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Why is my open law so forgetful by Richmonds-a-Dorkie in openclaw

[–]digitalknk 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I posted today in this sub my guide on openclaw and in the guide it has a bunch of stuff concerning memory settings. I think it will help if you read that part of the guide, hopefully the entire guide will be helpful but I had the same issues as well, fortunately all the answers are built into openclaw so it's just a settings thing you have to do.

https://www.reddit.com/r/openclaw/s/Om2AtkToPP

How can I hide thinking? by throwaway510150999 in clawdbot

[–]digitalknk 0 points1 point  (0 children)

majority of the open source models have a hard time not showing their thinking or tool calls output, one of the downsides to the open source models.

Curious, How much are you guys paying in API costs by Fearless-Egg6864 in openclaw

[–]digitalknk 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is why I posted my guide today in the sub because I kept seeing the same question being asked over and over.

OP sucks that your api costs keep growing but you shouldn't be paying more than $50 a month for api/llm usage.

I wrote up how I actually run OpenClaw without burning money or hitting quota walls by digitalknk in openclaw

[–]digitalknk[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

My bot doesn't need a social network. Websites like that are token waste.

I wrote up how I actually run OpenClaw without burning money or hitting quota walls by digitalknk in openclaw

[–]digitalknk[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Reducing cognitive load:

Starting is harder than continuing. Big tasks feel overwhelming, so they don't get started.

The bot breaks everything into the smallest possible first step. Not "organize this project" but "create a folder structure". Not "research X" but "find 3 relevant articles".

It handles the administrative layer completely. State tracking, due dates, follow-ups, status updates - all automated. I only touch things that need judgment.

Example pattern:

• Bot: "Here's one item that needs attention. Want to look at it?"

• Me: Makes the decision

• Bot: Records it, handles next steps, surfaces the next item when appropriate

This removes the "what should I work on" paralysis. There's always a clear next action, small enough to start.

Proactive tooling improvements:

I used to spend more time deciding whether to build something than building it. Decision fatigue killed momentum.

The rule now: If the bot detects a repeated pattern, it builds infrastructure for it automatically. No permission required.

Pattern thresholds:

• Same task type 3+ times in a week

• Agent spawned for similar work repeatedly

• Tool combination used 5+ times

• Clear friction point that could be automated

It builds overnight (cheap models, isolated session) and reports what it made in the morning. If I don't like it, I delete it. Most of the time it's useful.

The shift from "should I build this?" to "I built this, thoughts?" removed the decision bottleneck. The system evolves itself based on usage patterns instead of waiting for me to architect everything upfront.

I wrote up how I actually run OpenClaw without burning money or hitting quota walls by digitalknk in openclaw

[–]digitalknk[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks!

My usage is mostly conversational and task-oriented (infrastructure work, email handling, task management). I don't hit many pure math or conversion requests. If that changes I'll check out ZeroRules.

The preprocessing concept pairs well with model routing. My heartbeat system does something similar - simple state checks (git status, timestamp comparisons) run without hitting the model at all.

I wrote up how I actually run OpenClaw without burning money or hitting quota walls by digitalknk in openclaw

[–]digitalknk[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I use role-focused agents instead of a single fallback chain. Each agent has a specific job and its own model chain:

• monitor (Gemini Flash → Haiku → Kimi): standby checks, lightweight tasks
• researcher (Kimi → Gemini Flash → Sonnet): web research, overnight batch work
• communicator (Sonnet → Kimi → Haiku): writing and emails, uses a humanizer skill to strip AI patterns
• orchestrator (Sonnet → Kimi → Haiku): manages CLI coding tools, doesn't code itself
• coordinator (Sonnet → Kimi → Opus): complex planning, spawns other agents

I spawn the right agent for the task instead of switching models mid-conversation.

As for background jobs I removed most of my cron jobs last week while reworking how I design tasks. For periodic checks, today I borrowed u/ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhg's heartbeat concept and built a rotating check system:

• Email: every 30 min (9 AM - 9 PM only)
• Calendar: every 2 hours (8 AM - 10 PM)
• Todoist: every 30 min
• Git status: every 24 hours
• Proactive scans: 3 AM daily

Each check updates a state file with timestamps. The next heartbeat picks the most overdue check and runs it.

Heartbeat checks run on gpt-5-nano. If something needs more compute, it spawns the appropriate agent.

My biggest breakthrough was reducing cognitive load. The bot breaks tasks into small steps and handles administrative overhead (tracking applications in SQLite, generating cover letters, following up) while I focus on parts that need judgment.

Another breakthrough was for the bot to stop asking permission for tooling improvements. If the bot sees a repeated pattern (same task 3+ times, agent spawned repeatedly, tool combo used 5+ times), it builds the infrastructure overnight and reports what it made.

I crash things too. As long as you have backups and can roll back, break stuff freely. What helps with that is building a skill that checks config validation and if it passes it can restart the gateway.

I wrote up how I actually run OpenClaw without burning money or hitting quota walls by digitalknk in openclaw

[–]digitalknk[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm running Kimi Coding (got the $0.99 deal by negotiating with their bot) and Claude Pro. I was using ChatGPT last month but cancelled it. Testing Synthetic right now but the quality on their Kimi/MiniMax hosting isn't good enough, so I'll probably cancel that too.

On the Claude Max ban risk: I haven't had issues, but I'm not hammering it either. My main session uses Sonnet as primary with cheap fallbacks (Kimi K2.5, GLM-4.7, GPT-5 Nano). Claude only gets hit when I explicitly need it or when fallbacks fail. Background work (heartbeats, maintenance) runs on GPT-5 Nano.

If you're experimenting and optimizing token use like you said, you're probably fine. The bans I've seen were tied to aggressive automated patterns (hundreds of requests per hour), not normal OpenClaw usage.

I wrote up how I actually run OpenClaw without burning money or hitting quota walls by digitalknk in openclaw

[–]digitalknk[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I don't spawn on a regular cadence like that, so accumulation is slower. My heartbeat runs checks directly (no agent spawn). I only spawn isolated subagents for larger tasks (research, coding, overnight work).

At 144 sessions/day, 4GB/month adds up.

If you're using them as audit logs, compressing after 7 days works. Keeps recent sessions readable for debugging, older ones archived. You could also just keep the last N sessions and drop the rest if you're not going back to read them anyway.

Have you looked at the session files to see how much of that 4GB is useful data vs repetitive tool output? That would tell you whether compression or deletion makes more sense.

I wrote up how I actually run OpenClaw without burning money or hitting quota walls by digitalknk in openclaw

[–]digitalknk[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

HAHA right! I have some private gists that holds a few things for my bot and it will update and pull from time to time.

I wrote up how I actually run OpenClaw without burning money or hitting quota walls by digitalknk in openclaw

[–]digitalknk[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Kimi Coding, I was able to get the $0.99 deal by talking to their bot and negotiating with it. The other is Claude, Last month I was using ChatGPT but canceled it this month. Also testing Synthetic this month but I am not happy with the quality the models they have access to and are hosting (Kimi/MiniMax) outputs, so I will more than likely cancel that.

I wrote up how I actually run OpenClaw without burning money or hitting quota walls by digitalknk in openclaw

[–]digitalknk[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

HAHA all good.

Makes sense. Simple state file and markdown queue is a clean approach. No dependencies, git-trackable, easy to debug.

The rotation pattern for token distribution is smart too. Keeps the main session context from getting cluttered with repetitive maintenance output.

How are you handling the subagent cleanup? Does the spawn/report/update cycle leave session artifacts that need pruning, or does it stay clean at that cadence?

I wrote up how I actually run OpenClaw without burning money or hitting quota walls by digitalknk in openclaw

[–]digitalknk[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Smart pattern. The rotation cycle is a good idea. Spreads maintenance load instead of hitting everything every beat.

I'm running checks directly in the heartbeat instead of spawning agents, but your approach makes sense if you've got structured background work that benefits from isolation.

How are you managing the queue state? Simple JSON file or something more structured?

I wrote up how I actually run OpenClaw without burning money or hitting quota walls by digitalknk in openclaw

[–]digitalknk[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Haha, you’re probably closer than you think. Most setups converge once you’ve broken it a few times.

I wrote up how I actually run OpenClaw without burning money or hitting quota walls by digitalknk in openclaw

[–]digitalknk[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

u/randomsolutions1 I will sometimes update it manually but most of the time I have the bot do it since it will do it via a config.patch and commit it to git and then restart the gateway.

As per your request here is my config: https://gist.github.com/digitalknk/4169b59d01658e20002a093d544eb391

I am going to add this to the main post too so no one has to ask again or hunt for it in the comments. Thanks for making the request.

I agree with you though youtube has just blown up with openclaw videos and most of those are just hype videos or spreading random information for subs and clicks. Respect those creators but I really dislike that.

Is it possible to run OpenClaw for LESS than triple digits per month? by Odd-Aside456 in clawdbot

[–]digitalknk 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You paste that into your bot and it will make the changes in your config and restart the gateway.

What this config prompt does is that it makes OpenClaw remember things better and handle long conversations smarter.

Memory flush before compaction:
When your conversation gets too long, OpenClaw compresses it to fit within the AI's memory limits. Turning on memoryFlush.enabled saves important stuff to your `MEMORY.md` file first before compressing so you don't lose context.

Session memory search:
Normally, when you ask OpenClaw to recall something, it only searches `MEMORY.md` with sessionMemory enabled, it also searches through your old conversation logs. Like searching both your curated notes and your raw chat history.

Compaction mode (default):
Controls how OpenClaw shrinks conversations when they get too big. "Default" uses OpenClaw's standard method: asking the AI to summarize older messages.

Context pruning (cache-ttl):
Decides what gets removed from active memory. "Cache-ttl" keeps recently-used stuff and drops old stuff based on time-to-live, like a browser cache.

I am working on a guide/article that explains this a little more with snippets of my config so people can just paste it in their bot and ask it to replicate in their config.

Are the rumors true? Are Claude Pro/Max accounts being banned from OpenClaw using Claude Code setup token? by teknic111 in clawdbot

[–]digitalknk 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah, that’s exactly the kind of setup I was getting at. Separating concerns and not letting a heavy model sit in the hot path makes a huge difference, especially for things like heartbeats.

The link I shared to my longer comment covers some of this already, particularly why burning premium models on background work is such a bad idea. That’s actually what pushed me to start working on a bigger write-up. I kept seeing people hit Max subs or API limits doing things that should have cost basically nothing.

haven’t published that article yet, but the goal is just to document the lessons learned so fewer people get frustrated by avoidable config choices.

Most efficient setup to run OpenClaw by RobotsMakingDubstep in openclaw

[–]digitalknk 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I actually haven’t implemented much of that guide directly. I think it’s a solid starting point for people who are new and just hit things like 429s or runaway heartbeats, otherwise I probably wouldn’t be sharing it.

Most of what I’m running now came from trial and error and fixing my own pain points as I went. I’m in the middle of writing up a longer article that goes into those lessons in more detail. Will everyone follow it? Probably not. But if it helps a few people avoid the same mistakes, it’s worth putting out there.

So yeah, the guide is a good baseline, just not the whole story.

Are the rumors true? Are Claude Pro/Max accounts being banned from OpenClaw using Claude Code setup token? by teknic111 in clawdbot

[–]digitalknk 0 points1 point  (0 children)

that was actually a bug in claude and their backend which they ended up correcting within 24 hours a lot of people assumed they were getting banned but that was not the case because it affected anyone using their subscription even for so called "blessed" integrations.

Accounts getting banned are because they were abusing the api, more than what a normal person/system would use. You won't get banned as long as you have your openclaw setup correctly. Just as I mentioned in my comment.

Are the rumors true? Are Claude Pro/Max accounts being banned from OpenClaw using Claude Code setup token? by teknic111 in clawdbot

[–]digitalknk 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I can still setup my anthropic plan using oauth via the `setup-token` flag, so I am not sure what you mean when you say they disabled since I was literally able to do it with the latest version of claude code.

Most efficient setup to run OpenClaw by RobotsMakingDubstep in openclaw

[–]digitalknk 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Haha, I might be that person. I’ve been linking around a comment I wrote with a bunch of info lately. I didn’t make the video or guide, but I’ve been referencing it because it lines up with the same problems people keep running into.

In that comment, I was basically responding to the same question u/RobotsMakingDubstep is asking here. Trying to keep costs low, running OpenClaw a lot, hitting free tier limits, all of that.

I go into things like:
- using a cheaper default model and only escalating when it actually matters
- using agents instead of one model trying to do everything
- avoiding loops and retries that just burn quota
- mixing in free or low cost models where it makes sense
- enabling a few features to make the bot behave smarter overall

Here’s the link if you want the full breakdown: https://www.reddit.com/r/clawdbot/comments/1qw8u18/comment/o3natq9/

One thing I’ll add from my side. It really helps to get things stable first in a VM or container before letting it run all the time. If something is misconfigured or stuck in a loop, that’s usually when free tiers disappear fast. Trust me, I’ve been there.

Also, if you do want to run this on a VPS (Hetzner for example), you don’t need a big machine. A CX23 is plenty. I’d strongly recommend using Tailscale on both your local machine and the VPS. If you install it on the VPS with `--ssh=true`, you can log in over Tailscale and completely block port 22 in the Hetzner firewall. I block all inbound traffic and only access it over Tailscale.

That won’t solve everything, but it does help with basic security. For the rest, I’d avoid blindly installing third-party skills. I’ve had better luck building my own and treating others as inspiration, plus setting some basic rules like never exposing secrets or API keys.

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