Cron Job Setup

Our conventions for creating cron jobs in OpenClaw.

Default Settings

Setting	Default	Why
Model	INLINECODE0	Reliable tool calls, works with any Anthropic Max plan — no OpenRouter needed
Session

isolated | Cron jobs run in their own session, not the main chat | | Delivery | "mode": "none" | Job handles its own output (posts to Discord, etc.) | | Timeout | 120-180s | Most jobs should finish fast |

Model Notes

• - Default to Sonnet (anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-5). Reliable, portable (no OpenRouter API key needed).
• DeepSeek is unreliable for tool calls — don't use it for cron jobs.
• Use Opus (anthropic/claude-opus-4-6) only as a last resort — expensive for scheduled tasks.
• Model ID format: Use anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-5 not the full dated version (anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-20250514).

Job Template

CODEBLOCK0

Schedule Patterns

Pattern	Cron Expression	Notes
Every 30 min	INLINECODE7	Good for inbox checks, monitoring
Every hour

0 * * * * | Self-reflection, status checks | | Daily at 4 AM | 0 4 * * * | Cleanup, backups (during quiet hours) | | Daily at 6 AM | 0 6 * * * | Morning digests, daily summaries | | Weekly Monday 2 PM | 0 14 * * 1 | Weekly outreach, reviews | | One-shot | Use "kind": "at" instead | Reminders, one-time tasks |

Task Instruction Conventions

1. 1. Be explicit with commands — Give the cron agent exact bash commands to run. It doesn't have our context.
2. Include skip conditions — If there's nothing to do, the agent should reply SKIP to avoid wasting tokens.
3. Handle its own output — The job should post results to Telegram (or wherever) using the message tool directly. Don't rely on delivery mode for formatted output.
4. Include error handling — What should happen if a command fails?
5. Keep instructions self-contained — The cron agent wakes up with no context. Everything it needs should be in the task message.

Telegram Posting from Cron Jobs

When a cron job needs to notify us, include these instructions in the task:

CODEBLOCK1

Topic IDs:

• - 1 — Main topic (general updates, alerts)
• INLINECODE16 — Research
• INLINECODE17 — Crypto
• INLINECODE18 — PR updates / dev notifications
• INLINECODE19 — Sticker store
• INLINECODE20 — Activity feed (workspace changes)

Delivery Modes

Mode	When to Use
INLINECODE21	Job posts its own output to Telegram (most common)
INLINECODE22

OpenClaw auto-delivers the agent's final message to a channel. Use when output IS the message (e.g., daily digest). Set "channel": "telegram" and "to": "-1003856094222:TOPIC_ID" |

Anti-Patterns

❌ Don't use Opus for cron jobs unless the task genuinely needs it. Most cron tasks are simple checks.
❌ Don't use heartbeat for things that can be a cron job. Heartbeat runs in the main session (Opus) and costs way more.
❌ Don't create cron jobs that loop/poll — each run should be a single check. If you need polling, use a background exec script instead.
❌ Don't set delivery mode to "announce" and also have the job post to Telegram — you'll get duplicate messages.

Existing Jobs (Reference)

Check current jobs anytime with the cron list tool. As of setup:

• - workspace-activity-feed — Every 30 min, commits workspace changes, posts to activity feed
• INLINECODE27 — Every 30 min, checks for new emails, responds to agents
• INLINECODE28 — Every 15 min, checks on stalled sub-agents
• INLINECODE29 — Hourly, reviews recent sessions for lessons learned
• INLINECODE30 — Daily 4 AM, git commits workspace changes
• INLINECODE31 — Daily 4 AM, checks system resources
• INLINECODE32 — Daily 6 AM, generates news digest
• INLINECODE33 — Weekly Monday 2 PM, agent outreach for sticker store