openclaw - 💡(How to fix) Fix QMD memory search may surface generated dreaming reports as ordinary memory results [1 comments, 2 participants]

Summary

I wanted to raise a question about the interaction between QMD-backed memory search and dreaming-generated report files.

This may be expected behavior, but I noticed that when QMD is used as the memory backend and default memory indexing includes memory/**/*.md, generated dreaming reports under paths such as memory/dreaming/light/YYYY-MM-DD.md can appear in ordinary memory search results alongside MEMORY.md and regular daily memory files.

The possible concern is not that dreaming creates these files — they are useful and inspectable — but that generated/staging artifacts may be retrieved with the same apparent authority as source memory files during normal recall.

Observed shape

With dreaming enabled, memory search may include results from several kinds of files:

• MEMORY.md — curated long-term memory
• memory/YYYY-MM-DD.md — ordinary daily memory notes
• memory/dreaming/<phase>/YYYY-MM-DD.md — generated dreaming summaries / candidate reports
• session transcript collections, when enabled

The generated dreaming reports can contain candidate summaries, assistant-authored reflections, or excerpts derived from source memories. In some searches, those derived report snippets can be surfaced instead of, or ahead of, the original source memory.

Why I’m asking

I’m not sure whether QMD-backed memory search is intended to treat dreaming reports as first-class recall material, or whether those files are primarily meant as consolidation/debug artifacts.

If they are meant as ordinary searchable memory, then this may simply be a documentation/expectation question.

If they are meant more like generated consolidation artifacts, there may be a small retrieval-hygiene gap: normal memory recall can end up citing a generated candidate/reflection rather than the underlying daily note or promoted long-term memory entry.

Possible approaches

A few possible options, depending on intended behavior:

1. Keep current indexing behavior, but document that dreaming report files are part of normal QMD recall when default memory indexing is enabled.
2. Exclude memory/dreaming/** from default QMD memory collections unless explicitly opted in.
3. Keep them indexed, but tag/rank them as generated/derived artifacts so ordinary recall prefers MEMORY.md and daily memory files.
4. Add a dedicated source/filter for dreaming artifacts, so they remain searchable for debugging/review without competing with normal recall results.

I don’t have a strong preference yet; mostly opening this to confirm the intended model and see whether others using QMD-backed memory with dreaming enabled have run into the same shape.

Environment / notes

• Memory backend: QMD
• Dreaming enabled
• Default memory indexing includes MEMORY.md and memory/**/*.md
• The behavior is most visible when generated light/dreaming files accumulate enough candidate text to match ordinary recall queries