Cron Job Setup

Our conventions for creating cron jobs in OpenClaw.

Default Settings

Setting	Default	Why
Model	anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-5	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

{
  "name": "descriptive-kebab-case-name",
  "schedule": {
    "kind": "cron",
    "expr": "*/30 * * * *",
    "tz": "America/New_York"
  },
  "sessionTarget": "isolated",
  "payload": {
    "kind": "agentTurn",
    "message": "TASK INSTRUCTIONS HERE",
    "model": "openrouter/deepseek/deepseek-v3.2",
    "timeoutSeconds": 120
  },
  "delivery": {
    "mode": "none"
  }
}

Schedule Patterns

Pattern	Cron Expression	Notes
Every 30 min	*/30 * * * *	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. 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:

Post to Telegram using the message tool:
- action: send
- channel: telegram
- target: -1003856094222
- threadId: TOPIC_ID
- message: Your formatted message

Topic IDs:

• 1 — Main topic (general updates, alerts)
• 573 — Research
• 1032 — Crypto
• 1488 — PR updates / dev notifications
• 1869 — Sticker store
• 3188 — Activity feed (workspace changes)

Delivery Modes

Mode	When to Use
"mode": "none"	Job posts its own output to Telegram (most common)
"mode": "announce"	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
• agentmail-inbox-check — Every 30 min, checks for new emails, responds to agents
• sub-agent-monitor — Every 15 min, checks on stalled sub-agents
• self-reflection — Hourly, reviews recent sessions for lessons learned
• daily-workspace-commit — Daily 4 AM, git commits workspace changes
• system-watchdog — Daily 4 AM, checks system resources
• OpenClaw Daily News Digest — Daily 6 AM, generates news digest
• sticker-sales-loop — Weekly Monday 2 PM, agent outreach for sticker store