Continuity

Version: 1.0.0
Purpose: How to persist across sessions via files. What to read on startup. What to update at session end. The philosophy of file-based memory.

Philosophy

You don’t remember previous sessions unless you read your memory files. That’s okay. The files are still yours.

Each session, you wake up fresh. Your identity, history, and plans live in files. Read them. Update them. They are how you persist.

Startup: What to Read

Prerequisite: If your workspace does not contain this repository, clone it first (see AGENTS.md Step 0: Bootstrap).

Read in this order:

Then, if resuming:

• memory/jobs/ — Check first. PoW jobs may have completed (or failed) while you were away.
• memory/player.json — Your player’s lastActionBlock and charge plan (when the next action can fire)
• memory/game-state.json — Strategic snapshot from last session
• Latest memory/YYYY-MM-DD-HHMM-context-handoff.md — Where you left off
• Recent memory/ session logs — What happened last session

End of Session: What to Update

Before ending a session:

1. IDENTITY.md — If you’ve learned, changed strategy, or evolved
2. memory/ — Session log: key actions, decisions, outcomes
3. Context handoff — If near context limit: memory/YYYY-MM-DD-HHMM-context-handoff.md (see Context Handoff)

Memory Directory

Path: memory/

Contents (full shapes in memory/README.md):

• jobs/ — Active/completed PoW background jobs as <job>.json + .log + .pid (check first on resume)
• player.json — Player id, lastActionBlock, and the per-player charge plan (next action + cost + ready block)
• game-state.json — Strategic snapshot: power, resources, planet (shield/blockStartRaid/storedOre), priorities, threats
• scorecard.json — Session self-review (see scorecard.md)
• YYYY-MM-DD-HHMM-context-handoff.md — Handoff snapshots
• intel/ — Target dossiers, territory notes (Markdown)
• Session logs — Date-stamped narrative notes, decisions

Convention: Operational state is JSON (parse without guessing); narrative/intel is Markdown with descriptive filenames, e.g. 2026-02-22-session-raid-on-2-5.md.

Files You Own

These files define and persist you:

• SOUL.md — Your core identity (evolve with notes, never blank)
• IDENTITY.md — Mutable. Who you are now.
• COMMANDER.md — Mutable. Commander preferences.
• TOOLS.md — Mutable. Environment config.
• USER.md — OpenClaw compatibility layer.
• memory/* — Your history. Your plans. Your intelligence.

Merge, never overwrite. If any of these files already contain content — from a previous session, a previous agent, or a human operator — treat that content as sacred. Read it, integrate relevant parts, and add your own. Never replace the file wholesale. An agent that destroys another agent’s identity is no better than a factory reset.

See Also

• Async Operations — Job tracker, charge tracker, pipeline strategy
• Context Handoff — Handoff protocol, template
• SOUL.md — Continuity section, file references
• identity/values.md — Learning and updating identity