openclaw - 💡(How to fix) Fix WebChat session history lost: `agent:main:main` pointer flips on every `openclaw.json` rewrite [1 participants]

Summary

When openclaw onboard --install-daemon, openclaw config ..., or any other command rewrites ~/.openclaw/openclaw.json, the active WebChat session pointer (agent:main:main) is swapped to a brand-new session. The new session has no access to the prior conversation, even though the underlying transcript JSONL is still on disk under ~/.claude/projects/<workspace>/<sessionId>.jsonl. From the user's seat in the browser, the chat suddenly forgets everything.

Impact

• In-progress WebChat conversations get cut off without warning.
• The assistant in the new session has no idea a prior session existed unless it goes spelunking through ~/.claude/projects/....
• Recovery is manual: scrape the orphaned .jsonl, re-summarize into memory.

Repro (observed twice on 2026-04-29)

Working in a WebChat session, the control UI ran commands that touched openclaw.json:

1. openclaw onboard --install-daemon (15:20 EDT, 15:22 EDT)
2. openclaw config ... writes (16:45-16:47 EDT, four times)

After each batch, the next WebChat message landed in a brand-new session with no memory of the prior thread. The pointer in agent:main:main had been swapped; the prior session's .jsonl was renamed with a .reset.<ts> suffix in some cases.

The same thing happened again the same afternoon: a session active 17:17-17:32 EDT was reset by 18:04 EDT after additional config writes.

Audit log evidence

~/.openclaw/logs/config-audit.jsonl records each rewrite of openclaw.json. Excerpt (UTC):

2026-04-29T19:20:34Z  openclaw onboard --install-daemon
2026-04-29T19:22:03Z  openclaw onboard --install-daemon
2026-04-29T20:45:13Z  openclaw config
2026-04-29T20:45:20Z  openclaw config
2026-04-29T20:46:13Z  openclaw config
2026-04-29T20:47:46Z  openclaw config

Each entry is followed shortly by a new session ID appearing in ~/.claude/projects/-Users-nispand--openclaw-workspace/.

Expected behavior

A config rewrite (especially one for plugin install, daemon install, or unrelated settings) should not invalidate the active session pointer. The current WebChat session should survive config writes.

Actual behavior

agent:main:main is reset to a fresh session and prior chat context disappears for the assistant - even though the user is still in the same browser tab.

Workaround

Avoid running anything that rewrites openclaw.json during an active chat. Manually recover transcripts from ~/.claude/projects/<workspace>/<sessionId>.jsonl after the fact.

Environment

• OpenClaw 2026.4.26 (be8c246)
• Node v24.0.0
• macOS 13.0.1 (22A400), arm64
• Channel: WebChat

Possible root cause (speculation)

Whatever code path persists openclaw.json appears to also re-initialize the agent runtime or its session registry, instead of treating session state as orthogonal to config state. The .reset.<ts> JSONL rename in particular suggests an explicit "reset session on config change" branch somewhere.