PR #66412: fix(dreaming): default storage.mode to "separate" so phase blocks stop polluting daily memory files

• Repository: openclaw/openclaw
• Author: mjamiv
• State: open | merged: False
• Link: https://github.com/openclaw/openclaw/pull/66412

Description (problem / solution / changelog)

Summary

Closes #66328.

The dreaming pipeline writes Light Sleep and REM Sleep phase blocks to the location selected by dreaming.storage.mode. The mode was already wired up to support "inline" | "separate" | "both" in writeDailyDreamingPhaseBlock, but the unset-default fallback in src/memory-host-sdk/dreaming.ts was hardcoded to "inline". As a result, every installation that didn't explicitly set plugins.entries.memory-core.config.dreaming.storage.mode silently got dream phase blocks injected straight into memory/YYYY-MM-DD.md.

This PR flips the unset-default to "separate". Phase blocks now land in memory/dreaming/{phase}/YYYY-MM-DD.md by default, leaving the daily memory file alone.

Why this matters (#66328)

The reporter measured 340 lines of Light Sleep narrative being injected into a single daily file. A second host on a v2026.4.12 install observed 475 inline lines from the Light phase plus 14 from REM in a single sweep, leaving the daily file unusable as a "what happened today" record - the same dreaming output that gets dumped into DREAMS.md (working correctly) was also being dumped inline.

The reporter also surfaced the symptom side: when an agent reads memory/YYYY-MM-DD.md to answer "what did I do yesterday?" it ends up reading hundreds of lines of dreaming narrative instead of actual event records.

stripManagedDailyDreamingLines already protects the daily-ingestion scanner from re-ingesting dream marker blocks as recall candidates, so the recall side is unaffected by either mode. Flipping the default just stops the daily file from being written to in the first place.

Backward compatibility

Operators who actually want inline behavior can opt in explicitly:

"plugins": {
  "entries": {
    "memory-core": {
      "config": {
        "dreaming": {
          "storage": { "mode": "inline" }
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

normalizeStorageMode continues to accept all three documented modes (inline | separate | both); only the unset-default fallback changes. The MemoryDreamingStorageMode type is unchanged.

Test changes

• src/memory-host-sdk/dreaming.test.ts adds two new assertions: one pinning the new default shape, and one confirming explicit "inline" still round-trips for opt-in callers.
• extensions/memory-core/src/dreaming.test.ts updates four default-output assertions in resolveShortTermPromotionDreamingConfig from mode: "inline" to mode: "separate".
• extensions/memory-core/src/dreaming-phases.test.ts pins LIGHT_DREAMING_TEST_CONFIG and the inline-mode harness in checkpoints daily ingestion and skips unchanged daily files to storage.mode: "inline" with an inline comment, since those tests rely on inline-mode side effects on memory/<day>.md and now need to opt in explicitly. The substantive coverage they provide is unchanged.

The schema accept-test in extensions/memory-core/src/config.test.ts and the inline-mode write-path tests in extensions/memory-core/src/dreaming-markdown.test.ts intentionally keep asserting mode: "inline" because they cover input handling and the inline write path itself, both of which still need to work.

Validation

• Targeted suite (the 9 test files touching this code): 125/125 pass
  • pnpm vitest run extensions/memory-core/src/dreaming-phases.test.ts extensions/memory-core/src/dreaming.test.ts extensions/memory-core/src/dreaming-markdown.test.ts extensions/memory-core/src/dreaming-narrative.test.ts extensions/memory-core/src/dreaming-command.test.ts extensions/memory-core/src/dreaming-repair.test.ts extensions/memory-core/src/memory-events.test.ts extensions/memory-core/src/config.test.ts src/memory-host-sdk/dreaming.test.ts
• Pre-commit checks (pnpm check): madge import cycles, tsgo, oxlint, host-env-policy:swift, webhook auth body order, pairing-store-group, pairing-account-scope - all clean.

Changed files

• CHANGELOG.md (modified, +1/-0)
• extensions/memory-core/src/dreaming-phases.test.ts (modified, +9/-0)
• extensions/memory-core/src/dreaming.test.ts (modified, +4/-4)
• extensions/memory-core/src/dreaming.ts (modified, +1/-1)
• src/memory-host-sdk/dreaming.test.ts (modified, +25/-0)
• src/memory-host-sdk/dreaming.ts (modified, +1/-1)