Cron Management

Manage OpenClaw cron jobs — list, pause, resume, maintenance mode, and health checks.

cron-management — OpenClaw Cron Job Manager

Structured commands for managing cron jobs without raw JSON patches.

Commands

Command	Description
cronctl list	List all jobs with status (✅/❌)
cronctl show <name>	Show detailed info for one job
cronctl pause <name>	Disable a single job
cronctl resume <name>	Re-enable a single job
cronctl pause-all	Disable ALL jobs
cronctl resume-all	Re-enable ALL jobs
cronctl maintenance on	Enable maintenance mode (stops all jobs at runtime)
cronctl maintenance off	Disable maintenance mode
cronctl status	Show health dashboard (recent failures, disabled jobs, overdue)
cronctl health <name>	Show last run status and diagnostics for a job

Maintenance Mode

Emergency stop that works even if OpenClaw is down. Jobs check for /tmp/cron-paused at startup:

bash

if [ -f /tmp/cron-paused ]; then
  echo "Cron paused at $(cat /tmp/cron-paused)" >> /tmp/cron-skipped.log
  exit 0  # or reply NO_REPLY for agentTurn jobs
fi

Toggle: cronctl maintenance on|off

Script

• scripts/cronctl.sh — Main CLI wrapper around openclaw cron

Integration with Job Payloads

To add maintenance mode checks to existing jobs, add this at the top of each cron payload:

For shell-based payloads:

bash

if [ -f /tmp/cron-paused ]; then
  echo "$(date -Iseconds) — $JOB_NAME skipped (maintenance mode)" >> /tmp/cron-skipped.log
  exit 0
fi

For agentTurn payloads (OpenClaw): Add to the beginning of the message text:

text

If /tmp/cron-paused exists, reply NO_REPLY and exit.

For Python scripts:

python

import os
import sys
from datetime import datetime

PAUSE_FILE = "/tmp/cron-paused"
SKIP_LOG = "/tmp/cron-skipped.log"

def check_maintenance_mode():
    if os.path.exists(PAUSE_FILE):
        with open(SKIP_LOG, "a") as f:
            f.write(f"{datetime.now().isoformat()} — {sys.argv[0]} skipped (maintenance mode)\n")
        sys.exit(0)

check_maintenance_mode()

For Node.js scripts:

javascript

const fs = require('fs');
const path = require('path');

const PAUSE_FILE = '/tmp/cron-paused';
const SKIP_LOG = '/tmp/cron-skipped.log';

function checkMaintenanceMode() {
  if (fs.existsSync(PAUSE_FILE)) {
    const entry = `${new Date().toISOString()} — ${path.basename(process.argv[1])} skipped (maintenance mode)\n`;
    fs.appendFileSync(SKIP_LOG, entry);
    process.exit(0);
  }
}

checkMaintenanceMode();

Rollout Strategy

1. New jobs: Include maintenance check from the start
2. Existing jobs: Update incrementally, starting with most frequent (every 30 min, hourly)
3. Verification: Enable maintenance mode, wait for next trigger, check /tmp/cron-skipped.log

Health Dashboard

cronctl status shows:

• Total jobs, enabled/disabled counts
• Jobs that failed in last 24h (consecutiveErrors > 0)
• Jobs disabled but not in maintenance mode (unexpected state)
• Jobs whose last run was >2x their interval (overdue)

Examples

bash

# Quick status overview
cronctl status

# Pause just the blog writer for debugging
cronctl pause cloudy-blog-writer

# Emergency stop everything
cronctl maintenance on

# Resume everything after fix
cronctl maintenance off
cronctl resume-all

# Check why a job keeps failing
cronctl health graph-memory-queue-sync

Implementation Details

See memory-bank/implementation-details/cron-management.md for:

• Architecture (two-layer design)
• Rollout strategy
• Error handling
• State files and security
• Future enhancements