Summary

When agents.defaults.compaction.memoryFlush.enabled=true, OpenClaw can still perform an in-turn auto-compaction without writing any memory files.

The root cause appears to be that runMemoryFlushIfNeeded() only runs before the turn starts, while some auto-compactions happen during the turn. In that case, compaction completes, but memory flush is never retried.

Observed behavior

• Session later shows a real compaction event in the session transcript / JSONL
• No memory/*.md write happens for that compaction cycle
• /status may still show Compactions: 0 at some points, so the session transcript is a more reliable source than the status card
• This is not caused by the session-memory hook being disabled; that hook is only for /new and /reset

Expected behavior

If compaction.memoryFlush.enabled=true, then actual auto-compaction paths should not bypass memory flush.

At minimum, one of these should happen:

1. Run memory flush immediately before any runtime-triggered auto-compaction
2. Or run a best-effort post-compaction flush / audit when compaction occurred without a prior flush
3. Or document clearly that memoryFlush only applies to pre-turn checks and does not cover in-turn auto-compaction

Why this is happening (code path)

From the current runtime flow in dist/agent-runner.runtime-C-sR1PRP.js:

• runPreflightCompactionIfNeeded(...)
• runMemoryFlushIfNeeded(...)
• then the actual turn starts

In runReplyAgent(...), runMemoryFlushIfNeeded() is called before the main turn execution.

Later, during the actual turn, the runtime can emit compaction events (evt.stream === "compaction"), and the session compaction count is incremented afterward — but there is no corresponding memory flush retry on that path.

So the current behavior is effectively:

• pre-turn: maybe flush
• in-turn: maybe auto-compact
• but no flush is retried if compaction happens later during the turn

Impact

This creates a misleading configuration/behavior mismatch:

• config says memory flush is enabled
• real compaction happens
• but no durable memory file is written

For users, this looks like "memoryFlush is enabled but does not actually protect all compaction cases".

Environment

• OpenClaw: 2026.3.28
• Runtime: direct
• Channel: Discord thread session
• compaction.mode: safeguard
• compaction.memoryFlush.enabled: true

Suggested fix

Make runtime-triggered auto-compaction paths call the same flush logic (or a safe subset of it), instead of limiting memoryFlush to pre-turn execution only.