open-claw-team/.openclaw/workspace/skills/cron-scheduling/SKILL.md

name, description

name	description
cron-scheduling	Schedule automated tasks with cron expressions or intervals using OpenClaw's cron system

When to use

Use when the user asks to:

• Run periodic checks (every hour, daily, weekly)
• Schedule one-time future tasks
• Automate recurring reports or backups
• Set up monitoring alerts
• Create time-based triggers

Cron Basics

OpenClaw uses standard cron expressions:

* * * * *
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ └── Day of week (0-7, 0= Sunday)
│ │ │ └──── Month (1-12)
│ │ └────── Day of month (1-31)
│ └──────── Hour (0-23)
└────────── Minute (0-59)

Examples:

• 0 * * * * — every hour at minute 0
• 30 3 * * * — daily at 3:30 AM
• 0 9 * * 1 — every Monday at 9:00 AM
• */15 * * * * — every 15 minutes

Workflow

1. Create a scheduled job

cron add \
  --name "daily-backup" \
  --schedule "0 2 * * *" \
  --task "clawteam task create backup 'Database backup' -o backup-agent"

2. List scheduled jobs

cron list
cron list --include-disabled true

3. Manage jobs

# Disable (keep config)
cron update --job-id <id> --enabled false

# Enable
cron update --job-id <id> --enabled true

# Remove
cron remove --job-id <id>

4. Run manually (for testing)

cron run --job-id <id>

5. View job history

cron runs --job-id <id> --limit 10

Job Configuration Options

Flag	Description	Example
--name	Human-readable name	"Health check"
--schedule	Cron expression	"*/5 * * * *"
--task	Command to execute	"oh -p 'Check system'"
--timezone	IANA timezone	"Asia/Ho_Chi_Minh"
--enabled	Start enabled/disabled	true/false

Advanced Scheduling

Interval-based (every N minutes/hours)

cron add \
  --name "ping-every-10m" \
  --schedule-kind every \
  --every-ms 600000 \
  --task "oh -p 'Ping service'"

One-time future run

cron add \
  --name "deploy-at-noon" \
  --schedule-kind at \
  --at "2026-04-09T12:00:00Z" \
  --task "oh -p 'Deploy v2'"

Random jitter (avoid thundering herd)

cron add \
  --schedule-kind cron \
  --expr "*/10 * * * *" \
  --stagger-ms 120000  # ±2 min random

Task Payloads

Simple command

--task "oh -p 'Check logs'"

With context

--task "oh -p 'Check logs' --contextMessages 5"

Agent turn (new conversation)

--task '{"kind":"agentTurn","message":"Check system health"}'

System event (inject into main session)

--task '{"kind":"systemEvent","text":"/healthcheck"}'

Best Practices

• Descriptive names: "daily-backup" not "job1"
• Error alerts: Configure cron failure alerts (--failure-alert)
• Logging: Ensure tasks have --verbose or logging enabled
• Test manually: cron run before relying on schedule
• Avoid overlap: Ensure tasks finish before next run (use --timeout)

Examples

Daily health check at 2 AM: ```bash cron add \ --name "nightly-health" \ --schedule "0 2 * * *" \ --timezone "Asia/Ho_Chi_Minh" \ --task "oh -p 'Run full healthcheck' --output-format json" \ --failure-alert '{"channel":"alerts","to":"#devops"}' ``` Running backup every minute without timeout — can overlap and cause issues.

Monitoring

Check cron status:

cron status

View recent runs:

cron runs --limit 20

Failed runs trigger alerts if configured.

Verification Checklist

• Cron expression is correct (use crontab.guru to verify)
• Task command works manually (cron run)
• Timezone is set correctly
• Failure alerts configured for critical jobs
• Overlap is prevented (task duration < interval)
• Job history shows successful runs