OpenClaw Import

Moltis can automatically detect and import data from an existing OpenClaw installation. This lets you migrate to Moltis without losing your provider keys, memory files, skills, sessions, personality, or channel configuration.

Your OpenClaw installation is never modified. The import is strictly read-only — Moltis copies data into its own directory and does not write to, move, or delete anything under ~/.openclaw/. You can safely keep using OpenClaw alongside Moltis, and re-import at any time to pick up new data.

How Detection Works

Moltis checks for an OpenClaw installation in two locations:

1. The path set in the OPENCLAW_HOME environment variable
2. ~/.openclaw/ (default)

If the directory exists and contains recognizable OpenClaw files (openclaw.json, agent directories, etc.), Moltis considers it detected. The workspace directory respects the OPENCLAW_PROFILE environment variable for multi-profile setups.

What Gets Imported

Workspace files explained

These markdown files shape your agent’s personality and behavior. Moltis uses them in the same way OpenClaw does:

• SOUL.md — personality directives (tone, style, boundaries)
• IDENTITY.md — agent name, emoji, creature/vibe theme
• USER.md — user profile (name, preferences, context the agent should know about you)
• TOOLS.md — tool usage guidelines and constraints
• AGENTS.md — global workspace rules injected into every conversation
• HEARTBEAT.md — periodic heartbeat prompt (what to check on each scheduled tick)
• BOOT.md — startup context injected when the gateway starts

If you customized any of these files in OpenClaw, they will carry over. If the destination already has user content, the import skips the file to avoid overwriting your work. Auto-seeded defaults (like the template SOUL.md) are replaced with your imported content.

Multi-agent support

If your OpenClaw installation has multiple agents (defined in openclaw.json’s agents.list or detected from agents/ directories), all of them are imported:

• The default agent becomes Moltis’s main agent
• Non-default agents are created as separate agent personas with their name, theme, and emoji
• Per-agent workspace files (SOUL.md, IDENTITY.md, etc.) are copied to ~/.moltis/agents/<id>/, giving each agent its own personality
• Per-agent sessions are prefixed with oc:<agent_id>: so they appear under the correct agent
• Agents without per-agent workspace files inherit from the root files automatically

Importing via Web UI

During Onboarding

If Moltis detects an OpenClaw installation at first launch, an Import step appears in the onboarding wizard before the identity and provider steps. You can select which categories to import using checkboxes, then proceed with the rest of setup.

From Settings

1. Go to Settings (gear icon)
2. Select OpenClaw Import from the sidebar
3. Click Scan to see what data is available
4. Check the categories you want to import
5. Click Import Selected

The import section only appears when an OpenClaw installation is detected.

Importing via CLI

The moltis import command provides three subcommands:

Detect

Check whether an OpenClaw installation exists and preview what can be imported:

moltis import detect

Example output:

OpenClaw installation detected at /Users/you/.openclaw

  Identity:        available (agent: "friday")
  Providers:       available (2 auth profiles)
  Skills:          3 skills found
  Memory:          available (MEMORY.md + 12 memory files)
  Channels:        available (1 Telegram account)
  Sessions:        47 session files across 2 agents
  MCP Servers:     4 servers configured
  Workspace Files: SOUL.md, IDENTITY.md, USER.md, TOOLS.md, HEARTBEAT.md

Use --json for machine-readable output:

moltis import detect --json

Import All

Import everything at once:

moltis import all

Preview what would happen without writing anything:

moltis import all --dry-run

Import Selected Categories

Import only specific categories:

moltis import select -c providers,skills,memory

Valid category names: identity, providers, skills, memory, channels, sessions, mcp_servers, workspace-files.

Combine with --dry-run to preview:

moltis import select -c sessions --dry-run

Importing via RPC

Three RPC methods are available for programmatic access:

Example openclaw.import params:

{
  "identity": true,
  "providers": true,
  "skills": true,
  "memory": true,
  "channels": false,
  "sessions": false,
  "mcp_servers": true,
  "workspace_files": true
}

The response includes a report with per-category status (imported, skipped, error) and counts.

Incremental Session Import

If you continue using OpenClaw after the initial import, Moltis will detect new messages when you re-import. Sessions are compared by source file line count — if the source JSONL has grown since the last import, Moltis re-converts the full session and updates the metadata.

On incremental update:

• The session’s original id and created_at are preserved
• The version field is bumped
• The markdown transcript is regenerated with all messages
• The CLI report shows updated sessions separately: 2 imported, 1 updated, 3 skipped

Legacy metadata (from imports before incremental support) will trigger a one-time catch-up re-import to establish the baseline line count.

Automatic Background Syncing

When the file-watcher feature is enabled (default), Moltis automatically watches the OpenClaw sessions directory for changes. Any new or appended session files are synced incrementally within seconds, without requiring a manual re-import.

How it works:

• Moltis uses OS-level file notifications (FSEvents on macOS, inotify on Linux) to detect .jsonl file changes in the OpenClaw sessions directory
• Events are debounced with a 5-second window to batch rapid writes during active conversations
• A 60-second periodic fallback ensures changes are caught even if file notifications are missed
• Only sessions are synced automatically — provider keys, memory, skills, and other categories are handled by the manual import or their own dedicated watchers

What gets synced:

• New session files are imported with oc: prefixed keys
• Existing sessions that have grown (new messages appended) are re-converted and updated
• Markdown transcripts are regenerated for updated sessions so they remain searchable
• Session metadata (id, created_at) is preserved across updates

The watcher starts automatically at gateway startup when an OpenClaw installation is detected. You can see the status in the startup logs:

openclaw: session watcher started

To disable automatic syncing, compile without the file-watcher feature.

Idempotency

Running the import multiple times is safe:

• Memory uses an <!-- Imported from OpenClaw --> marker to avoid duplicating MEMORY.md content. Individual memory files skip if they already exist at the destination
• Skills skip directories that already exist in the Moltis skills folder
• MCP servers skip entries with matching names
• Sessions use oc: prefixed keys that won’t collide with native Moltis sessions. Unchanged sessions (same line count) are skipped; grown sessions are re-converted
• Provider keys merge with existing keys without overwriting
• Workspace files skip if the destination already has user content; replace only auto-seeded defaults

Provider Name Mapping

OpenClaw and Moltis use different names for some providers:

Unmapped provider names are passed through as-is.

Unsupported Channels

Currently only Telegram and Discord channels are imported. If your OpenClaw configuration includes other channel types (Slack, WhatsApp, etc.), they will appear as warnings in the scan output but will not be imported.

Troubleshooting

Import not detected

• Verify the OpenClaw directory exists: ls ~/.openclaw/
• If using a custom path, set OPENCLAW_HOME=/path/to/openclaw
• If using profiles, set OPENCLAW_PROFILE=your-profile

Provider keys not working after import

OpenClaw stores API keys in agent auth-profiles. If the key was rotated or expired in OpenClaw, the imported key will also be invalid. Re-enter the key in Settings > Providers.

Memory import appears incomplete

The import brings over MEMORY.md and all .md files from the memory/ directory (daily logs, project notes, custom files). Non-markdown files are skipped. OpenClaw’s SQLite vector database is not imported because embeddings are not portable across models — Moltis will re-index the imported files automatically.

Session transcripts

When sessions are imported, Moltis also generates markdown transcripts in ~/.moltis/memory/sessions/. These contain the user/assistant conversation text and are indexed by the memory system, making your imported OpenClaw conversations searchable.

Workspace files not appearing

If a workspace file wasn’t imported, it may already exist at the destination with custom content. The import never overwrites user-customized files. Check ~/.moltis/SOUL.md (or ~/.moltis/agents/<id>/SOUL.md for non-default agents) to see what’s there. You can delete it and re-import to get the OpenClaw version.