Migrate from OpenClaw to Hermes Agent
Migrate your OpenClaw setup to Hermes Agent — transfer memory, skills, config, and channels seamlessly.
Migrating from OpenClaw to Hermes Agent takes under 10 minutes — the 'hermes claw migrate' command auto-detects your OpenClaw setup and imports memory, skills, config, and API keys. Your agent picks up right where it left off.
Before you start:
- ☑Hermes Agent installed (on the same machine as OpenClaw, or a target server)
- ☑OpenClaw data at ~/.openclaw/ (default location)
- ☑Your existing Telegram/Discord bot tokens (same tokens work in Hermes)
Steps
- 1
Export OpenClaw data
Backup your ~/.openclaw/ directory including memory, skills, and config files
- 2
Install Hermes
Run the Hermes installer on the same machine or a new server
- 3
Migrate config
Hermes reads OpenClaw-format config — copy your config.yaml and update the model settings
- 4
Migrate memory
Copy MEMORY.md and memory/ directory to ~/.hermes/ — format is compatible
- 5
Migrate skills
Copy skills from ~/.openclaw/skills/ to ~/.hermes/skills/ — SKILL.md format is the same
- 6
Update channel tokens
Reuse the same Telegram/Discord bot tokens or create new ones
- 7
Test everything
hermes start and verify memory, skills, and channels all work correctly
Pro Tips
- 💡Run 'hermes claw migrate' first — it auto-detects ~/.openclaw and walks you through the migration interactively
- 💡Your SOUL.md, MEMORY.md, skills, and memory/ directory all migrate directly — the format is compatible between OpenClaw and Hermes
- 💡Keep OpenClaw installed for a week after migration in case you want to reference old configs before decommissioning it
Troubleshooting
❌ 'hermes claw migrate' doesn't find OpenClaw data
✅ Specify the path manually: 'hermes claw migrate --source ~/.openclaw'. If OpenClaw was installed in a custom location, point to that directory.
❌ Skills migrated but Hermes doesn't trigger them correctly
✅ Hermes skill loading uses the same SKILL.md format as OpenClaw. Check that the 'description' field is specific enough to trigger. Run 'hermes skills list' to confirm skills are detected.
❌ Memory imported but Hermes seems to not recall old context
✅ The vector index needs to be rebuilt after migration. Run 'hermes memory reindex' to re-embed all imported memories into the ChromaDB store.