OpenClaw Research

Deep dive into OpenClaw architecture and internals

📖 Live Site: https://elarwei001.github.io/research_openclaw/

This repository documents the internal workings of OpenClaw, an AI agent framework. The goal is to understand its architecture through code analysis, issue investigation, and hands-on experimentation.

Quick Navigation

Module	Description	Status
Session	Session lifecycle, caching, persistence	📝 Active
Agent	Agent runtime, model switching, transcript	📝 Active
Channels	Telegram, Discord, WhatsApp integration	🔍 Basic
Gateway	HTTP/WebSocket server	🔍 Basic
Memory	Memory indexing and retrieval	🔍 Basic
Plugins	Plugin system and hooks	🔍 Basic
Security	Authentication and pairing	🔍 Basic
Browser	Browser automation	🔍 Basic

Issue Analysis

Real-world bug investigations for issues without active PRs:

Issue	Module	Severity	Analysis
#22506	Session	🔴 Critical	Session GC causes gateway crash
#18194	Session	🔴 Critical	Compaction timeout loses session

Architecture Overview

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                      Gateway Server                          │
│  ┌─────────┐  ┌─────────┐  ┌─────────┐  ┌─────────┐        │
│  │Telegram │  │ Discord │  │WhatsApp │  │ WebChat │        │
│  └────┬────┘  └────┬────┘  └────┬────┘  └────┬────┘        │
│       └────────────┴────────────┴────────────┘              │
│                          │                                   │
│                    ┌─────▼─────┐                            │
│                    │  Router   │                            │
│                    └─────┬─────┘                            │
│                          │                                   │
│  ┌───────────────────────▼───────────────────────┐         │
│  │               Session Manager                  │         │
│  │  ┌─────────┐  ┌─────────┐  ┌─────────┐       │         │
│  │  │ Store   │  │ Cache   │  │Compactor│       │         │
│  │  └─────────┘  └─────────┘  └─────────┘       │         │
│  └───────────────────────┬───────────────────────┘         │
│                          │                                   │
│                    ┌─────▼─────┐                            │
│                    │   Agent   │                            │
│                    │  Runtime  │                            │
│                    └─────┬─────┘                            │
│                          │                                   │
│  ┌───────────┬───────────┼───────────┬───────────┐         │
│  │  Memory   │  Plugins  │   Tools   │  Browser  │         │
│  └───────────┴───────────┴───────────┴───────────┘         │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Contributing

This is a personal research project. Feel free to open issues for questions or suggestions.

License

Documentation content is MIT licensed. OpenClaw itself is licensed under its own terms.