openclaw - 💡(How to fix) Fix [Feature]: Dreaming: add wildcard candidates to deep phase ranking [1 participants]

Summary

Add random sub-threshold wildcard candidates to dreaming deep phase ranking so that unexpected memories can occasionally surface for promotion

Problem to solve

The current dreaming system only promotes memories that score well on a convergence-oriented model — high recall frequency, strong relevance, multi-day consolidation. This means long-term memory becomes an echo chamber of things the user already repeatedly asks about. Memories that were recalled a few times in passing but touched on something novel or cross-cutting get permanently filtered out. Users lose serendipitous rediscovery. The thing that makes real memory (and real dreaming) useful isn't just reinforcing what you already know, it's surfacing forgotten connections you didn't know you needed.

Proposed solution

Implementation on branch feat/dreaming-wildcard-candidates — adds a wildcardRatio option to rankShortTermPromotionCandidates() (default 0.15). Sub-threshold candidates that passed hard gates but failed the composite score are randomly sampled into the final result set. ~20 lines in production code, fully backwards-compatible, set to 0 to disable.

Alternatives considered

No response

Impact

This is a low-severity, long-term quality concern rather than something blocking anyone:

Affected: Any user with dreaming enabled. The effect is invisible — it's memories they never see rather than something breaking. Severity: Minor. The system works correctly, it's just conservative. Long-term memory slowly becomes a filtered echo of what the user already asks about frequently, missing serendipitous connections.
Frequency: Every single deep phase run. The minScore gate silently drops 100% of sub-threshold candidates every time — there's no mechanism for surprises. Consequence: No errors or manual work. The practical cost is opportunity cost — the user's long-term memory converges toward a narrow band of "proven useful" topics and never surfaces the odd, one-off memory that might connect two unrelated projects or remind them of something they forgot they cared about.

Evidence/examples

No response

Additional information

No response