Cron & Scheduling - Task Automation

OpenClaw tích hợp cron scheduler để chạy recurring tasks tự động.

Quick Start

Example: Daily Morning Report

{
  "tool": "cron",
  "schedule": "0 9 * * *",  // 9:00 AM daily
  "task": {
    "tool": "message",
    "target": "me",
    "message": "Good morning! Here's your daily summary."
  }
}

Result: Mỗi sáng 9h, bạn nhận message

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Cron Syntax

Format

┌───────────── minute (0-59)
│ ┌─────────── hour (0-23)
│ │ ┌───────── day of month (1-31)
│ │ │ ┌─────── month (1-12)
│ │ │ │ ┌───── day of week (0-6) (Sunday=0)
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
* * * * *

Common Patterns

Schedule	Meaning	Cron Expression
Every minute	Test/debug	* * * * *
Every 5 minutes	Frequent checks	*/5 * * * *
Every hour	Hourly reports	0 * * * *
Every day at 9am	Daily morning	0 9 * * *
Every Monday 9am	Weekly meeting	0 9 * * 1
First day of month	Monthly report	0 0 1 * *
Weekdays at 8am	Work days only	0 8 * * 1-5
Every 15 min (work hours)	During 9-5	*/15 9-17 * * 1-5

Interactive Cron Builder

Online tools:

• https://crontab.guru
• https://crontab-generator.org

---

Configuration

Global Cron Config

~/.openclaw/openclaw.json:

{
  "cron": {
    "enabled": true,
    "timezone": "Asia/Ho_Chi_Minh",  // Vietnam time
    "maxConcurrent": 5,  // Max parallel jobs
    "jobs": [
      {
        "id": "morning-report",
        "schedule": "0 9 * * *",
        "task": {...}
      }
    ]
  }
}

---

Per-Job Configuration

{
  "id": "backup-daily",
  "schedule": "0 2 * * *",  // 2am daily
  "enabled": true,
  "timezone": "Asia/Ho_Chi_Minh",
  "retries": 3,
  "timeout": 300000,  // 5 minutes
  "onError": {
    "notify": "telegram",
    "continue": true  // Don't stop on failure
  },
  "task": {
    "tool": "exec",
    "command": "tar -czf /backup/daily.tar.gz /data"
  }
}

---

Real-World Use Cases

1. Daily Backup

{
  "id": "backup",
  "schedule": "0 2 * * *",  // 2am daily
  "task": {
    "tool": "exec",
    "command": "tar -czf /backup/$(date +%Y%m%d).tar.gz /data",
    "background": true
  },
  "onSuccess": {
    "tool": "message",
    "target": "admin",
    "message": "✅ Backup completed: /backup/{{date}}.tar.gz"
  }
}

---

2. Website Monitoring

{
  "id": "uptime-check",
  "schedule": "*/5 * * * *",  // Every 5 minutes
  "task": {
    "tool": "web_fetch",
    "url": "https://mysite.com/health"
  },
  "onError": {
    "tool": "message",
    "channel": "telegram",
    "target": "@admin",
    "message": "🚨 Site down! Check immediately."
  }
}

---

3. Price Tracking

{
  "id": "price-monitor",
  "schedule": "0 */4 * * *",  // Every 4 hours
  "task": [
    {
      "tool": "browser",
      "action": "navigate",
      "url": "https://shop.com/product/123"
    },
    {
      "tool": "browser",
      "action": "evaluate",
      "script": "document.querySelector('.price').textContent"
    }
  ],
  "onSuccess": {
    "tool": "write_file",
    "path": "/data/prices.log",
    "content": "{{timestamp}}: {{result}}",
    "mode": "append"
  }
}

Result: Price history logged every 4 hours

---

4. Social Media Posting

{
  "id": "daily-quote",
  "schedule": "0 8 * * *",  // 8am daily
  "task": {
    "tool": "message",
    "channel": "telegram",
    "target": "@mypublicchannel",
    "message": "Quote of the day: {{randomQuote}}"
  }
}

---

5. Database Cleanup

{
  "id": "cleanup-old-logs",
  "schedule": "0 3 * * 0",  // Sunday 3am
  "task": {
    "tool": "exec",
    "command": "find /logs -type f -mtime +30 -delete"
  }
}

Deletes logs older than 30 days

---

6. Report Generation

{
  "id": "weekly-report",
  "schedule": "0 9 * * 1",  // Monday 9am
  "task": [
    {
      "tool": "exec",
      "command": "python3 /scripts/generate_report.py"
    },
    {
      "tool": "message",
      "channel": "slack",
      "target": "#team",
      "message": "Weekly report ready!",
      "media": ["/reports/weekly.pdf"]
    }
  ]
}

---

7. Health Checks

{
  "id": "gateway-health",
  "schedule": "*/10 * * * *",  // Every 10 minutes
  "task": {
    "tool": "gateway",
    "action": "health"
  },
  "onError": {
    "tool": "gateway",
    "action": "restart"
  }
}

Auto-restart if unhealthy

---

Advanced Features

Chained Tasks

Run multiple tasks sequentially:

{
  "schedule": "0 9 * * *",
  "task": [
    { tool: "exec", command: "git pull" },
    { tool: "exec", command: "npm install" },
    { tool: "exec", command: "npm run build" },
    { tool: "exec", command: "pm2 restart app" },
    {
      tool: "message",
      target: "me",
      message: "✅ Deployed latest version"
    }
  ]
}

Stops on first failure unless continueOnError: true

---

Conditional Execution

{
  "schedule": "0 * * * *",
  "condition": {
    "tool": "exec",
    "command": "test -f /tmp/trigger"
  },
  "task": {
    "tool": "message",
    "target": "me",
    "message": "Trigger file found!"
  }
}

Only runs if condition passes

---

Dynamic Scheduling

Pause/resume jobs:

# Pause job
openclaw cron pause morning-report

# Resume
openclaw cron resume morning-report

# List all jobs
openclaw cron list

# Trigger manually
openclaw cron run morning-report

---

Variables & Templates

{
  "schedule": "0 9 * * *",
  "task": {
    "tool": "message",
    "target": "me",
    "message": "Good morning! Today is {{date}} {{time}}"
  }
}

Available variables:

• {{date}}: 2026-01-30
• {{time}}: 09:00:15
• {{timestamp}}: Unix timestamp
• {{weekday}}: Monday
• {{result}}: Previous task result

---

Management

CLI Commands

# List all cron jobs
openclaw cron list

# Show job details
openclaw cron show morning-report

# Run job now (manual trigger)
openclaw cron run morning-report

# Enable/disable
openclaw cron enable morning-report
openclaw cron disable morning-report

# Delete job
openclaw cron delete morning-report

# View logs
openclaw cron logs morning-report --tail 50

---

Dashboard UI

Open http://localhost:18789/cron

Features:

• Visual job list
• Next run times
• Execution history
• Manual triggers
• Enable/disable toggles
• Live logs

---

Monitoring

Execution History

# View recent runs
openclaw cron history morning-report

# Example output:
# 2026-01-30 09:00:00 | ✅ Success | 1.2s
# 2026-01-29 09:00:00 | ✅ Success | 0.9s
# 2026-01-28 09:00:00 | ❌ Failed | Error: timeout

---

Notifications

Alert on failures:

{
  "cron": {
    "notifications": {
      "enabled": true,
      "channel": "telegram",
      "target": "@admin",
      "onFailure": true,
      "onSuccess": false  // Only alert failures
    }
  }
}

---

Health Checks

# Check cron daemon status
openclaw cron status

# Output:
# ✅ Cron scheduler: Running
# ⏰ Active jobs: 5
# ⏭️  Next run: morning-report in 2h 15m
# 📊 Success rate: 98.5%

---

Best Practices

1. Use Specific Timezones

{
  "timezone": "Asia/Ho_Chi_Minh",  // Not "UTC+7"
  "schedule": "0 9 * * *"
}

Why: Handles DST correctly

---

2. Set Timeouts

{
  "timeout": 300000,  // 5 minutes
  "task": {...}
}

Prevents hung jobs

---

3. Retry Failed Jobs

{
  "retries": 3,
  "retryDelay": 60000,  // 1 minute between retries
  "task": {...}
}

---

4. Log Everything

{
  "task": {
    "tool": "exec",
    "command": "backup.sh"
  },
  "onSuccess": {
    "tool": "write_file",
    "path": "/logs/backup.log",
    "content": "{{timestamp}}: Backup successful\n",
    "mode": "append"
  },
  "onError": {
    "tool": "write_file",
    "path": "/logs/backup.log",
    "content": "{{timestamp}}: FAILED - {{error}}\n",
    "mode": "append"
  }
}

---

5. Avoid Overlaps

{
  "schedule": "*/5 * * * *",
  "concurrent": false,  // Don't run if previous still running
  "task": {...}
}

---

6. Test Before Scheduling

# Test cron expression
openclaw cron validate "0 9 * * *"
# Output: Every day at 09:00
#         Next 5 runs:
#         - 2026-01-30 09:00:00
#         - 2026-01-31 09:00:00
#         - 2026-02-01 09:00:00

# Run job manually first
openclaw cron run test-job --dry-run

---

Security

1. Limit Permissions

{
  "agents": {
    "list": [
      {
        "id": "cron-agent",
        "tools": {
          "allowed": ["exec", "message", "write_file"],
          "denied": ["browser", "gateway"]
        }
      }
    ]
  }
}

---

2. Sandbox Cron Tasks

{
  "cron": {
    "sandbox": {
      "enabled": true,
      "workspace": "/cron-workspace"
    }
  }
}

---

3. Audit Logs

# Review what cron jobs did
openclaw audit --filter cron --since "1 week ago"

---

Troubleshooting

Job Not Running

Check:

# Is cron enabled?
openclaw config get cron.enabled

# Is job enabled?
openclaw cron show job-id | grep enabled

# Timezone correct?
openclaw config get cron.timezone

# Schedule valid?
openclaw cron validate "0 9 * * *"

---

Job Failing

# Check logs
openclaw cron logs job-id --tail 50

# Test manually
openclaw cron run job-id --verbose

# Check timeout
openclaw cron show job-id | grep timeout

---

Jobs Overlapping

Solution: Set concurrent: false

{
  "concurrent": false,
  "schedule": "*/5 * * * *"
}

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Examples Repository

Full examples tại: https://github.com/openclaw-vn/cron-examples

Categories:

• Backups & Archiving
• Monitoring & Alerts
• Content Publishing
• Data Sync
• Cleanup & Maintenance
• Reports & Analytics

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Resources

• Crontab Guru - Interactive cron builder
• Tools Overview
• Exec Security

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Questions? Discord #automation