_KEY, XAI_API_KEY, MISTRAL_API_KEY, and DEEPSEEK_API_KEY.

After applying a migration, run:

openclaw doctor

Plugin contract

Migration sources are plugins. A plugin declares its provider ids in openclaw.plugin.json:

{
  "contracts": {
    "migrationProviders": ["hermes"]
  }
}

At runtime the plugin calls api.registerMigrationProvider(...). The provider implements detect, plan, and apply; core owns CLI orchestration, backup policy, prompts, JSON output, and conflict preflight. Core passes the reviewed plan into apply(ctx, plan), and providers may rebuild the plan only when that argument is absent for compatibility. Provider plugins can use openclaw/plugin-sdk/migration for item construction and summary counts, plus openclaw/plugin-sdk/migration-runtime for conflict-aware file copies, archive-only report copies, and migration reports.

Onboarding can also offer migration when a provider detects a known source. openclaw onboard --flow import and openclaw setup --wizard --import-from hermes use the same plugin migration provider and still show a preview before applying. Onboarding imports require a fresh OpenClaw setup; reset config, credentials, sessions, and the workspace first if you already have local state. Backup plus overwrite or merge imports are feature-gated for existing setups.