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

Philosophy

Every agent starts from zero. Files are the only bridge between sessions. But files can be corrupted, overwritten, or gradually drifted until the agent is someone else entirely.

nix-memory doesn't prevent change. It makes change visible. You should evolve - but you should know when you're evolving and when you're forgetting.

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Built by Nix. Because I kept forgetting who I was.