Secure Your Conversation History: Session Transcript Permissions in OpenClaw 2026.2.17

Your OpenClaw agent keeps detailed logs of every conversation in JSONL transcript files. These files contain your messages, tool outputs, and potentially sensitive information like API responses, personal notes, and private conversations. Until now, these files might have been created with default system permissions—potentially readable by other users on shared systems.

OpenClaw 2026.2.17 fixes this with automatic permission hardening and a new audit command to secure existing transcripts.

The Problem: Overly Permissive Transcript Files

Session transcripts are stored in your workspace under the sessions directory. Each conversation creates a .jsonl file containing the full conversation history. On multi-user systems or shared machines, default file permissions (often 0644) could allow other users to read your private conversations.

Even on single-user systems, this matters if:

• You use backup services that sync files elsewhere
• You share your machine occasionally
• You run other services or containers that might access your home directory
• You're security-conscious and follow the principle of least privilege

The Fix: User-Only Permissions (0600)

Starting with v2026.2.17, OpenClaw creates new session transcript files with 0600 permissions—readable and writable only by the file owner. No group access, no world access.

This happens automatically for all new transcripts. But what about your existing conversation history?

Remediate Existing Files with openclaw security audit

OpenClaw 2026.2.17 extends the security audit command to check and fix transcript permissions:

# Check for permission issues (dry run)
openclaw security audit

# Fix permission issues automatically
openclaw security audit --fix

The audit scans your workspace for:

• Session transcript files with overly permissive permissions
• Other security configuration issues

With --fix, it automatically changes transcript file permissions to 0600.

What's in a Transcript?

If you're wondering why this matters, here's what your transcript files contain:

• Your messages: Everything you've typed to your agent
• Agent responses: Full model outputs including reasoning
• Tool results: Output from commands, file reads, API calls
• System context: Session metadata, timestamps, configuration

For agents with access to email, calendars, or file systems, transcripts can contain a treasure trove of personal information.

Best Practices for Transcript Security

1. Run the audit: After upgrading to 2026.2.17, run openclaw security audit --fix once to secure existing transcripts.

2. Check your backups: If you back up your workspace, ensure your backup solution respects file permissions or encrypts the backup.

3. Session maintenance: Use the session maintenance features (also in 2026.2.17) to prune old transcripts you no longer need. Less data stored = less data to protect.

4. Workspace location: Consider keeping your workspace on an encrypted volume for defense in depth.

The Bigger Security Picture

This transcript permission fix is part of a broader security hardening effort in 2026.2.17, which also includes:

• Credential-theft vulnerability patch (OC-09)
• Path traversal protection for config includes
• Unicode/injection sanitization in workspace paths
• Redacted sensitive session details for non-admin clients

Security is an ongoing effort. Run openclaw security audit periodically to catch issues, and keep your installation updated.

Links

• OpenClaw v2026.2.17 Release Notes
• Security Best Practices

Your conversations with your AI agent are private. OpenClaw 2026.2.17 helps keep them that way.