Migration

Migration from OpenClaw

Human is a drop-in replacement for OpenClaw (TypeScript, Node.js). It preserves your memory, config structure, and channel integrations while dramatically reducing resource usage.

Dimension	OpenClaw	Human
Binary size	~28 MB (npm dist)	~528 KB
Memory	Node.js heap (100+ MB)	< 5 MB peak RSS
Dependencies	1,200+ npm packages	0 — libc + optional SQLite
Secrets	Plain-text API keys	ChaCha20-Poly1305 encrypted

1. Install Human

Build from source (recommended):

git clone https://github.com/sethdford/h-uman.git
cd human && mkdir -p build && cd build
cmake .. -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=MinSizeRel -DHU_ENABLE_LTO=ON -DHU_ENABLE_ALL_CHANNELS=ON
cmake --build .
sudo cp human /usr/local/bin/

Or download a release:

curl -Lo human https://github.com/sethdford/h-uman/releases/latest/download/human-$(uname -m)
chmod +x human && sudo mv human /usr/local/bin/

2. Migrate memory

Human imports memories directly from OpenClaw’s SQLite brain database:

human migrate sqlite ~/.openclaw/brain.db

The migration tool auto-detects common schema variants and maps columns automatically.

3. Migrate config

Human uses the same config structure as OpenClaw. Most keys map 1:1.

OpenClaw (~/.openclaw/config.json):

{
  "default_provider": "openai",
  "default_model": "gpt-4o",
  "providers": [{ "name": "openai", "api_key": "sk-proj-xxx" }]
}

Human (~/.human/config.json):

{
  "models": {
    "providers": { "openai": { "api_key": "sk-proj-xxx" } }
  },
  "agents": {
    "defaults": { "model": { "primary": "gpt-4o" } }
  }
}

4. Verify

human doctor          # Config, provider, memory OK?
human status          # Full system status
human agent -m "What do you remember about me?"

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Memory Backend Migration

Transfer memory entries between SQLite and Markdown backends when switching storage.

CLI usage

human migrate sqlite <source_db_path> [target_path]
human migrate markdown <source_directory> [target_path]

Examples

SQLite → Markdown:

human migrate sqlite ~/.human/memory.db ./memories

Markdown → SQLite:

human migrate markdown ./old-memories ~/.human/new-memory.db

Supported paths

Source	Target	Description
SQLite	Markdown	Export DB to Markdown files
Markdown	SQLite	Import Markdown files into DB

Migration stats

After migration, the CLI prints:

Migration: N from sqlite, M from markdown, K imported

• from_sqlite / from_markdown: Entries read from source
• imported: Successfully written to target
• skipped: Entries with missing key or content
• errors: Store failures

SQLite requirement

When SQLite is disabled (HU_ENABLE_SQLITE off), only Markdown ↔ Markdown migrations are supported.