Transitioning from OpenClaw to Hermes

The hermes claw migrate command is designed to seamlessly transition your existing OpenClaw configuration (including legacy Clawdbot or Moldbot setups) into the Hermes ecosystem.

[!TIP] Simplifying Providers: If your previous OpenClaw environment utilized multiple providers, running hermes setup --portal will consolidate them into a single OAuth login, granting access to over 300 models and the Tool Gateway.

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🚀 Quick Start Guide

Before applying any changes, Hermes always provides a preview of the migration plan.

# Standard flow: Preview the changes, then confirm to apply
hermes claw migrate

# Read-only mode: View the plan without making any modifications
hermes claw migrate --dry-run

# Power-user mode: Full migration including secrets, bypassing confirmation
hermes claw migrate --preset full --migrate-secrets --yes

Automatic Detection

Hermes automatically scans for legacy configurations in the following locations:

• Directories: ~/.clawdbot/ or ~/.moltbot/
• Config Files: clawdbot.json or moltbot.json

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🛠 Configuration Options

Option	Description
--dry-run	Performs a preview only; terminates before applying changes.
--preset [name]	full (all compatible settings) or user-data (ignores infrastructure).
--migrate-secrets	Required to import API keys. Presets do not import secrets by default.
--overwrite	Forces Hermes to overwrite existing files if a conflict occurs.
--no-backup	Disables the creation of a pre-migration zip snapshot in ~/.hermes/backups/.
--skill-conflict [mode]	Determines how to handle skill collisions: skip (default), overwrite, or rename.

Pre-Migration Checklist

• Backup critical SOUL.md or MEMORY.md files manually.
• Identify if you need the full or user-data preset.
• Decide on a --skill-conflict strategy.

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📦 Migration Mapping

1. Persona, Memory, and Instructions

Hermes handles memory by parsing entries, merging them with existing data, and removing duplicates.

OpenClaw Source	Hermes Destination	Notes
workspace/SOUL.md	~/.hermes/SOUL.md	Direct file copy.
workspace/AGENTS.md	AGENTS.md (in target)	Requires the --workspace-target flag.
workspace/MEMORY.md	~/.hermes/memories/MEMORY.md	Parsed, merged, and deduped.
workspace/USER.md	~/.hermes/memories/USER.md	Parsed, merged, and deduped.
workspace/memory/*.md	~/.hermes/memories/MEMORY.md	All daily logs are merged into the main memory.

Note: Hermes also checks workspace.default/ and workspace-main/ as fallbacks, as well as workspace-{agentId} for multi-agent configurations.

2. Skills Integration

All skills from the following four sources are consolidated into ~/.hermes/skills/openclaw-imports/:

1. Workspace skills: workspace/skills/
2. Managed/Shared skills: ~/.openclaw/skills/
3. Personal cross-project skills: ~/.agents/skills/
4. Project-level shared skills: workspace/.agents/skills/

3. Model & Provider Setup

OpenClaw Path	Hermes Destination	Logic/Notes
agents.defaults.model	config.yaml $\rightarrow$ model	Supports strings or {primary, fallbacks} objects.
models.providers.*	config.yaml $\rightarrow$ custom_providers	Maps baseUrl and apiType. Handles openai, anthropic, etc.
models.providers.*.apiKey	~/.hermes/.env	Only migrated if --migrate-secrets is used.

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⚙️ Behavioral & Technical Settings

Agent Logic

The migration converts OpenClaw's timing and effort settings into Hermes' format.

OpenClaw Key	Hermes Key	Mapping Logic
agents.defaults.timeoutSeconds	agent.max_turns	$\text{value} / 10$ (Capped at 200)
agents.defaults.verboseDefault	agent.verbose	off / on / full
agents.defaults.thinkingDefault	agent.reasoning_effort	always/high/xhigh $\rightarrow$ high; auto/med/adaptive $\rightarrow$ med; off/low/none $\rightarrow$ low
agents.defaults.compaction.mode	compression.enabled	off $\rightarrow$ false; others $\rightarrow$ true
agents.defaults.compaction.model	compression.summary_model	Direct string copy.
agents.defaults.humanDelay.mode	human_delay.mode	natural / custom / off
agents.defaults.humanDelay.minMs	human_delay.min_ms	Direct copy.
agents.defaults.userTimezone	timezone	Direct string copy.
tools.exec.timeoutSec	terminal.timeout	Direct copy.
agents.defaults.sandbox.backend	terminal.backend	docker $\rightarrow$ docker
agents.defaults.sandbox.docker.image	terminal.docker_image	Direct string copy.

Session Management

Hermes looks for session.reset settings. If missing, it infers them from the session.resetTriggers array.

OpenClaw Path	Hermes Path	Notes
session.reset.mode	session_reset.mode	daily, idle, or both
session.reset.atHour	session_reset.at_hour	Integer (0–23)
session.reset.idleMinutes	session_reset.idle_minutes	Minutes of inactivity

MCP Servers & TTS

MCP Mapping: Fields such as command, args, env, cwd, and url (for HTTP/SSE) are mapped directly to mcp_servers.*. Tool filtering (include/exclude) is also preserved.

TTS Priority: Hermes reads TTS settings in the following order of precedence:

1. messages.tts.providers.{provider}.* (Primary)
2. talk.providers.{provider}.* (Secondary)
3. messages.tts.{provider}.* (Legacy)

OpenClaw Value	Hermes Destination
Provider Name	config.yaml $\rightarrow$ tts.provider
ElevenLabs Voice ID	config.yaml $\rightarrow$ tts.elevenlabs.voice_id
ElevenLabs Model ID	config.yaml $\rightarrow$ tts.elevenlabs.model_id
OpenAI Model	config.yaml $\rightarrow$ tts.openai.model