Working memory is opt-in

OpenViking now defaults to working_memory.enabled=false. A commit still stores raw messages and schedules long-term memory extraction. It does not generate an archive overview or a retention checkpoint summary unless WM is explicitly enabled. This is not a switch for long-term memory, recall, profiles, or tools.

Upgrade the server and plugins

Updating the OpenViking Python package does not update copies installed in agent hosts. Update each installed plugin using its installation instructions, then restart that host. Do this before moving a conversation that depends on OV history to native history management. Old takeover plugins are not supported with the new default; there is no server-side workaround for their polling.

Integration	New default	Explicit opt-in
Claude Code, Codex / TraeCode CLI, OpenCode	No automatic archive injection on resume/compact; host history remains authoritative	resumeArchiveInject: true enables supplemental archive injection, not summary generation
Pi official extension	Native Pi compaction; no takeover or resume archive injection	takeoverEnabled: true; commits request WM explicitly
OpenClaw	contextManagementMode: "native"; keep host messages and delegate compaction to the host	contextManagementMode: "openviking"; commits request WM explicitly
VikingBot	session_context_enabled: true; OV manages history and compaction, and commits explicitly request WM	Set session_context_enabled: false to use VikingBot's existing local mode
LangChain / LangGraph	Middleware captures/recalls without fetching OV session history	Legacy OV history adapters require WM and an explicit application decision

Existing explicit plugin settings and environment variables still take priority over defaults. Remove them or set them to false to switch an installation that previously enabled takeover/injection. Installers do not overwrite that choice. Hermes, WorkBuddy, AstrBot and other capture/recall integrations inherit the server default; their host history is not replaced by this change.

The Pi experimental context-management extension is excluded from this release's WM-off adaptation. Do not use it as a WM-off history backend.

Persisted policies and queued work

The previous serializer omitted working_memory when it was true. Consequently, even a policy explicitly enabled through Studio or the normal user/session save APIs may have lost that field. A selected policy without it now means false; the original user intent cannot be reconstructed. Re-enable WM explicitly if needed. An original configuration that still contains true is preserved when that policy is selected. Policy precedence still selects a whole policy; missing fields are not filled from a lower-priority policy.

New serialization always includes the WM boolean. New queue snapshots include memory_policy_version: 1. Legacy queue/recovery snapshots without a version retain their submission-time WM=true semantics when the WM field is absent. Such already-submitted tasks can still generate a summary after upgrade. This does not mark saved user/session policies as opted in. Drain old tasks before upgrade if no post-upgrade WM generation is acceptable.

Explicit per-commit generation

POST /api/v1/sessions/{id}/commit accepts enable_working_memory:

• Omitted or null: use the resolved session/user/server policy.
• true or false: override only WM for this commit, without changing self, peer, memory_types, or the saved policy.
• Strings and numbers are rejected. The response reports effective_enable_working_memory from the actual commit policy.

The updated takeover integrations require a true confirmation before relying on a summary. Missing confirmation, disabled WM, or a completed/failed archive with no usable summary leaves native history in place. Pi checks the archive state while polling, re-reads once at the terminal boundary, then immediately falls back to native compaction instead of waiting for its timeout.

What history APIs return

GET /sessions/{id}/context is a bounded prompt view, not a complete transcript. An existing eligible summary can still be read after the generation policy is turned off. Once a newer WM-off archive completes, its boundary stops the view: the overview is empty and only retained/active messages and newer pending raw messages remain. It does not resurrect an older summary or replay all archives. A normal WM-off completion is not a failed archive.

GET /sessions/{id}/archives/{archive_id} returns raw messages for a completed WM-off archive, with overview: "" and abstract: "". Explicit archive tools continue to work. Pending, failed, missing, or corrupt archives retain their existing error behavior. Recall can still use eligible older summaries internally; turning off generation does not delete stored history.

Applications and old conversations

For LangChain use with_openviking_memory(..., history_factory=...) with a host history provider. The legacy with_openviking_context without a provider warns that it depends on OV history. Middleware defaults to include_session_context=False. Put it before native summarization middleware so raw messages are captured before the framework replaces them. Message capture watermarks are persisted in graph state. See the runnable native history example and its pinned requirements for LangChain summarization with a SQLite checkpointer.

VikingBot is an exception to the host-history default: it still uses OV Working Memory for context and compaction. Its session-context commits explicitly send enable_working_memory: true, including for existing sessions whose saved policy disables WM. It keeps the existing commit-and-clear flow; subsequent context reads use OV's overview/checkpoints and retained messages, or pending archive messages while generation is still running. If the server does not confirm WM generation, the commit is treated as unsuccessful and local history is kept for retry. This change does not replace VikingBot's local compaction.

Some old OV-managed conversations no longer have a full host transcript. Stop writes and use the history export tool to prepare a new host conversation through its supported file/context input. Verify the host has the necessary history before continuing there. Export alone is not an imported or verified migration; the tool never edits private host transcripts, changes policies, or deletes the source. Do not automatically switch a history-dependent conversation when its raw source is incomplete.

Diagnostics and rollback

OpenClaw health checks only require an overview when the commit confirms WM=true. Pi live E2E defaults to native history; use E2E_TAKEOVER=1 to test explicit takeover. Tests that exercise WM/checkpoints explicitly opt in.

Re-enabling WM affects future commits; it does not recreate missing summaries for previous archives. Retain raw backups and the updated plugin when rolling back server behavior. A legacy client may reapply old takeover boundaries and must not silently replace a conversation already migrated to host history.