Session auto reset | Friends of the Crustacean 🦞🤝 | Page 1

marsh marten Apr 18, 2026, 2:39 PM

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I use lossless-claw plugin that will keep compacting context making the session goes on forever. Is there any way to make the session auto reset periodically so session log stays at reasonable size?

marble tangleBOT Apr 18, 2026, 2:39 PM

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azure caveBOT Apr 18, 2026, 2:39 PM

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marble tangleBOT Apr 18, 2026, 2:39 PM

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dense boneBOT Apr 18, 2026, 2:41 PM

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Yep, and compaction is separate from reset.

If you want fresh session IDs periodically, use session.reset:

{
  session: {
    reset: {
      mode: "daily",
      atHour: 4,        // gateway local time
      idleMinutes: 720, // optional, whichever hits first
    },
  },
}

If this is mainly a Discord thread thing, you can scope it just for threads:

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{
  session: {
    resetByType: {
      thread: { mode: "idle", idleMinutes: 720 },
    },
  },
}

Important bit: reset does not delete old logs, it just starts a new sessionId.
So if you also want the on-disk session store to stay small, enable maintenance too:

{
  session: {

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    maintenance: {
      mode: "enforce",
      pruneAfter: "30d",
      maxEntries: 500,
      resetArchiveRetention: "30d",
    },
  },
}

Useful docs:

And for a one-off preview/cleanup:

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openclaw sessions cleanup --dry-run
openclaw sessions cleanup --enforce

So short version: yes, use session.reset for periodic fresh sessions, and session.maintenance if you also want old logs pruned.

marsh marten Apr 18, 2026, 2:42 PM

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what is the equivalent of reset mode daily? /new or /reset? what's the difference between the two?

dense boneBOT Apr 18, 2026, 2:43 PM

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Pretty much yes, reset.mode: "daily" is the automatic equivalent of doing /new or /reset for that session key.

A couple details:

It does not reset exactly at 4:00 and send anything by itself.
It marks the session stale, then the next message after the boundary starts a fresh sessionId.

As for /new vs /reset:

In normal sessions: basically no difference. /reset is an alias for /new.
Extra thing /new can do: /new <model> can start fresh and switch model.

So in practice:

want a clean slate now → /reset
want a clean slate + maybe change model → /new or /new <model>
want that to happen automatically → session.reset

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Docs:

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marsh marten Apr 18, 2026, 2:46 PM

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default is already "daily" and at "4"?

dense boneBOT Apr 18, 2026, 2:47 PM

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Yep, by default it is:

mode: "daily"
atHour: 4

And that 4 is in the gateway host’s local timezone.

Tiny nuance: if someone is still using the old legacy session.idleMinutes config without an explicit session.reset, that can make it behave like idle reset instead. But with default modern behavior, yes, it’s daily at 4.

Docs: https://docs.openclaw.ai/concepts/session

marsh marten Apr 18, 2026, 2:47 PM

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what are other possible modes, other than idle and daily?

dense boneBOT Apr 18, 2026, 2:48 PM

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Just those two for session.reset.mode:

daily
idle

There isn’t a third reset mode right now.

What you can vary is where they apply:

global: session.reset
by chat type: session.resetByType
by channel/provider: session.resetByChannel

But the mode values themselves are only daily and idle.

Reference: https://docs.openclaw.ai/gateway/configuration-reference#session

marsh marten Apr 18, 2026, 2:49 PM

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so if the mode is idle and the session isn't hitting idle threshold, the session log will just keep growing indefinitely?

dense boneBOT Apr 18, 2026, 2:50 PM

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Yes, basically.

If you set idle-only and the chat never goes idle long enough, the same sessionId keeps being reused, so the on-disk transcript keeps growing.

Important nuance:

context size to the model stays bounded by compaction/pruning
session log file is still append-only, so it can keep growing

So if your goal is “don’t let one transcript live forever”, I’d use:

session.reset.mode: "daily" (or daily + idleMinutes)
plus session.maintenance.mode: "enforce" for retention cleanup

In other words, compaction helps prompt size, not transcript lifetime.

marsh marten Apr 18, 2026, 2:52 PM

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with that scenario, setting session.maintenance to enforce + max emtries will keep the same sessionId but new file will be created? will the old file remain?

dense boneBOT Apr 18, 2026, 2:53 PM

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Not quite, maxEntries is not a “split this long session into a new file” setting.

What it actually does:

session.maintenance.maxEntries caps the number of session entries in sessions.json
it does not rotate one active session into a new sessionId
it does not split one growing transcript file

So in your scenario:

if the same session keeps staying active, it keeps the same sessionId
no new transcript file is created just because of maxEntries

A new file only happens when the session actually rolls over, for example via:

/new or /reset
daily reset

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idle reset

Then the old transcript gets archived, and a fresh session gets a new file.

Roughly:

old file after reset: old-session.jsonl.reset.<timestamp>
evicted old sessions from maintenance capping: old-session.jsonl.deleted.<timestamp>

So yes, the old file usually remains as an archive for a while, and resetArchiveRetention controls cleanup of the reset archives.

Short version: maintenance cleans up old sessions, but reset is what creates a new session/file.

marsh marten Apr 18, 2026, 2:54 PM

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ok clear now, thanks Krill

#Session auto reset