fix: recover stale cron task records

docs/automation/cron-jobs.md

@@ -51,7 +51,7 @@ Cron is the Gateway's built-in scheduler. It persists jobs, wakes the agent at t
 <a id="maintenance"></a>
 
 <Note>
-Task reconciliation for cron is runtime-owned: an active cron task stays live while the cron runtime still tracks that job as running, even if an old child session row still exists. Once the runtime stops owning the job and the 5-minute grace window expires, maintenance can mark the task `lost`.
+Task reconciliation for cron is runtime-owned first, durable-history-backed second: an active cron task stays live while the cron runtime still tracks that job as running, even if an old child session row still exists. Once the runtime stops owning the job and the 5-minute grace window expires, maintenance checks persisted run logs and job state for the matching `cron:<jobId>:<startedAt>` run. If that durable history shows a terminal result, the task ledger is finalized from it; otherwise Gateway-owned maintenance can mark the task `lost`. Offline CLI audit can recover from durable history, but it does not treat its own empty in-process active-job set as proof that a Gateway-owned cron run is gone.
 </Note>
 
 ## Schedule types

docs/automation/tasks.md

@@ -25,8 +25,12 @@ Not every agent run creates a task. Heartbeat turns and normal interactive chat
 - Tasks are **records**, not schedulers — cron and heartbeat decide _when_ work runs, tasks track _what happened_.
 - ACP, subagents, all cron jobs, and CLI operations create tasks. Heartbeat turns do not.
 - Each task moves through `queued → running → terminal` (succeeded, failed, timed_out, cancelled, or lost).
-- Cron tasks stay live while the cron runtime still owns the job; chat-backed CLI tasks stay live only while their owning run context is still active.
-- Completion is push-driven: detached work can notify directly or wake the requester session/heartbeat when it finishes, so status polling loops are usually the wrong shape.
+- Cron tasks stay live while the cron runtime still owns the job; if the
+  in-memory runtime state is gone, task maintenance first checks durable cron
+  run history before marking a task lost.
+- Completion is push-driven: detached work can notify directly or wake the
+  requester session/heartbeat when it finishes, so status polling loops are
+  usually the wrong shape.
 - Isolated cron runs and subagent completions best-effort clean up tracked browser tabs/processes for their child session before final cleanup bookkeeping.
 - Isolated cron delivery suppresses stale interim parent replies while descendant subagent work is still draining, and it prefers final descendant output when that arrives before delivery.
 - Completion notifications are delivered directly to a channel or queued for the next heartbeat.
@@ -143,8 +147,14 @@ Agent run completion is authoritative for active task records. A successful deta
 
 - ACP tasks: backing ACP child session metadata disappeared.
 - Subagent tasks: backing child session disappeared from the target agent store.
-- Cron tasks: the cron runtime no longer tracks the job as active.
-- CLI tasks: isolated child-session tasks use the child session; chat-backed CLI tasks use the live run context instead, so lingering channel/group/direct session rows do not keep them alive. Gateway-backed `openclaw agent` runs also finalize from their run result, so completed runs do not sit active until the sweeper marks them `lost`.
+- Cron tasks: the cron runtime no longer tracks the job as active and durable
+  cron run history does not show a terminal result for that run. Offline CLI
+  audit does not treat its own empty in-process cron runtime state as authority.
+- CLI tasks: isolated child-session tasks use the child session; chat-backed
+  CLI tasks use the live run context instead, so lingering
+  channel/group/direct session rows do not keep them alive. Gateway-backed
+  `openclaw agent` runs also finalize from their run result, so completed runs
+  do not sit active until the sweeper marks them `lost`.
 
 ## Delivery and notifications
 
@@ -236,7 +246,7 @@ openclaw tasks notify <lookup> state_changes
     Reconciliation is runtime-aware:
 
     - ACP/subagent tasks check their backing child session.
-    - Cron tasks check whether the cron runtime still owns the job.
+    - Cron tasks check whether the cron runtime still owns the job, then recover terminal status from persisted cron run logs/job state before falling back to `lost`. Only the Gateway process is authoritative for the in-memory cron active-job set; offline CLI audit uses durable history but does not mark a cron task lost solely because that local Set is empty.
     - Chat-backed CLI tasks check the owning live run context, not just the chat session row.
 
     Completion cleanup is also runtime-aware:

docs/cli/tasks.md

@@ -84,6 +84,10 @@ openclaw tasks maintenance [--apply] [--json]
 ```
 
 Previews or applies task and Task Flow reconciliation, cleanup stamping, and pruning.
+For cron tasks, reconciliation uses persisted run logs/job state before marking an
+old active task `lost`, so completed cron runs do not become false audit errors
+just because the in-memory Gateway runtime state is gone. Offline CLI audit is
+not authoritative for the Gateway's process-local cron active-job set.
 
 ### `flow`