openclaw - 💡(How to fix) Fix CLI `--session-id <new-uuid>` silently remapped to existing agent:<id>:main session [1 comments, 2 participants]

Summary

openclaw agent --agent <id> --session-id <new-uuid> is silently ignored when an active agent:<id>:main session already exists in agents/<id>/sessions/sessions.json. The new UUID is accepted on the command line but the run is routed through the existing session, leaking stale conversation history into what the operator believes is a fresh run.

Reproduction

1. Run an agent and let it create an agent:<id>:main session.
2. On the next run, pass --session-id $(uuidgen):

   openclaw agent --agent db --session-id $(uuidgen) --json -m "ping, reply in 5 words"

3. Inspect the resulting meta.agentMeta.sessionId in the JSON output and the sessionKey in systemPromptReport.

Observed behaviour

The run report shows a sessionId matching the previously existing agent:db:main session (not the UUID I passed). The promptTokens count includes the entire prior conversation (e.g. 16,408 input tokens for a "ping" message in our reproduction).

Expected behaviour

One of:

• Honour the --session-id flag and create a brand-new session record under that ID, OR
• Refuse with a clear error if the ID conflicts with an existing one, OR
• Document that --session-id only acts as a retrieval knob (must already exist) and provide a separate --new-session flag for fresh-run intent.

Why this matters

Operators and tests that rely on fresh runs (regression test, new triage, cost-controlled probe) will silently get stale-context replies. The behaviour also makes it impossible to run two parallel independent runs against the same agent without first manually clearing agents/<id>/sessions/.

Workaround

Move agents/<id>/sessions/ aside before each run that requires isolation:

mv /data/.openclaw/agents/<id>/sessions /data/.openclaw/agents/<id>/sessions.bak.$(date -u +%Y%m%dT%H%M%SZ)

The runtime then creates a fresh sessions.json + jsonl on next invocation.

Environment

OpenClaw 2026.4.12 (1c0672b).