openclaw - 💡(How to fix) Fix Dreaming needs supported guard to disable session transcript ingestion during QMD migrations

Summary

During staged QMD memory migrations, session transcript indexing into dreaming/QMD may intentionally be out of scope. In that state, operators need a supported way to disable session transcript ingestion so volatile session, cron, and tool-output fragments do not enter dreaming memory.

Observed across the 2026.5.26 to 2026.5.27 update window. Current installed version observed locally:

OpenClaw 2026.5.27 (27ae826)

A local environment used sentinel files named:

memory/.dreams/disable-session-ingestion

and a local quality filter to keep volatile session/cron/tool output from entering dreaming memory. Package/runtime updates can overwrite that local installed-runtime guard. When the guard was lost, non-main workspaces regenerated memory/.dreams/session-corpus files and volatile dream stores accumulated raw cron/session snippets.

Expected behavior

OpenClaw should provide a supported configuration switch or durable sentinel mechanism to disable session transcript ingestion into dreaming/QMD during staged migrations.

When disabled:

• Dreaming should not create active memory/.dreams/session-corpus files.
• Dreaming should not promote raw command/status/transcript snippets into short-term recall or phase-signal stores.
• The disable setting should survive package updates.

Actual behavior

Without the local installed-runtime guard, a Memory Dreaming Promotion run recreated active session-corpus files and volatile dream entries from raw session/cron fragments.

The fallout was not limited to the main agent. Non-main workspaces such as cron-related agents also had session-corpus material that required cleanup.

Local workaround

The local installed dreaming runtime was patched to:

• check for memory/.dreams/disable-session-ingestion;
• skip session transcript ingestion when present;
• apply a local blocklist/quality filter for volatile command/status snippets.

Operational cleanup after the guard was lost:

• quarantined generated session-corpus files;
• scrubbed session-corpus entries from active volatile dream stores;
• forced QMD reindex for affected agents;
• recreated sentinel files for pilot agents.

Verification evidence

After restoring the local guard:

• pilot agents had memory/.dreams/disable-session-ingestion;
• active session-corpus file count was 0;
• QMD memory status was clean for pilot agents;
• no active volatile session-corpus files reappeared after subsequent monitor checks;
• gateway health remained OK.

Requested upstream outcome

Please add a first-class setting or supported sentinel for disabling session transcript ingestion into dreaming/QMD, plus tests ensuring package updates do not remove the behavior. This would let staged memory migrations keep QMD clean until transcript indexing is explicitly enabled.