ClawReverse

Use this skill for OpenClaw session recovery and branching.

ClawReverse is a native OpenClaw plugin that adds the openclaw reverse command family for checkpoint listing, rollback, continue, checkout, and lineage inspection.

Use this skill when

• a user wants to undo a bad OpenClaw tool call or recover from unwanted file changes
• a user wants to restore a known-good point without rerunning the whole task
• a user wants to branch from an earlier checkpoint and keep the parent session untouched
• a user wants to inspect checkpoint lineage, rollback status, rollback reports, or branch records
• a user wants to save tokens after a long analysis run by continuing from a checkpoint instead of starting over

Do not use this skill when

• the task is a normal git revert, git checkout, or git branch workflow that should be handled directly with git
• the workspace is not managed by OpenClaw
• there are no OpenClaw sessions or checkpoints to operate on yet

Key behavior you should know first

• ClawReverse creates checkpoints before mutating tool calls. Read-only tools and read-only shell commands do not create checkpoints.
• rollback rewinds the current session to a checkpoint. By default it does not restore the live workspace files unless --restore-workspace is used.
• continue requires a non-empty --prompt and creates a new child agent, new workspace, and new session, leaving the parent untouched.
• checkout creates a new session in the same agent from a checkpoint-backed entry. --continue can immediately start a run in that new session.
• tree is the fastest way to explain lineage and branch points to a user.
• Add --json whenever another tool needs machine-readable output.

Prerequisites

• a working OpenClaw installation
• access to the machine that runs OpenClaw
• a valid openclaw.json
• the ClawReverse plugin files available in this skill bundle

First step: verify or install the plugin

1. Check whether the plugin is already available:

openclaw reverse --help

2. If the command is missing, install the plugin from this skill bundle:

openclaw plugins install -l "{baseDir}"

3. Then initialize or repair config:

openclaw reverse setup

4. Restart the OpenClaw Gateway after install or config changes, then verify again:

openclaw reverse --help

If the OpenClaw state directory is not the default one, use:

openclaw reverse setup --base-dir /path/to/openclaw-state

Default config created by setup

{
  "plugins": {
    "allow": ["clawreverse"],
    "enabled": true,
    "entries": {
      "clawreverse": {
        "enabled": true,
        "config": {
          "workspaceRoots": ["~/.openclaw/workspace"],
          "checkpointDir": "~/.openclaw/plugins/clawreverse/checkpoints",
          "registryDir": "~/.openclaw/plugins/clawreverse/registry",
          "runtimeDir": "~/.openclaw/plugins/clawreverse/runtime",
          "reportsDir": "~/.openclaw/plugins/clawreverse/reports",
          "maxCheckpointsPerSession": 100,
          "allowContinuePrompt": true,
          "stopRunBeforeRollback": true
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

Standard workflow

1) Identify the target agent and session

openclaw reverse agents
openclaw reverse sessions --agent \x3Cagent-id>

Use the value in the Agent column as the agent id and the value in the Session column as the session id. The row marked latest is the newest session.

2) List checkpoints

openclaw reverse checkpoints --agent \x3Cagent-id> --session \x3Csession-id>

If you need details for one checkpoint:

openclaw reverse checkpoint --checkpoint \x3Ccheckpoint-id>

3) Choose the correct action

Roll back the current line

Use this when the user wants to rewind the current session to an earlier point.

openclaw reverse rollback \
  --agent \x3Cagent-id> \
  --session \x3Csession-id> \
  --checkpoint \x3Ccheckpoint-id>

Only add --restore-workspace when the user explicitly wants the current on-disk workspace restored too:

openclaw reverse rollback \
  --agent \x3Cagent-id> \
  --session \x3Csession-id> \
  --checkpoint \x3Ccheckpoint-id> \
  --restore-workspace

Continue as a safe child branch

Use this when the parent session and workspace must stay untouched and the user wants a fresh attempt from a known-good checkpoint.

openclaw reverse continue \
  --agent \x3Cagent-id> \
  --session \x3Csession-id> \
  --checkpoint \x3Ccheckpoint-id> \
  --prompt "Continue from here with a different approach."

Optional advanced flags:

• --new-agent \x3Cagent-id> to force the child agent id
• --clone-auth \x3Cauto|always|never> for auth-copy behavior
• --log to capture child launch diagnostics and return logFilePath

Checkout into a new session in the same agent

Use this when the user wants a new session from a checkpoint-backed entry without creating a new agent.

openclaw reverse nodes --agent \x3Cagent-id> --session \x3Csession-id>
openclaw reverse checkout \
  --agent \x3Cagent-id> \
  --source-session \x3Csession-id> \
  --entry \x3Centry-id>

To start running immediately after checkout:

openclaw reverse checkout \
  --agent \x3Cagent-id> \
  --source-session \x3Csession-id> \
  --entry \x3Centry-id> \
  --continue \
  --prompt "Continue from this restored entry."

4) Inspect status, reports, and lineage

openclaw reverse rollback-status --agent \x3Cagent-id> --session \x3Csession-id>
openclaw reverse tree --agent \x3Cagent-id> --session \x3Csession-id>
openclaw reverse report --rollback \x3Crollback-id>
openclaw reverse branch --branch \x3Cbranch-id>

tree also supports automatic root selection and subtree inspection:

openclaw reverse tree
openclaw reverse tree --node \x3Ccheckpoint-id>

Command quick reference

Guardrails

• Prefer continue over rollback when the user wants to preserve the parent line untouched.
• Prefer rollback when the user wants the current line moved back to an earlier checkpoint.
• Ask before using --restore-workspace if the user has not clearly requested live file restoration.
• If no checkpoints appear, explain that ClawReverse only records checkpoints before mutating tools or mutating shell commands. Read-only operations such as read, glob, ls, git status, find, cat, grep, diff, tree, and similar commands are intentionally skipped.
• Use --json for programmatic parsing or when you want to feed results into another tool.
• From {baseDir}, npm test runs the repository test suite.

Troubleshooting

openclaw reverse is missing

• re-run openclaw plugins install -l "{baseDir}"
• run openclaw reverse setup
• restart the Gateway
• check that clawreverse is in plugins.allow
• check that plugins.entries.clawreverse.enabled is true

continue fails

• make sure --prompt is non-empty
• if an agent id conflict occurs, retry with --new-agent \x3Cfresh-id>
• if you used --log, inspect the returned logFilePath

rollback did not change files

That is expected unless --restore-workspace was used.

tree or checkpoints shows nothing

• confirm the agent id and session id are correct
• confirm the session has mutating tool calls that could create checkpoints