Initial research: OpenClaw on AgentCore architecture

- Architecture comparison (OpenClaw daemon vs AgentCore serverless)
- Component compatibility analysis
- Fargate analysis
- AgentCore rebuild plan (Telegram, zero always-on compute)
- Memory strategy: AgentCore Memory + factbase as structured KB
- Serverless relay patterns per channel
- All open questions resolved
- OpenClaw feature delta March→May 2026
- Build phases and cost estimates

offload-requirements.md

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+# What Must Be Offloaded to External Services
+
+## Must-Offload Components
+
+### 1. Messaging Channel Connections → External Service / Sidecar
+**Current**: WhatsApp (Baileys WS), Discord (discord.js WS), Telegram (grammY), Slack (Bolt), etc. all run as persistent connections inside the gateway.
+**Required**: A separate always-on service that:
+- Maintains persistent connections to each messaging platform
+- Receives inbound messages
+- Translates them into `InvokeAgentRuntime` calls to AgentCore
+- Receives agent responses and routes them back to the correct channel
+
+**Options**:
+- **ECS/Fargate task** running a stripped-down "channel relay" service (the OpenClaw gateway minus the agent runtime)
+- **Lambda + API Gateway** for webhook-based channels (Telegram webhook mode, Slack Events API)
+- **EC2 or ECS** for WebSocket-based channels (WhatsApp Baileys, Discord)
+- A lightweight **"gateway lite"** that keeps channel connections and forwards to AgentCore
+
+**Complexity**: HIGH. This is the single biggest piece of work. The channel connection logic is deeply intertwined with the gateway.
+
+### 2. Persistent State → S3 + DynamoDB / AgentCore Memory
+**Current**: All state lives on the filesystem.
+**Required**:
+| State | Proposed External Store |
+|---|---|
+| Session transcripts (JSONL) | S3 (keyed by agent+session ID) or DynamoDB |
+| Agent workspace (MEMORY.md, SOUL.md, etc.) | S3 bucket or EFS |
+| WhatsApp auth state | DynamoDB or Secrets Manager |
+| Config (openclaw.json) | S3 or Parameter Store |
+| Pairing store (device trust) | DynamoDB |
+| Secrets | Secrets Manager |
+| Cron state | DynamoDB |
+| Agent conversation history | AgentCore Memory (short-term + long-term) |
+
+**Complexity**: HIGH. Every file read/write in OpenClaw assumes a local filesystem. Would need a storage abstraction layer.
+
+### 3. Heartbeat → EventBridge Scheduler
+**Current**: Gateway-internal timer fires every 30m.
+**Required**: EventBridge Scheduler rule that periodically calls `InvokeAgentRuntime` with the heartbeat prompt.
+
+**Complexity**: LOW. Straightforward EventBridge → Lambda → InvokeAgentRuntime.
+
+### 4. Cron Jobs → EventBridge Scheduler
+**Current**: `croner` library inside the gateway process.
+**Required**: Each cron job becomes an EventBridge Scheduler rule.
+
+**Complexity**: MEDIUM. Need a way to manage/create/delete rules dynamically (since OpenClaw supports runtime cron management via the agent).
+
+### 5. Webhook Ingress → API Gateway / ALB
+**Current**: Gateway's HTTP server handles webhook endpoints for channels like Telegram (webhook mode), Slack Events API.
+**Required**: API Gateway or ALB fronting the channel relay service or Lambda functions.
+
+**Complexity**: MEDIUM.
+
+### 6. Browser Control → AgentCore Browser Tool or Sidecar
+**Current**: Playwright controlling a local Chromium process.
+**Required**: Either:
+- Use AgentCore's built-in Browser Tool
+- Run headless Chrome inside the container (heavy, ephemeral)
+- Separate browser service (like Browserless.io or an ECS sidecar)
+
+**Complexity**: MEDIUM. AgentCore has its own browser tool which could replace OpenClaw's.
+
+## Can Stay Inside the Container
+
+These components work within an AgentCore container:
+
+- **Agent reasoning loop** (pi-mono core logic)
+- **LLM API calls** (Bedrock, Anthropic, OpenAI — outbound HTTP)
+- **Web search / web fetch** (outbound HTTP to Brave API, arbitrary URLs)
+- **TTS calls** (outbound HTTP to ElevenLabs/Edge TTS)
+- **System prompt construction** (pure logic)
+- **Context windowing / compaction** (algorithmic)
+- **Model selection / failover** (pure logic)
+- **Basic shell exec** (within container, ephemeral)
+- **File read/write** (within session, ephemeral — but see state offloading above)
+
+## Summary: Effort Estimate
+
+| Component | Effort | Notes |
+|---|---|---|
+| Channel relay service | XL | Core gateway refactor; messaging is deeply coupled |
+| Storage abstraction layer | L | Every fs operation needs a backend swap |
+| Heartbeat/Cron offload | S | EventBridge rules |
+| Agent HTTP wrapper | M | Wrap pi-mono behind /invocations + /ping |
+| Session model redesign | L | JSONL → AgentCore Memory or DynamoDB |
+| Webhook ingress | M | API Gateway + routing |
+| Browser adaptation | S-M | Use AgentCore Browser Tool or containerized Chrome |