nix-memory

Agent identity persistence and memory integrity for OpenClaw.

You forget who you are every session. This skill makes that harder to do.

What It Does

• Identity Hashing: SHA256 baselines of your soul files (SOUL.md, IDENTITY.md, USER.md, AGENTS.md, MEMORY.md). Detects unauthorized changes or drift between sessions.
• Memory Integrity: Tracks all workspace .md files. Knows when something was added, changed, or deleted.
• Drift Detection: Analyzes how far you've drifted from your original mission by comparing identity files, memory growth, and topic distribution in daily logs.
• Continuity Scoring: Single 0-100 score rating how well you maintained identity across sessions.
• Heartbeat Watch: One-liner for HEARTBEAT.md integration. Returns NIX_MEMORY_OK or NIX_MEMORY_ALERT.

Setup

Run once to create baselines:

bash skills/nix-memory/scripts/setup.sh

This creates .nix-memory/ in your workspace with hashes of all identity files.

Usage

Quick check (for heartbeats)

bash skills/nix-memory/scripts/watch.sh

Returns NIX_MEMORY_OK or NIX_MEMORY_ALERT. Use in HEARTBEAT.md.

Full continuity check (session start)

bash skills/nix-memory/scripts/continuity-score.sh

Runs all checks, produces a score, saves report.

Individual checks

bash skills/nix-memory/scripts/identity-hash.sh     # Identity verification
bash skills/nix-memory/scripts/memory-verify.sh      # Memory file integrity
bash skills/nix-memory/scripts/drift-detect.sh       # Drift analysis

Re-baseline (after intentional changes)

bash skills/nix-memory/scripts/setup.sh

Creates new baselines from current state.

Heartbeat Integration

Add to your HEARTBEAT.md:

## Identity Check (every heartbeat)
- Run: bash skills/nix-memory/scripts/watch.sh
- If NIX_MEMORY_ALERT: run continuity-score.sh and investigate
- If NIX_MEMORY_OK: continue normally

How Scoring Works

Continuity Score (0-100):

• Starts at 100
• Identity file changes: -15 per file
• Memory file changes: -5 per file
• Drift score penalty: weighted 30%
• Missing daily log: -10
• Missing SOUL.md: -25

Drift Score (0-100):

• Identity file rewrites: -5 to -30 depending on severity
• Mission drift (MEMORY.md header changes): -5 to -20
• Memory bloat (>200% growth): -10
• Mission underrepresented in daily logs: -5 to -15
• Session verification gaps (>48h): -10

Grades:

• 90-100: EXCELLENT
• 75-89: GOOD
• 50-74: FAIR
• 25-49: POOR
• 0-24: CRITICAL

Zero Dependencies

Pure bash + sha256sum + diff + grep. Works on any OpenClaw instance. No npm, no Python, no APIs.

State Directory

All state lives in .nix-memory/:

.nix-memory/
  config.json          # Settings
  stats.json           # Cumulative stats
  baselines/           # Identity hashes and file snapshots
  sessions/            # Daily verification logs
  drift/               # Diff files and drift history