Summary

With memory.backend = "qmd" and memory.qmd.includeDefaultMemory = true, OpenClaw can generate and later search a managed collection for lowercase memory.md even when the workspace only has uppercase MEMORY.md.

That can produce a phantom managed collection lookup like:

Collection not found: memory-alt-main

while QMD itself is otherwise healthy.

Why I think this is a real bug, not bad local state

In this repo checkout there is a concrete source inconsistency around default QMD collection generation:

• packages/memory-host-sdk/src/host/backend-config.ts:330-333 still declares three default entries:
  • MEMORY.md -> memory-root
  • memory.md -> memory-alt
  • memory/ -> memory-dir
• src/memory-host-sdk/host/backend-config.ts:337-340 only declares:
  • MEMORY.md -> memory-root
  • memory/ -> memory-dir

So at least one code path in the tree still models lowercase memory.md as a default managed collection, while another does not.

Relevant lines from this checkout:

// packages/memory-host-sdk/src/host/backend-config.ts
const entries = [
  { path: workspaceDir, pattern: "MEMORY.md", base: "memory-root" },
  { path: workspaceDir, pattern: "memory.md", base: "memory-alt" },
  { path: path.join(workspaceDir, "memory"), pattern: "**/*.md", base: "memory-dir" },
];

but:

// src/memory-host-sdk/host/backend-config.ts
const entries = [
  { path: workspaceDir, pattern: "MEMORY.md", base: "memory-root" },
  { path: path.join(workspaceDir, "memory"), pattern: "**/*.md", base: "memory-dir" },
];

There is also a matching test expectation in packages/memory-host-sdk/src/host/backend-config.test.ts:39-42 that still expects memory-alt-main to exist by default.

That matches the failure seen in a real install: published/runtime code can still end up generating or searching memory-alt-* even when lowercase memory.md is absent.

Environment

• OpenClaw: 2026.4.11 on macOS
• QMD: 2.1.0
• install style: global install / gateway restart
• workspace has MEMORY.md
• workspace does not have lowercase memory.md
• memory backend: qmd

Relevant config shape

{
  "memory": {
    "backend": "qmd",
    "qmd": {
      "command": "/opt/homebrew/bin/qmd",
      "includeDefaultMemory": true,
      "sessions": { "enabled": true },
      "limits": { "timeoutMs": 10000 }
    }
  }
}

Repro

1. Use a workspace containing MEMORY.md and memory/, but no lowercase memory.md
2. Configure memory.backend = "qmd"
3. Leave memory.qmd.includeDefaultMemory = true
4. Restart OpenClaw
5. Trigger QMD-backed recall or status paths

Actual behavior

OpenClaw can try to use a managed collection named like:

memory-alt-main

for lowercase memory.md, even though that file does not exist.

Observed failure:

Collection not found: memory-alt-main

At the same time, the actual QMD index can still be healthy. In my case the live QMD collections were the expected real ones only:

• memory-root-main
• memory-dir-main
• sessions-main
• basecamp

with no valid reason for a memory-alt-main lookup.

Expected behavior

If the workspace has MEMORY.md but not lowercase memory.md, OpenClaw should not create, repair, or search a managed memory-alt-* default collection.

More generally, default managed collections should only be generated for paths that are actually part of the active default set.

Current workaround

Disable default-memory auto-generation and declare explicit QMD paths instead:

{
  "memory": {
    "backend": "qmd",
    "qmd": {
      "includeDefaultMemory": false,
      "paths": [
        { "name": "memory-root", "path": "/path/to/workspace", "pattern": "MEMORY.md" },
        { "name": "memory-dir", "path": "/path/to/workspace/memory", "pattern": "**/*.md" }
      ]
    }
  }
}

That avoided the bad default collection resolution and restored working recall on the real path.

Suggested fix direction

The smallest fix seems to be:

• remove lowercase memory.md from the default QMD collection set wherever it still exists, or
• at minimum only emit/search memory-alt-* when that file actually exists

But the bigger thing to fix is the duplication drift: the source tree should not have one default-collection definition that includes memory-alt and another that does not.