OpenClaw Agent Maintains Memory When Switching from Claude Subscription to API

Memory Persistence When Changing Model Providers

A developer shared their experience switching their OpenClaw setup from a Claude subscription to API key after receiving Anthropic's email notification. The configuration change took about 2 minutes, but the key concern was whether the agent's accumulated knowledge would survive the transition.

The agent had developed:

• ~100+ facts about the developer's working style
• Multiple evolved procedures (deployment workflow on version 4)
• Episodic memory from past sessions

External Memory Solution

All memory was preserved because it wasn't stored in Claude or OpenClaw itself. The developer uses the mengram-memory skill from ClawHub, which saves everything to an external memory layer. When the underlying model changed from subscription to API (with consideration of switching to GPT-5 entirely), the agent continued functioning with all memories intact.

Setup Configuration

Installation command:

npx clawhub@latest install mengram-memory

Configuration in ~/.openclaw/openclaw.json:

{
  "skills": {
    "entries": {
      "mengram-memory": {
        "enabled": true,
        "env": {
          "MENGRAM_API_KEY": "om-your-key-here"
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

The mengram-memory skill uses a free API key from mengram.io and is open source at github.com/alibaizhanov/mengram.

Key Takeaway

The developer emphasizes that if an agent's memory lives inside the harness or model provider, you're locked into that ecosystem. External memory solutions allow you to maintain your agent's intelligence regardless of upstream changes from providers like Anthropic or OpenAI.