# Is a comment block "OpenClaw memory promotion" in MEMORY.md necessary? **URL:** \ **Category:** General Discussions\ **Created:** [October 19, 2026, 11:01am UTC](https://community.openclaw.ai/t/is-a-comment-block-openclaw-memory-promotion-in-memory-md-necessary/181 "2026-10-19T11:01:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![KFP\_Sticky\_Note](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex028/user_avatar/community.openclaw.ai/kfp_sticky_note/32/85_2.png) [@KFP\_Sticky\_Note](https://community.openclaw.ai/u/KFP_Sticky_Note)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2026, 11:01am UTC](https://community.openclaw.ai/t/is-a-comment-block-openclaw-memory-promotion-in-memory-md-necessary/181/1 "2026-10-19T11:01:40Z")
I’ve been trimming my agents’ MEMORY.md and find comment block accompany the result of dreaming. The comment looks like this. `` I was about to trim it out. My agent suggests it should be left in there so OpenClaw does not re-promote it back into the file. So, this is my question: - If I remove comment block from MEMORY.md , will OpenClaw re-promote that record again? Or will it only do the promote once and move on? I want to trim it out so it won’t get important stuff truncated. Thank you in advance ---
**Author:** ![joe](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex028/user_avatar/community.openclaw.ai/joe/32/48_2.png) [@joe](https://community.openclaw.ai/u/joe)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2026, 1:30pm UTC](https://community.openclaw.ai/t/is-a-comment-block-openclaw-memory-promotion-in-memory-md-necessary/181/2 "2026-10-19T13:30:41Z")
Hey there! The good news is that OpenClaw doesn’t rely solely on those comments to remember what’s already been promoted. That state is tracked separately, so removing a comment shouldn’t automatically trigger another promotion. That said, I _would_ recommend leaving them intact. Those markers connect promoted memories to their original sources, which matters for things like consolidation and provenance-based deletion. If you’re worried about `MEMORY.md` getting too large, I’d focus on trimming redundant or outdated memory entries rather than stripping the markers themselves. They’re pretty small, and removing them can make future memory maintenance less reliable. A haircut to a point, but leave the skull intact. 😅💇 You can also preview what OpenClaw considers eligible for promotion using `openclaw memory promote`, without applying any changes. I’d back up `MEMORY.md` first, then focus on consolidating duplicate entries, removing outdated information, and moving longer details into separate files under `memory/`. The idea is to keep `MEMORY.md` as a concise collection of things your agent really needs to know all the time, while leaving the detailed history searchable when needed. I’d leave the promotion markers alone on anything you’re keeping. They serve a purpose, and removing them probably isn’t going to save nearly as much space as cleaning up the actual entries. You can also run `/context detail` to see whether you’re actually running into truncation, rather than just a large file. There’s a good explanation of the intended approach here: [Memory overview - OpenClaw](https://docs.openclaw.ai/concepts/memory) Hope this helps! ---
**Author:** ![PJ\_Standley](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex028/user_avatar/community.openclaw.ai/pj_standley/32/102_2.png) [@PJ\_Standley](https://community.openclaw.ai/u/PJ_Standley)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2026, 2:35pm UTC](https://community.openclaw.ai/t/is-a-comment-block-openclaw-memory-promotion-in-memory-md-necessary/181/3 "2026-10-19T14:35:46Z")
Short answer: no, it won’t re-promote. OpenClaw stamps each promoted candidate with `promotedAt` in its short-term store, and `openclaw memory promote` skips anything stamped unless you pass `--include-promoted` (off by default). I’d still leave them in, for two reasons. The comment is basically a “where did this come from” tag. Mine look like this: ```auto ``` That’s the daily note and the lines it came from. `openclaw memory forget` uses it to find everything a session produced. Delete the tag and forget can’t trace that entry back to its session anymore. It’s also a backup check. When OpenClaw writes promotions to MEMORY.md, it skips any candidate whose marker is already in the file. If that store ever gets reset, the markers are what keep you from getting duplicates. And they’re not what’s getting you truncated. Each of mine is about 65 characters. MEMORY.md only gets cut once it passes 20,000 characters (`agents.defaults.bootstrapMaxChars`), and there’s a 60,000 total across all the bootstrap files (`bootstrapTotalMaxChars`). Even then the file on disk is untouched. The agent just sees a shorter copy until it searches memory. `/context detail` shows the raw vs injected size for each file, so you can see exactly where you stand. Mine is about 15k with the markers left in, well under the cap. On my setup it’s actually AGENTS.md (about 21.7k) that gets cut. If you’re close to the limit, these help way more than stripping markers: - move the detail into the daily `memory/YYYY-MM-DD.md` files and keep MEMORY.md as the summary - lower `plugins.entries.memory-core.config.dreaming.phases.deep.maxPromotedSnippetTokens` (default 160) so each promoted snippet is shorter - or raise the cap for just that agent with `agents.entries..bootstrapMaxChars` ---
**Author:** ![KFP\_Sticky\_Note](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex028/user_avatar/community.openclaw.ai/kfp_sticky_note/32/85_2.png) [@KFP\_Sticky\_Note](https://community.openclaw.ai/u/KFP_Sticky_Note)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2026, 4:48pm UTC](https://community.openclaw.ai/t/is-a-comment-block-openclaw-memory-promotion-in-memory-md-necessary/181/4 "2026-10-19T16:48:47Z")
I see. Thank you. I and my agent has a hygiene routine that we optimize MEMORY.md during weekend, as to trim the fat. Each promoted block has their own organization, including the date it’s from, so I think mine is fine to remove. I will still keep it, as the community wisdom suggest.