openclaw - 💡(How to fix) Fix [Feature]: memory_get JSON parse errors silently kill tool requests with no error visibility [2 comments, 3 participants]

Summary

When MEMORY.md contains special characters (em-dashes, curly quotes, etc.), memory_get fails with JSON parse error on the backend silently. OpenClaw never see an error.

Problem to solve

Tool: memory_get, Problem: When MEMORY.md contains special characters (em-dashes, curly quotes, etc.), memory_get fails with JSON parse error on the backend, Impact: The entire request dies silently — OpenClaw never see an error, the tool just stops responding, Expected: Either handle the parse error gracefully, OR return an error response so I can see what went wrong, Workaround: Use read tool instead

Proposed solution

Option 1 (Preferred): Wrap memory_get JSON parsing in a try-catch and return structured error responses:

If JSON parse fails:
  Return: {
    "status": "error",
    "tool": "memory_get",
    "error": "JSON parse failed",
    "reason": "File content contains characters incompatible with JSON serialization",
    "fallback": "Use 'read' tool instead for reliable file access"
  }

This way:

• I get visibility into the failure
• I can fall back to read automatically
• The request doesn't die silently

Option 2 (Simpler): Sanitize/escape special characters in memory_get output before JSON encoding, so em-dashes, curly quotes, etc. don't break parsing.

Option 3 (Workaround): Document that memory_get is incompatible with files containing special characters, and recommend read for MEMORY.md specifically.

Recommendation: Option 1 is best because it solves the root problem (silent failures) while giving callers a graceful fallback path.

Alternatives considered

Alt 1: Strict mode flag Add strict: false param to memory_get that sanitizes output instead of failing, Pro: Backward compatible, opt-in, Con: Doesn't solve the root problem, just hides it,

Alt 2: Stream large files instead of JSON Return file content as streaming chunks rather than a single JSON object, Pro: Handles arbitrarily large/complex files, Con: Changes tool API significantly, breaks existing callers,

Alt 3: Base64-encode problematic content Detect parse failures, re-encode output as base64, return that, Pro: Preserves data losslessly, Con: Requires caller to decode, adds complexity,

Alt 4: Use text extraction instead of JSON Return structured metadata (path, size, encoding) + raw text separately, not JSON, Pro: Natural for text files, no serialization needed, Con: Requires new tool design, incompatible with current API,

Alt 5: Fail fast with timeout If JSON parse takes >1s, abort and return error instead of hanging, Pro: Prevents silent timeout hangs, Con: Doesn't solve the parse failure itself, just makes it visible

Impact

Affected: Any agent using memory_get on files with special characters (em-dashes, curly quotes, Unicode), MEMORY.md specifically (common use case for storing long-term context), Any workflow that relies on memory_get for session context retrieval,

Severity: High — Silent tool failure = unrecoverable agent state, No error message, no fallback, no visibility, Breaks core functionality (memory access) with zero feedback,

Frequency: Common — MEMORY.md naturally accumulates special characters from conversational context, Happens whenever file contains: — (em-dash), " " (curly quotes), ' ' (smart quotes), etc., Affects any user documenting decisions/context with natural prose,

Consequence: Agent turns hang or timeout silently, User gets incomplete responses with no error explanation, Developer cannot debug — no logs, no error message, request just dies, Forces workaround (avoid memory_get, use less-efficient read tool), Degrades user trust in agent reliability, Wastes tokens on timeout retries with no actionable failure info,

Evidence/examples

Example 1: MEMORY.md with em-dashes

2026-04-25 — Mac Mini Infrastructure Rule

• ALL local Mac tasks use Mac cron, NOT OpenClaw gateway cron
• Reason: gateway cron had stability issues; Mac cron is independent and reliable

Error: Expected ',' or '}' after property value in JSON at position 1140 Result: memory_get fails silently, agent cannot fetch context

Example 2: Natural language in memory files feedback: "Pretty cool" — wants voice quality improved before showing anyone

Error: Smart quotes " " + em-dash — trigger JSON parse failure Result: Silent tool death, request produces no error response

Example 3: Real reproduction (from user session) Tool call: memory_get(path="MEMORY.md", from=1, lines=50) Response: [TIMEOUT / NO RESPONSE] Error logged by OpenClaw: "Expected ',' or ']' after array element in JSON at position 1385" Agent perspective: Tool never returned, turn hangs

Example 4: Backup script failure (parallel issue)

rsync error: /Users/.../Library/Mobile Documents/.../baseline.zip: mmap: Resource deadlock avoided Tool-side error, no recovery path Script must be manually fixed with excludes

Example 5: Expected vs. actual behavior Expected: memory_get returns: { status: "error", reason: "...", fallback: "use read" }

Actual: memory_get returns: [SILENCE] Agent: [HANGS OR TIMES OUT]

Additional information

No response