openclaw_dev

This repository is now the canonical home of the openclaw-session-branch-ui skill.

It packages the full Session Branch UI workflow into a reusable AgentSkill so a fresh OpenClaw setup can install the UI, its Gateway startup hook, and its watcher with minimal manual work.

The old standalone openclaw-session-branch-ui repository has been archived to avoid confusion.

For the Chinese introduction, see README.zh-CN.md.

What this skill provides

openclaw-session-branch-ui installs a local Session Branch UI stack for OpenClaw, including:

• a local web UI for named branches and existing sessions
• lazy loading for older transcript history (scroll-to-top trigger with loading indicator)
• message search by keyword or timestamp
• one-click copy buttons for user and assistant messages
• Gateway websocket RPC access for session list, history, send, and abort
• background start/stop/status helpers
• a Gateway startup hook that auto-starts the UI
• a watcher that stops the UI after the Gateway exits
• compact-history recovery by merging active transcripts with same-session .jsonl.bak.* files
• fallback local transcript send when Gateway RPC lacks operator.write
• working history-delta updates after fallback send
• first-message bootstrap for newly created branches
• assistant error visibility when a reply only contains errorMessage
• session search bar filtering the "现有会话" list by name in real time
• rename and delete work for all sessions (both named branches and ordinary sessions); renaming a named branch also syncs the display name to the OpenClaw session store so the dashboard reflects the new name
• unified delete confirmation for all session types; deleting a named branch removes its transcript, cache, and session record from the OpenClaw store

Repository layout

• skills/openclaw-session-branch-ui/ — source skill folder
• dist/openclaw-session-branch-ui.skill — packaged distributable skill bundle

Inside the skill

The skill source contains:

• SKILL.md — the skill entrypoint and workflow
• README.md — human-facing installation and publishing guide
• scripts/install_session_branch_ui.py — installer for workspace + hook deployment
• references/architecture.md — runtime and file layout notes
• references/windows.md — Windows-specific manual commands
• references/macos.md — macOS-specific manual commands
• references/linux.md — Linux-specific manual commands
• assets/session-branch-ui-template/ — UI template, Gateway websocket client, watcher, and control scripts
• assets/session-branch-ui-hook/ — Gateway startup hook template

Supported platforms

Current support target:

• Windows-native OpenClaw
• macOS OpenClaw
• Linux OpenClaw

Installation

Use the packaged skill

Use the prebuilt bundle:

• dist/openclaw-session-branch-ui.skill

Use the source skill

Use the source folder directly:

• skills/openclaw-session-branch-ui/

Install from source

python scripts/install_session_branch_ui.py

With explicit paths:

python scripts/install_session_branch_ui.py --state-dir <state-dir> --workspace <workspace> --force

With explicit platform hints:

python scripts/install_session_branch_ui.py --platform linux

Validation

After install:

openclaw gateway restart

Then choose your platform:

Windows

powershell -NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File .\session-branch-ui\scripts\status.ps1
Invoke-WebRequest -UseBasicParsing http://127.0.0.1:4317/api/sessions

macOS / Linux

bash ./session-branch-ui/scripts/status.sh
curl http://127.0.0.1:4317/api/sessions

Notes

• This repository contains both the source skill folder and a packaged .skill bundle in dist/
• Use the packaged bundle for the fastest installation path, or use the source folder if you want to inspect or customize the skill before installing
• Platform-specific operational details live under skills/openclaw-session-branch-ui/references/