fix(memory-core): fix macOS chokidar glob issue by watching memory dir directly by jasonxargs-boop · Pull Request #64711 · openclaw/openclaw

jasonxargs-boop · 2026-04-11T07:57:11Z

On some macOS + Node 25 environments, chokidar fails to watch files when using recursive glob patterns like 'memory/**/*.md'. Changing to watch the folder directly resolves the issue while keeping same recursive watch behavior.

greptile-apps · 2026-04-11T07:58:49Z

Greptile Summary

This one-line fix replaces the recursive glob memory/**/*.md with a bare directory path memory to work around a reported chokidar issue on macOS + Node 25. The behavioral intent is correct — chokidar watches directories recursively by default — but two side-effects are worth noting: the ignored callback (shouldIgnoreMemoryWatchPath) only filters by directory name and has no extension check, so non-.md files in the memory folder will now trigger spurious markDirty() syncs; and the parallel additionalPaths code path still constructs glob strings (line 358), so the underlying issue would still surface there.

Confidence Score: 5/5

Safe to merge; only P2 style/quality findings remain.

Both findings are P2 — spurious syncs on non-.md file changes and inconsistent treatment of additionalPaths. Neither causes data loss or incorrect sync behavior; they are performance/cleanup concerns.

extensions/memory-core/src/memory/manager-sync-ops.ts — review the ignored callback and additionalPaths glob handling.

Comments Outside Diff (1)

extensions/memory-core/src/memory/manager-sync-ops.ts, line 357-358 (link)

additionalPaths directories still use glob patterns

The fix only changes the hardcoded memory directory path; additionalPaths directories are still added as path.join(entry, "**", "*.md") globs on line 358. If the chokidar + Node 25 bug genuinely affects recursive glob patterns, this code path has the same problem and would need the same treatment.

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Path: extensions/memory-core/src/memory/manager-sync-ops.ts
Line: 357-358

Comment:
**`additionalPaths` directories still use glob patterns**

The fix only changes the hardcoded `memory` directory path; `additionalPaths` directories are still added as `path.join(entry, "**", "*.md")` globs on line 358. If the chokidar + Node 25 bug genuinely affects recursive glob patterns, this code path has the same problem and would need the same treatment.

How can I resolve this? If you propose a fix, please make it concise.

Prompt To Fix All With AI

This is a comment left during a code review.
Path: extensions/memory-core/src/memory/manager-sync-ops.ts
Line: 348

Comment:
**Watching all file types, not just `.md`**

The old glob `memory/**/*.md` meant chokidar only emitted events for Markdown files. The new path `memory` is a bare directory, and `shouldIgnoreMemoryWatchPath` only filters on directory-name segments (`.git`, `node_modules`, etc.) — it has no extension check. Any file change inside `memory` (e.g. `.tmp`, `.json`, editor swap files) will now call `markDirty()` and schedule an unnecessary sync cycle. Consider adding an extension check in the `ignored` callback, or passing a custom filter, to preserve the `.md`-only intent.

How can I resolve this? If you propose a fix, please make it concise.

---

This is a comment left during a code review.
Path: extensions/memory-core/src/memory/manager-sync-ops.ts
Line: 357-358

Comment:
**`additionalPaths` directories still use glob patterns**

The fix only changes the hardcoded `memory` directory path; `additionalPaths` directories are still added as `path.join(entry, "**", "*.md")` globs on line 358. If the chokidar + Node 25 bug genuinely affects recursive glob patterns, this code path has the same problem and would need the same treatment.

How can I resolve this? If you propose a fix, please make it concise.

_{Reviews (1): Last reviewed commit: "fix(memory-core): fix macOS chokidar glo..." | Re-trigger Greptile}

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…r directly

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chatgpt-codex-connector · 2026-04-12T17:56:03Z

+  if (stats?.isDirectory?.()) {
+    return false;
+  }
+  const extension = normalizeLowercaseStringOrEmpty(path.extname(normalized));
+  if (extension.length === 0 || extension === ".md") {


Do not drop directory traversal for dotted folder names

Chokidar v5 calls the ignored predicate before stat information is available for newly discovered entries, so directory paths can arrive without stats. In that case, a folder like memory/topic.v1 falls through to extension filtering and is treated as a non-markdown file, causing it to be ignored and preventing traversal into topic.v1; markdown files created under that folder never emit watch events, so watch-driven memory sync can miss real content updates.

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chatgpt-codex-connector · 2026-04-12T17:56:03Z

+  if (extension.length === 0 || extension === ".md") {
+    return false;


Exclude extensionless files from watch-triggered syncs

The new filter allows any path with path.extname(...) === "", which includes common non-indexable files such as .DS_Store, .env, and README. Those files now still fire add/change events under the watched memory directory and trigger watch syncs even though they can never be indexed, so this leaves a churn path that can cause unnecessary repeated sync work on macOS/editor-heavy workspaces.

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…macOS/Node 25 When watching the memory directory directly (introduced in openclaw#64711 to fix recursive glob issues on macOS + Node 25), chokidar fires events for all file types within the directory tree — including .json state files written by the dreaming subsystem under memory/.dreams/. Previously, markDirty had no extension check, so every .json write from dreaming (phase-signals.json, short-term-recall.json, etc.) would set dirty=true and trigger a needless sync. More critically, under high I/O load (e.g. dreaming writing many state files rapidly), the debounce timer kept being reset, which could delay or suppress the sync for .md files. Fix: add an explicit extension check in markDirty so only .md files (and configured multimodal extensions) trigger the dirty flag and schedule a sync. Non-markdown events are silently ignored. This completes the fix started in openclaw#64711 and addresses the reported behaviour where newly created .md files were not being indexed until a manual openclaw memory index or memory_search was performed.

…r directly (openclaw#64711) * fix(memory-core): fix macOS chokidar glob issue by watching memory dir directly * fix(memory-core): ignore non-markdown memory watch churn * fix(memory-core): allow multimodal watch events * test(memory-core): type watcher ignore callback --------- Co-authored-by: Vincent Koc <[email protected]>

…ories Closes openclaw#86613. A single authorized POST /tools/invoke memory_search call against a workspace with multi-thousand .md files under <workspace>/memory/ opens one read-only FD per file (~12,400 in our captures), never released until process exit. Root cause: chokidar v5 calls fs.watch(path) per filesystem node (handler.js:126), no recursive option. On macOS each per-file fs.watch opens a kqueue VNODE FD that lsof reports as a regular-file REG FD. So one watcher per .md file = one FD per file = 12k+ FDs. Switch directory watch paths to Node >= 22 native recursive fs.watch(dir, { recursive: true }) — one watcher per directory via FSEvents on macOS / inotify recursive on Linux / ReadDirectoryChangesW on Windows. Individual file paths (MEMORY.md, file-typed extraPaths) continue through chokidar. Same dirty-event semantics, different backend, small constant FD profile regardless of tree size. Regression introduced by openclaw#64711 (jasonxargs-boop, 2026-04-13) which changed the chokidar watch target from glob memory/**/*.md to bare directory memory/, making the recursive walk implicit. PR openclaw#81802 (frankekn, 2026-05-15) removed awaitWriteFinish and added watch-settle on the same path; that reduced write-polling pressure but did not address the per-node fs.watch allocation (verification used 1,000 files, well under the storm-producing scale). Lab verification on clean upstream-main + synthetic 12,391-file workspace: 0 → 1 REG FD (MEMORY.md only; 12,391 file events covered by one recursive kqueue/FSEvents watcher), flat plateau, second memory_search returns 200 OK with zero additional FDs. Complementary to openclaw#86345 which attacks the same failure class by bounding INDEX_CACHE lifetime; this PR is non-overlapping in manager-sync-ops.ts and touches a disjoint region of manager.ts. Changes: - manager-sync-ops.ts: split watchPaths by dir/file; native recursive fs.watch for dirs with shouldIgnoreMemoryWatchPath filter and per-event lstat; chokidar retained for files. New TEST_MEMORY_NATIVE_WATCH_FACTORY_KEY for test injection. Native creation failure falls back into chokidar set. Null filename (Node platform caveat) triggers broad markDirty. Runtime error closes + removes + marks dirty. Idempotence guard expanded. Symlink policy preserved (extraPaths-only skip). - manager.ts: close() tears down nativeMemoryWatchers in addition to chokidar watcher. - manager.watcher-config.test.ts: nativeWatchMock paired with new factory key; assertions split between chokidar (files) and native (dirs); new cases for rename/change dispatch, null filename, native creation failure fallback, runtime error close, ensureWatcher re-entrancy guard. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <[email protected]>

…r directly (openclaw#64711) * fix(memory-core): fix macOS chokidar glob issue by watching memory dir directly * fix(memory-core): ignore non-markdown memory watch churn * fix(memory-core): allow multimodal watch events * test(memory-core): type watcher ignore callback --------- Co-authored-by: Vincent Koc <[email protected]>

openclaw-barnacle Bot added extensions: memory-core Extension: memory-core size: XS labels Apr 11, 2026

greptile-apps Bot reviewed Apr 11, 2026

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jasonxargs-boop and others added 2 commits April 12, 2026 18:14

fix(memory-core): fix macOS chokidar glob issue by watching memory di…

f59096c

…r directly

fix(memory-core): ignore non-markdown memory watch churn

8bca71a

vincentkoc force-pushed the fix/macos-chokidar-glob branch from 8ee2e95 to 8bca71a Compare April 12, 2026 17:16

vincentkoc self-assigned this Apr 12, 2026

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Comment thread extensions/memory-core/src/memory/manager-sync-ops.ts Outdated

vincentkoc added 2 commits April 12, 2026 18:48

fix(memory-core): allow multimodal watch events

17cb436

test(memory-core): type watcher ignore callback

564f89d

vincentkoc merged commit 2204753 into openclaw:main Apr 12, 2026
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github-actions Bot mentioned this pull request Apr 12, 2026

📡 Upstream Digest — 2026-04-12 18:36 UTC curtismercier/openclaw-mods#552

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Pick-cat mentioned this pull request Apr 13, 2026

fix(memory): make extraPaths watch match nested directories recursively #64654

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jasonxargs-boop mentioned this pull request Apr 16, 2026

fix(memory-core): filter non-markdown events in directory watcher on macOS/Node 25 #67558

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clawsweeper Bot mentioned this pull request May 1, 2026

Exclude memory/dreaming/ from memory search index via config #71285

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clawsweeper Bot mentioned this pull request May 3, 2026

Feature: memory_search should support recursive subdirectory search (memory/**/*.md) #34400

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lukeboyett mentioned this pull request May 26, 2026

fix(memory-core): avoid per-file watcher FD fan-out for memory directories #86701

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clawsweeper Bot mentioned this pull request Jun 16, 2026

[Docs/Design]: session-memory hook + memorySearch.sources["sessions"] causes duplicate indexing of same conversation #54524

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fix(memory-core): fix macOS chokidar glob issue by watching memory dir directly#64711

fix(memory-core): fix macOS chokidar glob issue by watching memory dir directly#64711
vincentkoc merged 4 commits into
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jasonxargs-boop:fix/macos-chokidar-glob

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		if (extension.length === 0 \|\| extension === ".md") {
		return false;

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jasonxargs-boop commented Apr 11, 2026

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Confidence Score: 5/5

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greptile-apps Bot commented Apr 11, 2026 •

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