Fresh onboard sandbox omits writable ~/.openclaw/memory facade

[snarkipus]

Description

Fresh nemoclaw onboard creates /sandbox/.openclaw as a root-owned facade with links such as agents, cron, and workspace, but it does not create a writable memory entry. OpenClaw still uses ~/.openclaw/memory/main.sqlite as the default store path for the main agent, so openclaw memory index --force fails because the parent directory is missing and cannot be created by the sandbox user.

Expected behavior: fresh onboard should create a writable facade for ~/.openclaw/memory, for example /sandbox/.openclaw/memory -> /sandbox/.openclaw-data/memory, or otherwise ensure the default memory-store parent path exists and is writable.

Reproduction Steps

1. Run nemoclaw onboard on a fresh host and complete onboarding.
2. Connect to the created sandbox.
3. Inspect the facade paths with find ~/.openclaw -maxdepth 1 -ls.
4. Confirm there is no ~/.openclaw/memory entry.
5. Run openclaw memory index --force.
6. Observe failure: unable to open database file.
7. Run mkdir -p ~/.openclaw/memory as the sandbox user.
8. Observe failure: mkdir: cannot create directory ... Permission denied.

Workaround that restores expected behavior:

1. Create ~/.openclaw-data/memory as the sandbox user.
2. Create /sandbox/.openclaw/memory -> /sandbox/.openclaw-data/memory from the host/root side.
3. Re-run openclaw memory index --force.
4. Observe success.

Environment

• OS: Ubuntu 24.04
• Node.js: v22.22.1
• Docker: Docker Engine (OpenShell-managed cluster)
• NemoClaw: source checkout on origin/main at eb4ba8c during validation
• OpenClaw in sandbox: 2026.3.11 (29dc654)

Logs

$ openclaw memory index --force
unable to open database file

$ mkdir -p ~/.openclaw/memory
mkdir: cannot create directory '/sandbox/.openclaw/memory': Permission denied\n```\n\nAdditional observed state:\n```text\n- /sandbox/.openclaw is owned by root:root\n- facade links exist for agents, cron, workspace, etc.\n- there is no /sandbox/.openclaw/memory entry\n- .openclaw-data/* remains writable by sandbox:sandbox\n```

[BenediktSchackenberg]

This is addressed in #654 — the sandbox hardening PR that locks `/sandbox/.openclaw` to `0555`.

The fix pre-creates `/sandbox/.openclaw-data/memory` (owned by `sandbox:sandbox`) and symlinks it into the facade at `/sandbox/.openclaw/memory` before the directory is locked down. Same pattern already used for `workspace/` and `agents/`.

Commit: BenediktSchackenberg@9c58cbc