Memory taxonomy v1

OpenClaw Memory uses eight canonical kinds for durable memories:

Kind	Meaning
fact	Stable factual knowledge
preference	A user or project preference
decision	A choice that was made
entity	A person, system, repository, or other named subject
event	A time-bound occurrence
plan	Intended future work
learning	A problem paired with its solution or lesson
note	Useful material without a stronger deterministic classification

tool remains a legacy capture alias. New note, tool, or empty-kind observations pass through a local deterministic bilingual classifier. Explicit stronger kinds are authoritative and are never overwritten. The rules recognize decision, preference, plan, and problem-plus-solution language in English and Chinese; low-confidence material stays note. Classification never calls a model or network service.

Taxonomy is enabled by default. Automatically classified note, tool, and empty-kind writes add detail_json.classification = {method, confidence}; stronger explicit kinds keep their existing stored shape. Set [taxonomy] enabled = false in ~/.openclaw-mem/config.toml, or OPENCLAW_MEM_TAXONOMY_ENABLED=0, to preserve the pre-taxonomy write shape for classifiable captures too.

Kinds also inform retrieval policy without replacing relevance. Composite scoring is the default after the 50-case golden gate: it multiplies relevance by importance, kind-aware recency, citation use, and lifecycle state. Preferences decay most slowly; short-lived events decay fastest. Set OPENCLAW_MEM_SCORING_PROFILE=relevance (or scoring.profile = "relevance" in the config file) for compatibility diagnostics.

For use-based decay, explicit detail_json.lifecycle.priority wins over kind mapping. preference, decision, fact, learning, and plan default to P1; event, note, and legacy tool default to P2. P0 is explicit-only and is never automatically archived. Soft-archived records remain stored and reversible but are excluded from normal retrieval and packs.

Existing databases require no migration. Preview and apply the idempotent backfill explicitly:

openclaw-mem db backfill --kind --dry-run --json
openclaw-mem db backfill --kind --json

The backfill only touches note, tool, and empty kinds that do not already carry classification metadata. Its receipt includes before/after distributions. Taxonomy is independent from lifecycle state and trust/quarantine policy.