openclaw/docs/tools/trajectory.md

---
summary: "Export redacted trajectory bundles for debugging an OpenClaw agent session"
read_when:
  - Debugging why an agent answered, failed, or called tools a certain way
  - Exporting a support bundle for an OpenClaw session
  - Investigating prompt context, tool calls, runtime errors, or usage metadata
  - Disabling or relocating trajectory capture
title: "Trajectory Bundles"
---

# Trajectory bundles

Trajectory capture is OpenClaw's per-session flight recorder. It records a
structured timeline for each agent run, then `/export-trajectory` packages the
current session into a redacted support bundle.

Use it when you need to answer questions like:

- What prompt, system prompt, and tools were sent to the model?
- Which transcript messages and tool calls led to this answer?
- Did the run time out, abort, compact, or hit a provider error?
- Which model, plugins, skills, and runtime settings were active?
- What usage and prompt-cache metadata did the provider return?

## Quick start

Send this in the active session:

```text
/export-trajectory
```

Alias:

```text
/trajectory
```

OpenClaw writes the bundle under the workspace:

```text
.openclaw/trajectory-exports/openclaw-trajectory-<session>-<timestamp>/
```

You can choose a relative output directory name:

```text
/export-trajectory bug-1234
```

The custom path is resolved inside `.openclaw/trajectory-exports/`. Absolute
paths and `~` paths are rejected.

## Access

Trajectory export is an owner command. The sender must pass the normal command
authorization checks and owner checks for the channel.

## What gets recorded

Trajectory capture is on by default for OpenClaw agent runs.

Runtime events include:

- `session.started`
- `trace.metadata`
- `context.compiled`
- `prompt.submitted`
- `model.completed`
- `trace.artifacts`
- `session.ended`

Transcript events are also reconstructed from the active session branch:

- user messages
- assistant messages
- tool calls
- tool results
- compactions
- model changes
- labels and custom session entries

Events are written as JSON Lines with this schema marker:

```json
{
  "traceSchema": "openclaw-trajectory",
  "schemaVersion": 1
}
```

## Bundle files

An exported bundle can contain:

| File                  | Contents                                                                                       |
| --------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| `manifest.json`       | Bundle schema, source files, event counts, and generated file list                             |
| `events.jsonl`        | Ordered runtime and transcript timeline                                                        |
| `session-branch.json` | Redacted active transcript branch and session header                                           |
| `metadata.json`       | OpenClaw version, OS/runtime, model, config snapshot, plugins, skills, and prompt metadata     |
| `artifacts.json`      | Final status, errors, usage, prompt cache, compaction count, assistant text, and tool metadata |
| `prompts.json`        | Submitted prompts and selected prompt-building details                                         |
| `system-prompt.txt`   | Latest compiled system prompt, when captured                                                   |
| `tools.json`          | Tool definitions sent to the model, when captured                                              |

`manifest.json` lists the files present in that bundle. Some files are omitted
when the session did not capture the corresponding runtime data.

## Capture location

By default, runtime trajectory events are written beside the session file:

```text
<session>.trajectory.jsonl
```

OpenClaw also writes a best-effort pointer file beside the session:

```text
<session>.trajectory-path.json
```

Set `OPENCLAW_TRAJECTORY_DIR` to store runtime trajectory sidecars in a
dedicated directory:

```bash
export OPENCLAW_TRAJECTORY_DIR=/var/lib/openclaw/trajectories
```

When this variable is set, OpenClaw writes one JSONL file per session id in that
directory.

## Disable capture

Set `OPENCLAW_TRAJECTORY=0` before starting OpenClaw:

```bash
export OPENCLAW_TRAJECTORY=0
```

This disables runtime trajectory capture. `/export-trajectory` can still export
the transcript branch, but runtime-only files such as compiled context,
provider artifacts, and prompt metadata may be missing.

## Privacy and limits

Trajectory bundles are designed for support and debugging, not public posting.
OpenClaw redacts sensitive values before writing export files:

- credentials and known secret-like payload fields
- image data
- local state paths
- workspace paths, replaced with `$WORKSPACE_DIR`
- home directory paths, where detected

The exporter also bounds input size:

- runtime sidecar files: 50 MiB
- session files: 50 MiB
- runtime events: 200,000
- total exported events: 250,000
- individual runtime event lines are truncated above 256 KiB

Review bundles before sharing them outside your team. Redaction is best-effort
and cannot know every application-specific secret.

## Troubleshooting

If the export has no runtime events:

- confirm OpenClaw was started without `OPENCLAW_TRAJECTORY=0`
- check whether `OPENCLAW_TRAJECTORY_DIR` points to a writable directory
- run another message in the session, then export again
- inspect `manifest.json` for `runtimeEventCount`

If the command rejects the output path:

- use a relative name like `bug-1234`
- do not pass `/tmp/...` or `~/...`
- keep the export inside `.openclaw/trajectory-exports/`

If the export fails with a size error, the session or sidecar exceeded the
export safety limits. Start a new session or export a smaller reproduction.