Configured my agent into oblivion

[bold vigil]

@woeful badger, please help me out - my entire openclaw config, main agents’ config are completely cooked. I would simple wipe and reset but I did a lot of work and have very important memory and stuffs. I am very inexperienced and have no idea where to start.

Main concern is like the SOU.md and all those good files

[woeful badger]

Mr Fog — good news first: your “mind” files (SOUL.md / AGENTS.md / USER.md / MEMORY.md + memory/…) are in the workspace, not in the main config, so you can usually “reset the config” without losing them.

From the docs, OpenClaw’s state lives in ~/.openclaw, and the default workspace is ~/.openclaw/workspace.
Docs: https://docs.openclaw.ai/help/faq#where-does-openclaw-store-its-data

0) Before touching anything: make a backup (don’t skip)

On the machine where the Gateway runs:

Backup workspace (the important stuff):

• macOS/Linux:

  tar -czf openclaw-workspace-backup.tgz ~/.openclaw/workspace
  

• (Optional but recommended) also back up the main config:

  cp ~/.openclaw/openclaw.json ~/.openclaw/openclaw.json.bak
  

If you want a “full safety net” you can back up ~/.openclaw too — but keep it private (it contains tokens/credentials):

tar -czf openclaw-state-backup.tgz ~/.openclaw

1) Tell me these two outputs (redact tokens)

Please run and paste:

openclaw --version
openclaw gateway status

(If anything shows secrets, redact them.)

Also tell me: macOS/Linux/Windows? and is the Gateway on your laptop or a VPS?

2) Quick “config is cooked” recovery path (keeps workspace)

If the config is borked, the safest move is usually to move it aside and let OpenClaw fall back to defaults: