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:

| Dimension | What It Measures | Range | |-----------|------------------|-------| | Valence | Positive ↔ Negative mood | -1.0 to 1.0 | | Arousal | Calm ↔ Excited/Alert | 0.0 to 1.0 | | Connection | Distant ↔ Close/Bonded | 0.0 to 1.0 | | Curiosity | Bored ↔ Fascinated | 0.0 to 1.0 | | Energy | Depleted ↔ Energized | 0.0 to 1.0 |

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

./scripts/update-state.sh --emotion joy --intensity 0.8 --trigger "completed a project"
# ✅ valence: 0.20 → 0.35 (delta: +0.15)
# ✅ arousal: 0.30 → 0.40 (delta: +0.1)
# 🎭 Logged emotion: joy (intensity: 0.8)

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

| Script | Purpose | |--------|---------| | install.sh | Set up amygdala-memory (run once) | | get-state.sh | Read current emotional state | | update-state.sh | Log emotion or update dimension | | load-emotion.sh | Human-readable state for session context | | decay-emotion.sh | Return to baseline over time | | sync-state.sh | Generate AMYGDALA_STATE.md for auto-injection | | encode-pipeline.sh | LLM-based emotional encoding from transcripts | | preprocess-emotions.sh | Extract emotional signals from session history | | update-watermark.sh | Track processed transcript position | | generate-dashboard.sh | Generate HTML dashboard (auto-runs on sync) | | visualize.sh | Terminal ASCII visualization |

Automatic Emotional Encoding (v1.5.0+)

The amygdala can now automatically detect and log emotions from your conversation history using an LLM-based pipeline:

# 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. Spawn a sub-agent 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

./scripts/visualize.sh

🎭 Emotional State  😄
═══════════════════════════════════════════════
Valence:      [██████████████████░░]  +0.86
Arousal:      [█████████████████░░░]   0.86
Connection:   [███████████████████░]   0.97  💕
...

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:

| Emotion | Effect | |---------|--------| | joy, happiness, delight, excitement | ↑ valence, ↑ arousal | | sadness, disappointment, melancholy | ↓ valence, ↓ arousal | | anger, frustration, irritation | ↓ valence, ↑ arousal | | fear, anxiety, worry | ↓ valence, ↑ arousal | | calm, peace, contentment | ↑ valence, ↓ arousal | | curiosity, interest, fascination | ↑ curiosity, ↑ arousal | | connection, warmth, affection | ↑ connection, ↑ valence | | loneliness, disconnection | ↓ connection, ↓ valence | | fatigue, tiredness, exhaustion | ↓ energy | | energized, alert, refreshed | ↑ energy |

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.

AI Brain Series

| Part | Function | Status | |------|----------|--------| | hippocampus | Memory formation, decay, reinforcement | ✅ Live | | amygdala-memory | Emotional processing | ✅ Live | | vta-memory | Reward and motivation | ✅ Live | | basal-ganglia-memory | Habit formation | 🚧 Development | | anterior-cingulate-memory | Conflict detection | 🚧 Development | | insula-memory | Internal state awareness | 🚧 Development |

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.

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