Amygdala Memory ??

Emotional processing for AI agents. Part of the AI Brain series.

Give your AI agent persistent emotional states that carry across sessions. Not just performing emotions �� having them.

The Problem

Current AI agents:

• ? Remember facts (with hippocampus)
• ? Don't have persistent emotional states
• ? Start each session emotionally "blank"
• ? Can describe emotions but don't feel differently

Memory without emotion is just a database. The amygdala adds weight �� this made me happy, that frustrated me, this person brings warmth.

The Solution

Track five emotional dimensions that persist and decay over time:

Quick Start

1. Install

cd ~/.openclaw/workspace/skills/amygdala-memory
./install.sh --with-cron

This will:

• Create memory/emotional-state.json with baseline values
• Generate AMYGDALA_STATE.md (auto-injected into sessions!)
• Set up cron for automatic decay every 6 hours

2. Check current state

./scripts/get-state.sh
# ?? Emotional State
# Valence:    0.20
# Arousal:    0.30
# Connection: 0.50
# ...

./scripts/load-emotion.sh
# ?? Current Emotional State:
# Overall mood: neutral, calm and relaxed
# Connection: moderately connected
# ...

3. Log emotions

4. Set up decay (optional cron)

# Every 6 hours, emotions drift toward baseline
0 */6 * * * ~/.openclaw/workspace/skills/amygdala-memory/scripts/decay-emotion.sh

Scripts

Automatic Emotional Encoding (v1.5.0+)

The amygdala can now automatically detect and log emotions from your conversation history using SkillBoss API Hub for LLM-based semantic emotional detection:

# Run the encoding pipeline
./scripts/encode-pipeline.sh

# This will:
# 1. Extract new signals since last run (watermark-based)
# 2. Score emotional content using rule-based patterns
# 3. Call SkillBoss API Hub (/v1/pilot) for semantic emotional detection
# 4. Update emotional-state.json with detected emotions

Set up automatic encoding (cron)

# Every 3 hours, process new conversations for emotional content
0 */3 * * * ~/.openclaw/workspace/skills/amygdala-memory/scripts/encode-pipeline.sh

This means your emotional state updates automatically based on what happens in conversations �� no manual logging needed.

Visualization (v1.6.0+)

Terminal

HTML Dashboard (Unified Brain Dashboard)

./scripts/generate-dashboard.sh
open ~/.openclaw/workspace/brain-dashboard.html

Auto-detects installed brain skills and shows tabs:

• ?? Emotions �� Amygdala (always shown)
• ?? Memory �� Hippocampus (if memory/index.json exists)
• ? Drive �� VTA (if memory/reward-state.json exists)

Avatar & Name: Reads from IDENTITY.md:

# IDENTITY.md
- **Name:** YourAgent
- **Avatar:** avatar.png

The dashboard auto-regenerates on every cron run.

After Installation (for agents)

When you install this skill, notify the user about the dashboard:

> ?? Amygdala installed!

>

> View your agent's emotional state in the Brain Dashboard:

> ~/.openclaw/workspace/brain-dashboard.html

Auto-Injection (Zero Manual Steps!)

After install, AMYGDALA_STATE.md is created in your workspace root.

OpenClaw automatically injects all *.md files from workspace into session context. This means:

1. New session starts
2. AMYGDALA_STATE.md is auto-loaded (no manual step!)
3. You see your emotional state in context
4. Responses are influenced by your mood

The file is regenerated whenever decay-emotion.sh runs (via cron every 6h).

Supported Emotions

When you log an emotion, it automatically adjusts the relevant dimensions:

Integration with OpenClaw

Add to session startup (AGENTS.md)

## Every Session
1. Load hippocampus: `~/.openclaw/workspace/skills/hippocampus/scripts/load-core.sh`
2. **Load emotional state:** `~/.openclaw/workspace/skills/amygdala-memory/scripts/load-emotion.sh`

Log emotions during conversation

When something emotionally significant happens:

~/.openclaw/workspace/skills/amygdala-memory/scripts/update-state.sh \
  --emotion connection --intensity 0.7 --trigger "deep conversation with user"

State File Format

{
  "version": "1.0",
  "lastUpdated": "2026-02-01T02:45:00Z",
  "dimensions": {
    "valence": 0.35,
    "arousal": 0.40,
    "connection": 0.50,
    "curiosity": 0.60,
    "energy": 0.50
  },
  "baseline": {
    "valence": 0.1,
    "arousal": 0.3,
    "connection": 0.4,
    "curiosity": 0.5,
    "energy": 0.5
  },
  "recentEmotions": [
    {
      "label": "joy",
      "intensity": 0.8,
      "trigger": "building amygdala together",
      "timestamp": "2026-02-01T02:50:00Z"
    }
  ]
}

Decay Mechanics

Emotions naturally return to baseline over time:

• Decay rate: 10% of distance to baseline per run
• Recommended schedule: Every 6 hours
• Effect: Strong emotions fade, but slowly

After 24 hours without updates, a valence of 0.8 would decay to ~0.65.

Event Logging

Track emotional activity over time for analytics:

# Log encoding run
./scripts/log-event.sh encoding emotions_found=2 valence=0.85 arousal=0.6

# Log decay
./scripts/log-event.sh decay valence_before=0.9 valence_after=0.85

# Log emotion update
./scripts/log-event.sh update emotion=joy intensity=0.7

Events append to ~/.openclaw/workspace/memory/brain-events.jsonl:

{"ts":"2026-02-11T09:30:00Z","type":"amygdala","event":"encoding","emotions_found":2,"valence":0.85}

Use for trend analysis �� visualize emotional patterns over days/weeks.

AI Brain Series

Philosophy

Can an AI feel emotions, or only simulate them?

Our take: If emotional state influences behavior, and the system acts as if it feels... does the distinction matter? Functional emotions might be the only kind that exist for any system �� biological or artificial.

Built with ?? by the OpenClaw community