FAQ

Is Lethe an OpenClaw component? No. Lethe is a general-purpose memory platform for any AI agent. The OpenClaw plugin is one integration — recommended for OpenClaw users, never required. ChatGPT, Claude, Claude Code, Cursor, IDE assistants, custom MCP clients, and backend services all work directly.

Is Memory Git actual Git? No. It borrows Git's semantics — refs, changesets, branching, merging, immutable parent-linked history — and applies them to memory records stored in SQLite. There are no .git directories and no filesystem repositories.

Which mode should I run? OpenClaw → legacy. Durable or shared memory for anything else → git (add Charon when memory is shared or leaves loopback). Both or migrating → hybrid. See runtime-modes.md.

Do I need Charon? Not for a single local agent — the bearer-key API is enough. You want Charon when several agents share memory, when memory is reviewed before acceptance, or when an agent connects over a tunnel (OAuth + scoped principals + audit).

Do I need a database server? No. Lethe embeds SQLite (WAL, synchronous=FULL) in one non-root container. The only operational concern is a bind-mounted data directory owned by UID 1000.

Where does my memory live? In lethe.db inside your bind-mounted data directory (./lethe-data or ./lethe-git-data by default). Backups are sqlite3 .backup copies of that file. Nothing leaves your infrastructure unless you tunnel it yourself.

How are credentials handled? You generate them (openssl rand -hex 32, ./lethe keygen, or scripts/prepare-local-memory-git-env.sh). They live in mode-0600 .env files, are never committed, never stored in the database, and are distinct per purpose. Details: configuration.md.

What happens on restart? Everything persists: sessions, events, changesets, refs, manifests, and consumed merge nonces (so replay protection survives restarts). The one credential that changes by design is Charon's browser pairing key — regenerated at every Charon start and printed in the startup banner.

A merge or changeset returned 409. Is that corruption? No — it is the compare-and-swap working as intended. Reread the current head, reconcile against it, and resubmit with a new idempotency key. A replayed merge authorization is also a hard rejection, even if the ref cycled back to the same head.

The gateway says "CHARON_OAUTH_PAIRING_SECRET is required". Do I need to set it? Usually no — that error means the OAuth block never reached the container, not that a secret is missing. Pass CHARON_OAUTH_GENERATE_PAIRING_SECRET=true (the released compose does) and every Charon start prints a fresh browser authorization key in the logs (docker compose logs charon). You only set a static CHARON_OAUTH_PAIRING_SECRET (32+ characters) when you deliberately disable generation for one stable key.

Can multiple agents share one memory? Yes — that is the designed center of the system: one Lethe Git, one Charon, a propose-profile principal per writing agent, an independent reviewer principal, and accepted memory landing on refs/shared/main only through review. See integrations.md.

Is there a hosted/SaaS version? Lethe is self-hosted by design. The container and the source are the product.