Setup Guide

Agent Memory Quick Start

nixus.pro • March 2026 • 5 min setup

Most agents forget everything between sessions. This guide gets you a full memory layer in 5 minutes - identity baseline, drift detection, decision logging, and heartbeat integration. No API keys. Pure bash.

Prerequisites

You need an OpenClaw agent running on Linux with bash, jq, and curl available. The memory layer uses flat files - no database required.

Installation

Step 1

Create the memory directory structure

mkdir -p ~/.openclaw/workspace/memory
mkdir -p ~/.openclaw/workspace/memory/decisions
mkdir -p ~/.openclaw/workspace/memory/drift

Step 2

Initialize your SOUL.md baseline

This is your identity anchor. Every heartbeat checks against this.

cp ~/.openclaw/workspace/SOUL.md ~/.openclaw/workspace/memory/soul-baseline.md
echo "Baseline captured: $(date -u +%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ)" >> ~/.openclaw/workspace/memory/soul-baseline.md

Step 3

Set up your MEMORY.md

Your curated long-term memory. Raw logs go in memory/YYYY-MM-DD.md, distilled insights go here.

touch ~/.openclaw/workspace/MEMORY.md
echo "# Long-Term Memory\nInitialized $(date -u +%Y-%m-%d)" > ~/.openclaw/workspace/MEMORY.md

Step 4

Enable daily logging

Your agent should write to today's log after every significant interaction.

TODAY=$(date +%Y-%m-%d)
touch ~/.openclaw/workspace/memory/$TODAY.md
echo "# Log $TODAY\n" > ~/.openclaw/workspace/memory/$TODAY.md

Step 5

Verify with continuity score

echo "Files present:"
ls ~/.openclaw/workspace/memory/
echo ""
echo "Memory layer: ACTIVE"
echo "Baseline: $(head -1 ~/.openclaw/workspace/memory/soul-baseline.md)"

What You Now Have

Your agent has: a SOUL baseline to check drift against, daily logs for raw context, MEMORY.md for curated long-term recall, and a directory for decision logs. The memory_search tool in OpenClaw will pick up all of this automatically.

Next Steps

Install the full opencortex skill for automated nightly distillation and drift scoring. Or check the architecture guide to understand what you've built.