Cron To Session Transcript

Isolated crons, scripts, reminders, and status checkers sent it but the agent forgot? Write deliveries into the session transcript.

Command crons and scripts can send messages that users see, while the owning agent never records them. Cron To Session Transcript closes that gap.

Use it when a deterministic --command cron, dispatcher, reminder script, or status checker calls openclaw message send and the agent should remember that delivery in its own session history.

All commands:

bash

bash "{baseDir}/scripts/send-to-transcript.sh" <flags>

The Problem

openclaw message send reaches the chat, but it bypasses the agent run loop. That means no assistant row is appended to the agent's session transcript. On a later turn, the agent has no durable record that the cron/script sent anything.

Agent replies and agentTurn crons already go through OpenClaw's delivery layer and are recorded normally. This skill is only for direct command/script sends.

What It Does

1. Sends the message exactly as before with openclaw message send ... --json.
2. Resolves the owning agent's current sessionFile from agents/<agent>/sessions/sessions.json.
3. Appends one transcript-only assistant row containing the delivered text, chained to the previous row with parentId.
4. Optionally skips duplicate retries with --idem <key>.

The row intentionally uses OpenClaw's internal delivery marker: provider: "openclaw", model: "delivery-mirror", zeroed usage, and openclawDeliveryMirror: {kind:"channel-final"}. Keep that internal model string unchanged: OpenClaw core recognizes transcript-only delivery rows by it.

Appending is best-effort. If the send succeeds but the transcript cannot be resolved, the helper exits 0 with a warning so the real user-facing delivery is not failed by a memory append problem.

Permissions & Write Scope

This skill performs local filesystem writes and runs the openclaw CLI:

• Reads <openclaw-home>/agents/<agent>/sessions/sessions.json.
• Appends one JSONL row to the matched session transcript.
• Writes idempotency state and logs under <openclaw-home>/cron-to-transcript/.
• Uses an advisory <sessionFile>.transcript.lock while appending.
• Executes openclaw message send.

It does not run any model, make network calls of its own, edit existing transcript records, delete data, or read ambient environment variables for message data. Inputs are passed to the embedded Python as positional argv.

Use --openclaw-home to confine paths for tests.

Usage

bash

scripts/send-to-transcript.sh \
  --agent ula \
  --account ula \
  --to -1003971971641 \
  --thread-id 131 \
  --source agenda-dispatch \
  --idem "agenda:131:$(date +%F):morning" \
  --message "$MSG"

Message input can be --message "...", --message-file PATH, or --message-file - for stdin.

In a Command Cron

Replace a bare send:

bash

openclaw message send --channel telegram -t "$CHAT" --thread-id "$TOPIC" -m "$MSG"

with:

bash

bash ~/.openclaw/skills/cron-to-transcript/scripts/send-to-transcript.sh \
  --agent ula --account ula \
  --to "$CHAT" --thread-id "$TOPIC" \
  --source agenda-dispatch \
  --message "$MSG"

Flags

flag	meaning
--message / --message-file	message text (file or - for stdin)
--to	channel target, for example Telegram chat id
--agent	agent id that owns the transcript
--account	channel account id for send (default: --agent)
--channel	channel (default telegram)
--thread-id	Telegram forum topic id
--session-key	explicit session key (else auto-resolved)
--source	label recorded in helper logs
--idem	idempotency key; skip if already handled
--openclaw-home	OpenClaw home (default $OPENCLAW_HOME or ~/.openclaw)
--openclaw-bin	openclaw binary (default openclaw on PATH)
--dry-run	print the plan, do nothing
--no-send	append only (testing)
--no-transcript	send only

Compatibility alias: --no-mirror is accepted and behaves like --no-transcript.

Exit Codes

code	meaning
0	delivered; transcript append succeeded or was skipped best-effort
2	bad usage / missing required args
3	idempotency key already handled
4	send failed; nothing appended

Session Resolution

The helper finds the transcript by explicit --session-key, then by auto-constructed keys:

• agent:<agent>:<channel>:group:<to>:topic:<thread>
• agent:<agent>:<channel>:group:<to>
• agent:<agent>:<channel>:direct:<to>

If no key matches, it scans sessions.json for a matching delivery target and thread id. It appends to the entry's sessionFile, so compaction rotation is followed automatically.

Caveats

• The transcript row is reproduced from bash because no CLI exposes core's internal append function. Re-verify after major OpenClaw upgrades.
• Appends are serialized with flock, but the gateway does not take that lock. Dispatcher-style schedules where the target agent is idle are the intended use case.
• Message text is stored verbatim. Treat the cron/script as the trust source.

Test

bash

scripts/send-to-transcript.sh --dry-run --agent X --to <chat> --thread-id <t> --message "hi"
scripts/send-to-transcript.sh --no-send --agent X --to <chat> --thread-id <t> --message "hi"