Self-Learning Loop for OpenClaw

Autonomous self-improvement system that makes your OpenClaw agent learn from every interaction — without any code changes to OpenClaw itself.

What It Does

1. Memory Nudge — Auto-reviews conversations and saves durable facts (user preferences, corrections, discoveries)
2. Skill Auto-Creation — Detects novel problem-solving approaches and saves them as reusable skills
3. Lesson Extraction — Captures mistakes and corrections, promotes recurring patterns to rules
4. Memory Size Guard — Prevents context file bloat that causes silent truncation
5. Stale Cleanup — Removes outdated entries from memory files

Architecture

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                  HEARTBEAT                       │
│  (runs every ~30min during active sessions)      │
│                                                  │
│  ┌──────────┐ ┌──────────┐ ┌──────────────────┐ │
│  │ Memory   │ │ Skill    │ │ Lesson           │ │
│  │ Review   │ │ Check    │ │ Extraction       │ │
│  └──────────┘ └──────────┘ └──────────────────┘ │
│  ┌──────────────────────────────────────────┐   │
│  │ Memory Size Guard (SOUL/USER/MEMORY.md)  │   │
│  └──────────────────────────────────────────┘   │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│              CRON (every 3 hours)                │
│  Isolated subagent — catches what heartbeat      │
│  misses. Runs independently of active sessions.  │
│                                                  │
│  1. Memory size check + auto-trim               │
│  2. Promote daily notes → MEMORY.md             │
│  3. Lesson pattern detection (3+ = promote)     │
│  4. Skill creation from completed tasks         │
│  5. Stale entry cleanup                         │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Setup

Step 1: Add to HEARTBEAT.md

Add this section to your HEARTBEAT.md file (after your mandatory checks):

## 🧠 Self-Learning Loop (EVERY heartbeat)

### 1. Memory Review (auto-capture from recent conversation)
- Scan the last 10-20 messages in this session
- Did the user reveal preferences, corrections, personal details, or new patterns?
- Did I learn something about the environment, tools, or workflow?
- If YES → write to `memory/YYYY-MM-DD.md` (daily log) AND update `MEMORY.md` if durable
- If NO → skip silently
- **Character limit:** MEMORY.md must stay under 8000 chars. If over, trim oldest/least relevant.
- **SOUL.md and USER.md must also stay under 8000 chars.** Check `wc -c` before editing.

### 2. Skill Auto-Creation Check
- Did I solve a non-trivial problem this session (5+ tool calls, trial-and-error, user correction)?
- Does a skill already exist for this pattern?
- If novel + reusable → create a new skill file in `skills/`
- If existing skill was wrong/incomplete → update it
- **Skip for:** simple one-offs, routine tasks, already documented things

### 3. Lesson Extraction
- Did something break? Did I make a mistake? Did the user correct me?
- If YES → append to `lessons/` with date + pattern + fix
- Search `lessons/` FIRST before doing something tricky (avoid repeat mistakes)
- If same lesson appears 3+ times → promote to AGENTS.md "Promoted Rules"

### 4. Memory Size Guard
- Run: `wc -c SOUL.md USER.md MEMORY.md`
- If ANY file > 8000 bytes → trim it NOW
- Priority: remove duplicates > remove stale info > shorten verbose entries

Step 2: Create the Cron Job

Create a cron job for the background self-learning review. Run this in your OpenClaw chat:

Create a cron job called "Self-Learning Loop" that runs every 3 hours.
It should be an isolated agentTurn on Sonnet that:
1. Checks SOUL.md, USER.md, MEMORY.md sizes (must be under 8000 bytes each)
2. Reviews recent memory/ files for facts worth promoting to MEMORY.md
3. Checks lessons/ for patterns appearing 3+ times (promote to AGENTS.md)
4. Checks tasks/done/ for novel approaches worth saving as skills
5. Removes stale entries from MEMORY.md
Delivery: none. Timeout: 120 seconds.

Step 3: Create Required Directories

mkdir -p memory lessons decisions tasks/active tasks/done skills

Step 4: Seed Memory Files (if they don't exist)

Your workspace should already have:

• MEMORY.md — long-term curated memory
• SOUL.md — agent identity and personality
• USER.md — user profiles and preferences
• AGENTS.md — workspace rules and conventions
• memory/ — daily log files (YYYY-MM-DD.md)
• lessons/ — mistake patterns and fixes
• decisions/ — decision logs with reasoning

How It Compares to Hermes Agent

Feature	Hermes	This Skill (OpenClaw)
Memory nudge	Every 10 turns (background thread)	Every heartbeat + every 3h cron
Skill auto-creation	Every 15 tool calls	Heartbeat + cron checks done tasks
Memory flush before compression	Before context compress	Cron + heartbeat guard
Memory size guard	2200 char limit	8000 byte limit + auto-trim
Lesson extraction	❌ None	✅ Auto-promote after 3 occurrences
User modeling	Honcho (external service)	USER.md + daily memory files
Stale cleanup	❌ None	✅ Cron removes dead entries

Advantages Over Hermes

1. Lesson extraction — Hermes doesn't learn from mistakes. We track patterns and promote recurring ones to hard rules.
2. Memory size guard — Prevents the silent truncation bug where oversized context files get cut mid-session. This is a real problem that causes agents to "forget" their identity.
3. Stale cleanup — Active removal of outdated information. Hermes only adds, never cleans.
4. No external dependencies — Hermes uses Honcho (Plastic Labs) for user modeling. We use plain files that survive anything.
5. Cron isolation — Background reviews run in isolated sessions, never polluting the main conversation context.

File Size Rules (Critical)

These limits prevent silent context truncation:

File	Max Size	What Happens If Exceeded
SOUL.md	8000 bytes	Agent loses personality mid-session
USER.md	8000 bytes	Agent forgets user preferences
MEMORY.md	8000 bytes	Agent loses project context

The self-learning cron checks these sizes every 3 hours and auto-trims if needed.

Tips

• Daily notes (memory/YYYY-MM-DD.md) are raw logs. MEMORY.md is curated wisdom. Don't dump everything into MEMORY.md.
• Lessons should be actionable. Not "X broke" but "X broke because Y. Fix: do Z instead."
• Skills should be reusable. If you'd do the same thing again for a different user, it's a skill. If it's one-off, it's a lesson.
• Review MEMORY.md weekly. Delete entries about completed projects, deprecated tools, or outdated accounts.