openclaw - 💡(How to fix) Fix QMD extraCollections cross-agent: collections created but 0 files indexed [2 comments, 2 participants]

Bug Report

Version: v2026.3.31 Platform: Linux arm64 (Ubuntu), npm global install

Summary

When configuring agents.list[].memorySearch.qmd.extraCollections to point at another agent's QMD sessions directory, the collection is registered in QMD but contains 0 files even after qmd update.

Configuration

{
  "agents": {
    "list": [
      {
        "id": "researcher",
        "memorySearch": {
          "qmd": {
            "extraCollections": [
              { "path": "/home/ubuntu/.openclaw/agents/main/qmd/sessions", "name": "main" },
              { "path": "/home/ubuntu/.openclaw/agents/coder/qmd/sessions", "name": "coder" }
            ]
          }
        }
      }
    ]
  }
}

Steps to Reproduce

1. Enable QMD backend with sessions indexing (memory.backend: "qmd", memory.qmd.sessions.enabled: true)
2. Configure extraCollections pointing at another agent's ~/.openclaw/agents/<id>/qmd/sessions directory
3. Start gateway — collections are added to QMD index
4. Run qmd collection list — cross-agent collections show Files: 0
5. Run qmd update manually — still 0 files

Expected Behavior

Collections should index the markdown session transcript files present in the target path.

Observed Behavior

Collections are registered with the correct path but show 0 files. The target directories contain valid .md files (e.g. abc123.jsonl.reset.2026-03-05T17-37.md):

$ ls ~/.openclaw/agents/main/qmd/sessions/*.md | head -3
/home/ubuntu/.openclaw/agents/main/qmd/sessions/05358796...jsonl.reset.2026-03-05T17-37-31.601Z.md
/home/ubuntu/.openclaw/agents/main/qmd/sessions/066388ae...jsonl.reset.2026-02-23T15-31-45.456Z.md

Hypothesis

Each agent has its own QMD index database at ~/.openclaw/agents/<agentId>/qmd/xdg-cache/qmd/index.sqlite. Cross-agent extraCollections may require a shared QMD index to work, which is not documented and not the current default. Alternatively, the collection add may be passing incorrect glob/path parameters that don't match the compound filenames in the sessions directory.

Related

• Issue #58598 (diffs plugin broken — same session)
• Issue #58643 (memory-alt conflict warnings)