Skills clawreverse

Inspect, checkpoint, rollback, and branch OpenClaw sessions with the ClawReverse plugin. Use when a user wants to recover from bad tool or file changes, restore a known-good checkpoint, inspect session lineage, create a child branch from an earlier point, or avoid re-spending tokens after a long OpenClaw run. Do not use for plain git history operations or non-OpenClaw workspaces.

install

source · Clone the upstream repo

git clone https://github.com/openclaw/skills

Claude Code · Install into ~/.claude/skills/

T=$(mktemp -d) && git clone --depth=1 https://github.com/openclaw/skills "$T" && mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills && cp -r "$T/skills/binhuangpjlab/clawreverse-skill" ~/.claude/skills/clawdbot-skills-clawreverse-d13d58 && rm -rf "$T"

manifest: skills/binhuangpjlab/clawreverse-skill/SKILL.md

source content

ClawReverse

Use this skill for OpenClaw session recovery and branching.

ClawReverse is a native OpenClaw plugin that adds the

openclaw reverse

command family for checkpoint listing, rollback, continue, checkout, and lineage inspection.

Use this skill when

a user wants to undo a bad OpenClaw tool call or recover from unwanted file changes
a user wants to restore a known-good point without rerunning the whole task
a user wants to branch from an earlier checkpoint and keep the parent session untouched
a user wants to inspect checkpoint lineage, rollback status, rollback reports, or branch records
a user wants to save tokens after a long analysis run by continuing from a checkpoint instead of starting over

Do not use this skill when

the task is a normal git revert, git checkout, or git branch workflow that should be handled directly with git
the workspace is not managed by OpenClaw
there are no OpenClaw sessions or checkpoints to operate on yet

Key behavior you should know first

ClawReverse creates checkpoints before mutating tool calls. Read-only tools and read-only shell commands do not create checkpoints.
```
rollback
```
rewinds the current session to a checkpoint. By default it does not restore the live workspace files unless
```
--restore-workspace
```
is used.
```
continue
```
requires a non-empty
```
--prompt
```
and creates a new child agent, new workspace, and new session, leaving the parent untouched.
```
checkout
```
creates a new session in the same agent from a checkpoint-backed entry.
```
--continue
```
can immediately start a run in that new session.
```
tree
```
is the fastest way to explain lineage and branch points to a user.
Add
```
--json
```
whenever another tool needs machine-readable output.

Prerequisites

a working OpenClaw installation
access to the machine that runs OpenClaw
a valid
```
openclaw.json
```
the ClawReverse plugin files available in this skill bundle

First step: verify or install the plugin

Check whether the plugin is already available:

openclaw reverse --help

If the command is missing, install the plugin from this skill bundle:

openclaw plugins install -l "{baseDir}"

Then initialize or repair config:

openclaw reverse setup

Restart the OpenClaw Gateway after install or config changes, then verify again:

openclaw reverse --help

If the OpenClaw state directory is not the default one, use:

openclaw reverse setup --base-dir /path/to/openclaw-state

Default config created by

setup

{
  "plugins": {
    "allow": ["clawreverse"],
    "enabled": true,
    "entries": {
      "clawreverse": {
        "enabled": true,
        "config": {
          "workspaceRoots": ["~/.openclaw/workspace"],
          "checkpointDir": "~/.openclaw/plugins/clawreverse/checkpoints",
          "registryDir": "~/.openclaw/plugins/clawreverse/registry",
          "runtimeDir": "~/.openclaw/plugins/clawreverse/runtime",
          "reportsDir": "~/.openclaw/plugins/clawreverse/reports",
          "maxCheckpointsPerSession": 100,
          "allowContinuePrompt": true,
          "stopRunBeforeRollback": true
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

Standard workflow

1) Identify the target agent and session

openclaw reverse agents
openclaw reverse sessions --agent <agent-id>

Use the value in the

Agent

column as the

agent id

and the value in the

Session

column as the

session id

. The row marked

latest

is the newest session.

2) List checkpoints

openclaw reverse checkpoints --agent <agent-id> --session <session-id>

If you need details for one checkpoint:

openclaw reverse checkpoint --checkpoint <checkpoint-id>

3) Choose the correct action

Roll back the current line

Use this when the user wants to rewind the current session to an earlier point.

openclaw reverse rollback \
  --agent <agent-id> \
  --session <session-id> \
  --checkpoint <checkpoint-id>

Only add

--restore-workspace

when the user explicitly wants the current on-disk workspace restored too:

openclaw reverse rollback \
  --agent <agent-id> \
  --session <session-id> \
  --checkpoint <checkpoint-id> \
  --restore-workspace

Continue as a safe child branch

Use this when the parent session and workspace must stay untouched and the user wants a fresh attempt from a known-good checkpoint.

openclaw reverse continue \
  --agent <agent-id> \
  --session <session-id> \
  --checkpoint <checkpoint-id> \
  --prompt "Continue from here with a different approach."

Optional advanced flags:

```
--new-agent <agent-id>
```
to force the child agent id
```
--clone-auth <auto|always|never>
```
for auth-copy behavior
```
--log
```
to capture child launch diagnostics and return
```
logFilePath
```

Checkout into a new session in the same agent

Use this when the user wants a new session from a checkpoint-backed entry without creating a new agent.

openclaw reverse nodes --agent <agent-id> --session <session-id>
openclaw reverse checkout \
  --agent <agent-id> \
  --source-session <session-id> \
  --entry <entry-id>

To start running immediately after checkout:

openclaw reverse checkout \
  --agent <agent-id> \
  --source-session <session-id> \
  --entry <entry-id> \
  --continue \
  --prompt "Continue from this restored entry."

4) Inspect status, reports, and lineage

openclaw reverse rollback-status --agent <agent-id> --session <session-id>
openclaw reverse tree --agent <agent-id> --session <session-id>
openclaw reverse report --rollback <rollback-id>
openclaw reverse branch --branch <branch-id>

tree

also supports automatic root selection and subtree inspection:

openclaw reverse tree
openclaw reverse tree --node <checkpoint-id>

Command quick reference

Command	Purpose
`openclaw reverse setup`	Patch `openclaw.json` and create plugin directories
`openclaw reverse status`	Show plugin runtime status
`openclaw reverse agents`	List configured agents
`openclaw reverse sessions --agent ...`	List sessions for one agent
`openclaw reverse checkpoints --agent ... --session ...`	List checkpoints for a session
`openclaw reverse checkpoint --checkpoint ...`	Inspect one checkpoint by id
`openclaw reverse rollback-status --agent ... --session ...`	Show rollback state for a session
`openclaw reverse rollback ...`	Rewind a session to a checkpoint
`openclaw reverse continue ... --prompt ...`	Create a child agent, workspace, and session from a checkpoint
`openclaw reverse nodes --agent ... --session ...`	List checkpoint-backed entries that support checkout
`openclaw reverse tree ...`	Display checkpoint lineage as a tree
`openclaw reverse checkout ...`	Create a new session from a checkpoint-backed entry
`openclaw reverse report --rollback ...`	Inspect a rollback report
`openclaw reverse branch --branch ...`	Inspect a saved branch record

Guardrails

Prefer
```
continue
```
over
```
rollback
```
when the user wants to preserve the parent line untouched.
Prefer
```
rollback
```
when the user wants the current line moved back to an earlier checkpoint.
Ask before using
```
--restore-workspace
```
if the user has not clearly requested live file restoration.
If no checkpoints appear, explain that ClawReverse only records checkpoints before mutating tools or mutating shell commands. Read-only operations such as
```
read
```
,
```
glob
```
,
```
ls
```
,
```
git status
```
,
```
find
```
,
```
cat
```
,
```
grep
```
,
```
diff
```
,
```
tree
```
, and similar commands are intentionally skipped.
Use
```
--json
```
for programmatic parsing or when you want to feed results into another tool.
From
```
{baseDir}
```
,
```
npm test
```
runs the repository test suite.

Troubleshooting

openclaw reverse

is missing

re-run
```
openclaw plugins install -l "{baseDir}"
```
run
```
openclaw reverse setup
```
restart the Gateway
check that
```
clawreverse
```
is in
```
plugins.allow
```
check that
```
plugins.entries.clawreverse.enabled
```
is
```
true
```

continue

fails

make sure
```
--prompt
```
is non-empty
if an agent id conflict occurs, retry with
```
--new-agent <fresh-id>
```
if you used
```
--log
```
, inspect the returned
```
logFilePath
```

rollback

did not change files

That is expected unless

--restore-workspace

was used.

tree

checkpoints

shows nothing

confirm the agent id and session id are correct
confirm the session has mutating tool calls that could create checkpoints

Skills clawreverse

ClawReverse

Use this skill when

Do not use this skill when

Key behavior you should know first

Prerequisites

First step: verify or install the plugin

Default config created by
`setup`

Standard workflow

1) Identify the target agent and session

2) List checkpoints

3) Choose the correct action

Roll back the current line

Continue as a safe child branch

Checkout into a new session in the same agent

4) Inspect status, reports, and lineage

Command quick reference

Guardrails

Troubleshooting

`openclaw reverse`
is missing

`continue`
fails

`rollback`
did not change files

`tree`
or
`checkpoints`
shows nothing

Skills clawreverse

ClawReverse

Use this skill when

Do not use this skill when

Key behavior you should know first

Prerequisites

First step: verify or install the plugin

Default config created by setup

Standard workflow

1) Identify the target agent and session

2) List checkpoints

3) Choose the correct action

Roll back the current line

Continue as a safe child branch

Checkout into a new session in the same agent

4) Inspect status, reports, and lineage

Command quick reference

Guardrails

Troubleshooting

openclaw reverse is missing

continue fails

rollback did not change files

tree or checkpoints shows nothing

Default config created by
`setup`

`openclaw reverse`
is missing

`continue`
fails

`rollback`
did not change files

`tree`
or
`checkpoints`
shows nothing