OpenClaw Session Management: The Complete Guide

Sessions are the backbone of how OpenClaw maintains context and continuity across your AI interactions. Whether you're talking on WhatsApp, Telegram, or a group chat, understanding how sessions work ensures you get a seamless, private, and reliable experience.

What Is a Session?

At its core, a session is a conversation thread with history, context, and state. OpenClaw treats each direct chat with an agent as a primary session, while group and channel chats are isolated to prevent context bleed.

Primary Session

For one-on-one chats, OpenClaw defaults to a single main session per agent. No matter where you message from—your phone, laptop, or another device—OpenClaw collapses your direct messages into one continuous conversation.

This continuity is perfect for personal use. Whether you're on WhatsApp one minute and Telegram the next, your agent remembers where you left off.

Group and Channel Sessions

In contrast, group chats, channels, and threads get their own isolated session keys. This prevents private data from one group leaking into another.

For example:

• agent:main:whatsapp:group:12345 → A WhatsApp group
• agent:main:discord:channel:67890 → A Discord channel
• agent:main:telegram:group:54321:topic:999 → A Telegram topic thread

These distinct keys keep conversations clean and contextually accurate.

Secure DM Mode: Protecting User Privacy

If your agent receives messages from multiple people, default session settings can expose sensitive information.

The Problem

Imagine this scenario:

1. Alice messages your agent about a private medical appointment.
2. Later, Bob asks, "What were we talking about?"
3. Because both share the same main session, your agent could inadvertently reveal Alice's details to Bob.

This is why secure DM mode is critical for multi-user setups.

The Solution: dmScope

OpenClaw offers several dmScope settings to control how direct messages are grouped:

| Setting | Use Case | |--------|--------| | main (default) | Single-user continuity — all DMs share one session | | per-peer | Isolate per sender across all channels | | per-channel-peer | Isolate per sender per channel — ideal for shared inboxes | | per-account-channel-peer | Isolate per sender per account per channel — for multi-account setups |

Recommended Configuration

{
  "session": {
    "dmScope": "per-channel-peer"
  }
}

This ensures each person has their own isolated conversation, even across different channels.

Identity Linking

If the same person messages you across multiple platforms (e.g. Discord and WhatsApp), use session.identityLinks to unify their session:

{
  "session": {
    "identityLinks": {
      "user1": ["discord:123456789", "whatsapp:+15551234567"]
    }
  }
}

Now, messages from both accounts will merge into one consistent conversation.

Session Lifecycle and Resets

Sessions don’t last forever. OpenClaw uses reset policies to manage when conversations start fresh.

Daily Reset

By default, sessions reset at 4:00 AM (your gateway’s local time). This prevents sessions from becoming too long and hitting token limits.

Idle Reset

You can also set an idle timeout:

{
  "session": {
    "idleMinutes": 120
  }
}

If a session is inactive for 120 minutes, it’s marked stale. The next message starts a new session.

💡 Tip: When both daily and idle resets are configured, whichever expires first triggers the reset.

Per-Type and Per-Channel Overrides

Need finer control? Use resetByType or resetByChannel:

{
  "session": {
    "resetByType": {
      "direct": { "idleMinutes": 240 },
      "group": { "idleMinutes": 120 }
    },
    "resetByChannel": {
      "discord": { "idleMinutes": 10080 } // 7 days
    }
  }
}

This way, your Discord conversations can last longer, while group chats reset more frequently.

Manual Resets

Force a fresh start anytime:

• Send /new to reset and start over
• Send /reset to clear context
• Append a model to switch: /new llama

Where Sessions Live

On Your Device

• Session store: ~/.openclaw/agents/<agentId>/sessions/sessions.json
• Transcripts: ~/.openclaw/agents/<agentId>/sessions/<SessionId>.jsonl

The store maps session keys to active sessions. You can safely delete entries—they’ll be recreated on demand.

🛑 Warning: The gateway is the source of truth. Remote agents store sessions on the server, not your local machine.

Inspecting Sessions

Use these commands to debug:

• openclaw status — Show active sessions and store location
• openclaw sessions --json — List all sessions
• /status in chat — Check session health, context usage, and model
• /context detail — See what’s in your context
• /compact — Summarize old messages to save tokens

Best Practices

1. Enable secure DMs if your agent talks to multiple people
2. Use per-channel-peer for shared inboxes
3. Set idle resets to prevent runaway context growth
4. Override per channel for different retention needs
5. Use /new to reset when context feels stale
6. Monitor with /status to avoid relink issues

Final Thoughts

Session management is more than just chat history—it’s about privacy, continuity, and control. Whether you're running a personal assistant or a customer-facing bot, getting sessions right ensures your AI behaves predictably and securely.

With OpenClaw’s flexible session model, you can tailor the experience to your exact needs—without sacrificing performance or safety.