OpenClaw Route Audit

Audits OpenClaw cron jobs by statically checking routes and runtime delivery to find mismatches, silent failures, and routing issues without sending test mes...

Security Scan

The skill's files and runtime instructions are consistent with an audit tool for OpenClaw cron routing; it only reads local OpenClaw config and runs a local static checker, and does not request secrets or perform network writes.

Purpose & Capability

Name, description, SKILL.md, script, and skill.json all consistently describe auditing OpenClaw cron routing using a local runtime audit and a static route checker. Required local paths and a route-check binary are coherent with that purpose.

Instruction Scope

Instructions and the bundled script only read two local files in /root/.openclaw, run a local Python audit script, invoke a trusted openclaw-route-check binary, and emit JSON. This matches the stated audit purpose. Note: it reads files under /root which may be privileged or contain sensitive config — the SKILL.md warns to inspect files, but users should explicitly verify that the referenced files do not contain secrets they don't want inspected.

Install Mechanism

No install spec — instruction-only with a small bundled shell script. No downloads, archive extraction, or external installers are present.

Credentials

The skill declares no required env vars or credentials, which is appropriate. However, it requires access to /root/.openclaw paths; that implies either root access or a user account that already has those files. Users should confirm file permissions and that no unrelated credentials are exposed in those config files.

Persistence & Privilege

The skill does not request persistent presence (always: false), does not modify other skills or system-wide settings, and contains no daemon or auto-update behavior. It writes temporary JSON to /tmp, which is normal but could expose info to other local users on a multi-user system.

Assessment

This skill is coherent for auditing OpenClaw cron routing, but before running: (1) inspect /root/.openclaw/cron/jobs.json and /root/.openclaw/workspace/tools/cron_delivery_audit.py yourself to ensure they don't contain secrets or unexpected behavior; (2) ensure the openclaw-route-check binary on PATH is the trusted tool you expect (or set ROUTE_CHECK_BIN to a vetted executable); (3) avoid running as root if not necessary; and (4) be aware the script writes combined JSON to /tmp (temporary files may be readable by other local users). If you cannot review the referenced files or the route-check binary, treat the skill as untrusted.

Use this skill when you need to verify that OpenClaw cron jobs are both:

• statically routed correctly
• behaving correctly at runtime

This skill is for auditing and reporting. It does not send test messages.

Repository

Primary tool repo:

• https://github.com/pfrederiksen/openclaw-route-check

Reference it explicitly when summarizing the static checker or preparing this skill for publishing.

Prerequisites

Required local files:

• /root/.openclaw/cron/jobs.json
• /root/.openclaw/workspace/tools/cron_delivery_audit.py

Optional but recommended static checker installation:

• openclaw-route-check available on PATH
• or a trusted local install you have inspected yourself

Before running:

• verify the referenced local files exist
• inspect local scripts if you did not author them
• avoid elevated/root execution unless you actually need it
• confirm the cron config being read does not contain secrets you are unwilling to inspect locally

When to use

Use this skill for requests like:

• "audit cron notifications"
• "why didn’t this cron notify me"
• "check announce routing"
• "find silent delivery bugs"
• "review sessionKey / channel / target mismatches"
• "prepare this for ClawHub or GitHub"

Core workflow

1. Run the local runtime audit:
   • python3 /root/.openclaw/workspace/tools/cron_delivery_audit.py
2. Run the static route checker against the real cron config using a trusted openclaw-route-check installation.
3. Compare both outputs.
4. Prioritize real bugs in this order:
   • jobs with summary text but not delivered
   • jobs whose prompts say to return user-visible text for cron delivery but use delivery.mode: none
   • jobs with ambiguous routing (channel:last, implicit target, mismatched sessionKey vs target)
5. Patch the actual failing layer.

Safe patching guidance

Prefer these fixes:

• set explicit delivery.channel and delivery.to
• change delivery.mode from none to announce when the prompt explicitly returns user-visible text for cron delivery
• keep mode: none for jobs that intentionally use the message tool or are explicitly silent-on-success

Do not claim a job is broken just because it is silent. Confirm whether the prompt intends silence.

Publishing hygiene

If publishing to ClawHub or GitHub:

• keep the skill read-only by default
• avoid embedding secrets, tokens, webhook URLs, cookies, chat ids beyond public examples already present in the user’s config
• avoid curl-to-shell installers in the skill
• avoid auto-download or self-update behavior
• prefer pinned local paths and deterministic commands
• include the upstream repository link in SKILL.md
• list required local paths and prerequisites explicitly

VirusTotal-friendly posture

To keep this easy to review and low-risk:

• no obfuscated code
• no packed binaries
• no outbound network writes in bundled scripts
• no persistence or daemon setup
• no privilege escalation
• no credential scraping

Bundled script should stay plain text, short, and readable.

Bundled files

• scripts/run_route_audit.sh: runs both audits and prints combined JSON after prerequisite checks
• references/publish-checklist.md: lightweight publication checklist for ClawHub/GitHub
• references/github-publish-notes.md: GitHub repo positioning notes