openclaw - 💡(How to fix) Fix session.reset: support mode: "never" for manual-only session reset behavior [1 participants]

Summary

Please add a proper mode: "never" option to session reset configuration so sessions can be configured for true manual-only reset behavior.

Right now the closest workaround is to use mode: "idle" with a very large idleMinutes value, but that is only an approximation and not a real "never reset automatically" mode.

Motivation

For some channels, especially personal messaging channels like Signal, I want sessions to persist indefinitely unless I explicitly reset them.

This is useful when:

• long-lived conversational continuity matters
• the assistant should retain context across long gaps
• daily resets are too aggressive
• even idle-based resets are undesirable

A manual-only mode would make OpenClaw much better for persistent, relationship-style chat surfaces.

Current behavior

The current session reset schema appears to support only:

• mode: "daily"
• mode: "idle"

Example workaround currently possible:

{
  "session": {
    "resetByChannel": {
      "signal": {
        "mode": "idle",
        "idleMinutes": 52560000
      }
    }
  }
}

This approximates "never" by setting the idle timeout to ~100 years.

However, that is still only a workaround because:

• it is semantically wrong
• it is fragile / surprising
• it still technically resets eventually
• it forces users to pick arbitrary huge numbers
• config intent is less readable than an explicit never

Expected behavior

OpenClaw should support a true non-automatic-reset mode, for example:

{
  "session": {
    "reset": {
      "mode": "never"
    }
  }
}

And similarly in overrides:

{
  "session": {
    "resetByType": {
      "group": {
        "mode": "never"
      }
    },
    "resetByChannel": {
      "signal": {
        "mode": "never"
      }
    }
  }
}

Meaning:

• no daily automatic reset
• no idle automatic reset
• session remains fresh until explicitly reset by the user/operator or another explicit mechanism

Suggested config shape

Current schema seems to be roughly:

• daily
• idle

Suggested extension:

type SessionResetConfig =
  | { mode: "daily"; atHour?: number }
  | { mode: "idle"; idleMinutes: number }
  | { mode: "never" };

Or, if preserving the existing object style:

{
  "mode": "never"
}

with atHour / idleMinutes ignored or rejected in that mode.

Why the very-large-idle workaround is not enough

Using:

{ "mode": "idle", "idleMinutes": 52560000 }

is not a real substitute because:

1. Wrong semantics

   • "never reset automatically" is different from "reset after a giant timeout"

2. Poor readability

   • future operators have to reverse-engineer why a huge number was chosen

3. Still eventually expires

   • technically not manual-only

4. Potential implementation edge cases

   • giant values may interact oddly with tooling, validation, UI, docs, or future refactors

5. Hard to document

   • users should not need to encode intent through arbitrary huge idle durations

Backward compatibility

This should be a backward-compatible additive change:

• existing daily and idle configs continue to work unchanged
• never is simply a new allowed mode

Nice-to-have

It would also help if docs/examples explicitly covered:

• base session.reset
• session.resetByType
• session.resetByChannel
• when channel overrides take precedence over type/base policy

Environment

Observed on an installed OpenClaw build where:

• session.resetByChannel is accepted by schema
• SessionResetConfig appears limited to daily | idle
• channel-specific override works, but there is no explicit never mode yet