memorist_agent

Memorist Agent — helps you capture your parents' and family members' life stories through adaptive interviews via WhatsApp, WeChat, or direct conversation. Organizes stories into memoir chapters. Local-first, privacy-protected. Bilingual: English + Chinese (普通话). Commands: /memorist_agent setup, interview, stories, compile, export, share.

# Memorist Agent

Help your parents and grandparents tell their stories before it's too late.

Memorist Agent conducts adaptive, empathetic interviews across 9 life domains — in English or Chinese. It remembers every name, place, and year the narrator mentions and follows up with targeted questions to draw out richer memories.

### Why Memorist Agent?

- **Local-first** — Every story fragment, entity, and chapter lives on your machine at `~/.openclaw/memorist_agent/`. Nothing is uploaded to any server. You own your family's data completely.
- **Private by design** — No accounts, no cloud sync, no third-party databases. The only network calls are the ones you explicitly trigger (sending a WhatsApp question or sharing an export). Delete the folder and it's gone.
- **Easy to use** — Run `/memorist_agent setup`, answer 4 questions, and you're interviewing. Relay mode works immediately with zero configuration. WhatsApp auto-reply takes one extra command. The AI handles question flow, entity tracking, and story writing — you just talk to your family.
- **Bilingual** — Native support for English and Chinese (普通话). The agent mirrors the narrator's language naturally, including dialect phrases and colloquial expressions.
- **Works with any channel** — WhatsApp, Telegram, WeCom, iMessage, or just relay questions in person over tea. The skill adapts to however your family communicates.

---

## Quick Start — Your First Interview

**Step 1** — Set up a narrator:
```
/memorist_agent setup
```

**Step 2** — Pick "Relay" mode (easiest — no extra config needed). You'll get questions to ask your narrator in person, over the phone, or via any messaging app. Type or paste their answers back.

**Step 3** — Run the interview:
```
/memorist_agent interview --narrator "Dad"
```

That's it. After 3–5 questions, the skill saves a story fragment automatically.

**Want hands-free WhatsApp?** Pick "WhatsApp auto-reply" during setup instead. The narrator chats directly with their own dedicated agent — no copy-pasting needed. Requires WhatsApp gateway setup (see Prerequisites below).

---

## What You Need

- **OpenClaw gateway running**: `openclaw status` should show gateway `running`.
- Everything else is set up automatically on first run.

**Nice to have (based on your setup):**

| Feature | What to configure |
|---------|-------------------|
| WhatsApp auto-reply | WhatsApp linked (`openclaw status`), narrator's number in `channels.whatsapp.allowFrom` or `dmPolicy: "open"`, `mkdir -p ~/.openclaw/media` |
| Telegram auto-reply | Telegram bot configured, narrator's numeric user ID in `channels.telegram.allowFrom` |
| WeCom auto-reply | `@sunnoy/wecom` plugin loaded, `channels.wecom.enabled: true` |
| iMessage auto-reply | macOS only. `channels.imessage.enabled: true`, narrator's phone/email in `channels.imessage.allowFrom`, Full Disk Access granted to terminal. Requires `imsg` CLI (`brew install pj4533/homebrew-imsg/imsg`) |
| Voice replies (TTS) | `messages.tts` configured in openclaw config — see `references/media-and-voice.md` |
| Voice note transcription | `pip3 install mlx-whisper` (Apple Silicon) or `brew install openai-whisper`, or run `/memorist_agent setup-stt` |

File paths use `~/.openclaw/` (`$HOME/.openclaw/` on all platforms — macOS, Linux, Windows WSL).

---

## Commands

| Command | Description |
|---------|-------------|
| `/memorist_agent setup` | Add a narrator and configure their interview channel |
| `/memorist_agent interview [--narrator NAME] [--domain DOMAIN]` | Start or continue an interview session |
| `/memorist_agent spawn [--narrator NAME]` | Enable auto-reply — creates a dedicated agent for this narrator |
| `/memorist_agent despawn [--narrator NAME]` | Disable auto-reply — remove the dedicated agent |
| `/memorist_agent remind [--narrator NAME]` | Send a gentle reminder to continue their story |
| `/memorist_agent stories [--narrator NAME] [--domain DOMAIN]` | Browse collected story fragments |
| `/memorist_agent entities [--narrator NAME]` | Show the entity map: people, places, years |
| `/memorist_agent compile [--narrator NAME]` | Compile fragments into polished memoir chapters |
| `/memorist_agent export [--narrator NAME] [--format md\|json\|txt]` | Export the memoir to a file |
| `/memorist_agent share [--narrator NAME]` | Invite a family co-editor to review |
| `/memorist_agent status` | Show all narrators, progress, and agent status |
| `/memorist_agent setup-stt` | Auto-install voice transcription |

---

## Life Story Domains

| ID | Domain (EN) | Domain (ZH) | Sample Opening Question |
|----|-------------|-------------|------------------------|
| `origins` | Origins & Childhood | 出身与童年 | "Where were you born, and what's your earliest memory of home?" |
| `growing-up` | Growing Up | 成长岁月 | "What was school like for you? Who were your closest friends?" |
| `family-history` | Family History | 家族历史 | "Tell me about your parents — what kind of people were they?" |
| `love` | Love & Partnership | 爱情与伴侣 | "How did you and Mum/Dad first meet?" |
| `work` | Work & Career | 工作与事业 | "What was your first real job? What did you dream of becoming?" |
| `places` | Places & Journeys | 地方与旅途 | "What places have you lived in across your life?" |
| `history` | Historical Moments | 历史时刻 | "You lived through [decade] — what do you remember most?" |
| `milestones` | Family Milestones | 家庭里程碑 | "What family celebrations stand out most in your memory?" |
| `wisdom` | Values & Wisdom | 价值观与智慧 | "What's the most important lesson life has taught you?" |

---

## Storage Layout

All data is stored locally at `~/.openclaw/memorist_agent/`:

```
~/.openclaw/memorist_agent/
├── owner.json                           # Skill owner's name
├── narrators.json                       # Index of all narrators
├── narrators/
│   └── {narrator-id}/
│       ├── profile.json                 # Narrator metadata & domain progress
│       ├── entities.json                # Extracted people, places, years
│       ├── sessions.json                # Interview session log
│       ├── fragments/                   # Story fragments by domain
│       ├── chapters/                    # Compiled memoir chapters
│       ├── exports/                     # Exported memoir files
│       └── workspace/                   # Agent workspace (if auto-reply enabled)
```

---

## /memorist_agent setup

**Purpose:** Register a narrator and choose how interviews will be conducted.

**Steps:**

1. **First-run bootstrap**: Create the data directory if it doesn't exist:
   - `mkdir -p ~/.openclaw/memorist_agent/narrators`
   - If `narrators.json` doesn't exist, create it as `[]`.
   - If this is the first run, ask: **"What's your name? (This is how narrators will know who set this up.)"** Save to `~/.openclaw/memorist_agent/owner.json` as `{ "name": "{name}" }`. Skip if `owner.json` already exists.

2. Ask the user:
   ```
   Let's set up your narrator. I'll ask a few questions.

   1. What is their name? (e.g. "Dad", "Grandma Li", "Uncle Chen")
   2. What's their relationship to you? (parent / grandparent / relative / friend)
   3. What language should I interview them in?
      [1] English
      [2] Chinese (普通话)
      [3] Both (start in Chinese, key summaries in English)
   4. How should I conduct interviews?
      [1] Relay — I give you questions, you ask them and bring back answers
          (Works with any channel: in person, phone call, WeChat, etc.)
      [2] WhatsApp auto-reply — they chat directly with a dedicated agent
          (Requires WhatsApp gateway. I'll help you set it up.)
      [3] iMessage auto-reply — they chat via iMessage with a dedicated agent
          (macOS only. Requires iMessage channel configured.)
      [4] Telegram auto-reply — they chat via Telegram with a dedicated agent
          (Requires Telegram bot configured.)
      [5] Live — the narrator is here right now, let's start talking
   ```

3. **If "WhatsApp auto-reply" is selected:**
   a. Ask for their WhatsApp number