fix: parse PowerShell cron tools allow-list (#68858) (thanks @chen-zhang-cs-code)

* fix(cron): parse PowerShell tools allow list

* fix(cron): clarify tools allow-list help

* fix: parse PowerShell cron tools allow-list (#68858) (thanks @chen-zhang-cs-code)

---------

Co-authored-by: Ayaan Zaidi <hi@obviy.us>

CHANGELOG.md

@@ -10,6 +10,7 @@ Docs: https://docs.openclaw.ai
 
 - Control UI/cron: keep the runtime-only `last` delivery sentinel from being materialized into persisted cron delivery and failure-alert channel configs when jobs are created or edited. (#68829) Thanks @tianhaocui.
 - OpenAI/Responses: strip orphaned reasoning blocks before outbound Responses API calls so compacted or restored histories no longer fail on standalone reasoning items. (#55787) Thanks @suboss87.
+- Cron/CLI: parse PowerShell-style `--tools` allow-lists the same way as comma-separated input, so `cron add` and `cron edit` no longer persist `exec read write` as one combined tool entry on Windows. (#68858) Thanks @chen-zhang-cs-code.
 
 ## 2026.4.19-beta.2
 

src/cli/cron-cli.test.ts

@@ -60,6 +60,7 @@ type CronUpdatePatch = {
       model?: string;
       thinking?: string;
       lightContext?: boolean;
+      toolsAllow?: string[];
     };
     delivery?: {
       mode?: string;
@@ -73,7 +74,12 @@ type CronUpdatePatch = {
 
 type CronAddParams = {
   schedule?: { kind?: string; staggerMs?: number };
-  payload?: { model?: string; thinking?: string; lightContext?: boolean };
+  payload?: {
+    model?: string;
+    thinking?: string;
+    lightContext?: boolean;
+    toolsAllow?: string[];
+  };
   delivery?: { mode?: string; accountId?: string };
   deleteAfterRun?: boolean;
   agentId?: string;
@@ -418,6 +424,23 @@ describe("cron cli", () => {
     expect(params?.payload?.lightContext).toBe(true);
   });
 
+  it("splits PowerShell-style space-separated --tools on cron add", async () => {
+    const params = await runCronAddAndGetParams([
+      "--name",
+      "Tools",
+      "--cron",
+      "* * * * *",
+      "--session",
+      "isolated",
+      "--message",
+      "hello",
+      "--tools",
+      "exec read write",
+    ]);
+
+    expect(params?.payload?.toolsAllow).toEqual(["exec", "read", "write"]);
+  });
+
   it.each([
     {
       label: "omits empty model and thinking",
@@ -437,6 +460,17 @@ describe("cron cli", () => {
     expect(patch?.patch?.payload?.thinking).toBe(expectedThinking);
   });
 
+  it("splits PowerShell-style space-separated --tools on cron edit", async () => {
+    const patch = await runCronEditAndGetPatch([
+      "--message",
+      "hello",
+      "--tools",
+      "exec read write",
+    ]);
+
+    expect(patch?.patch?.payload?.toolsAllow).toEqual(["exec", "read", "write"]);
+  });
+
   it("sets and clears agent id on cron edit", async () => {
     await runCronCommand(["cron", "edit", "job-1", "--agent", " Ops ", "--message", "hello"]);
 

src/cli/cron-cli/register.cron-add.ts

@@ -13,6 +13,7 @@ import { resolveCronCreateSchedule } from "./schedule-options.js";
 import {
   getCronChannelOptions,
   handleCronCliError,
+  parseCronToolsAllow,
   printCronJson,
   printCronList,
   warnIfCronSchedulerDisabled,
@@ -93,7 +94,7 @@ export function registerCronAddCommand(cron: Command) {
       .option("--model <model>", "Model override for agent jobs (provider/model or alias)")
       .option("--timeout-seconds <n>", "Timeout seconds for agent jobs")
       .option("--light-context", "Use lightweight bootstrap context for agent jobs", false)
-      .option("--tools <csv>", "Comma-separated tool allow-list (e.g. exec,read,write)")
+      .option("--tools <list>", "Tool allow-list (e.g. exec,read,write or exec read write)")
       .option("--announce", "Announce summary to a chat (subagent-style)", false)
       .option("--deliver", "Deprecated (use --announce). Announces a summary to a chat.")
       .option("--no-deliver", "Disable announce delivery and skip main-session summary")
@@ -150,13 +151,7 @@ export function registerCronAddCommand(cron: Command) {
               timeoutSeconds:
                 timeoutSeconds && Number.isFinite(timeoutSeconds) ? timeoutSeconds : undefined,
               lightContext: opts.lightContext === true ? true : undefined,
-              toolsAllow:
-                typeof opts.tools === "string" && opts.tools.trim()
-                  ? opts.tools
-                      .split(",")
-                      .map((t: string) => normalizeOptionalString(t))
-                      .filter((t): t is string => Boolean(t))
-                  : undefined,
+              toolsAllow: parseCronToolsAllow(opts.tools),
             };
           })();
 

src/cli/cron-cli/register.cron-edit.ts

@@ -12,7 +12,12 @@ import {
   applyExistingCronSchedulePatch,
   resolveCronEditScheduleRequest,
 } from "./schedule-options.js";
-import { getCronChannelOptions, parseDurationMs, warnIfCronSchedulerDisabled } from "./shared.js";
+import {
+  getCronChannelOptions,
+  parseCronToolsAllow,
+  parseDurationMs,
+  warnIfCronSchedulerDisabled,
+} from "./shared.js";
 
 const assignIf = (
   target: Record<string, unknown>,
@@ -59,7 +64,7 @@ export function registerCronEditCommand(cron: Command) {
       .option("--timeout-seconds <n>", "Timeout seconds for agent jobs")
       .option("--light-context", "Enable lightweight bootstrap context for agent jobs")
       .option("--no-light-context", "Disable lightweight bootstrap context for agent jobs")
-      .option("--tools <csv>", "Comma-separated tool allow-list (e.g. exec,read,write)")
+      .option("--tools <list>", "Tool allow-list (e.g. exec,read,write or exec read write)")
       .option("--clear-tools", "Remove tool allow-list (use all tools)", false)
       .option("--announce", "Announce summary to a chat (subagent-style)")
       .option("--deliver", "Deprecated (use --announce). Announces a summary to a chat.")
@@ -175,6 +180,7 @@ export function registerCronEditCommand(cron: Command) {
           const hasSystemEventPatch = typeof opts.systemEvent === "string";
           const model = normalizeOptionalString(opts.model);
           const thinking = normalizeOptionalString(opts.thinking);
+          const toolsAllow = parseCronToolsAllow(opts.tools);
           const timeoutSeconds = opts.timeoutSeconds
             ? Number.parseInt(String(opts.timeoutSeconds), 10)
             : undefined;
@@ -190,6 +196,7 @@ export function registerCronEditCommand(cron: Command) {
             hasTimeoutSeconds ||
             typeof opts.lightContext === "boolean" ||
             typeof opts.tools === "string" ||
+            Array.isArray(opts.tools) ||
             opts.clearTools ||
             hasDeliveryModeFlag ||
             hasDeliveryTarget ||
@@ -217,11 +224,8 @@ export function registerCronEditCommand(cron: Command) {
             );
             if (opts.clearTools) {
               payload.toolsAllow = null;
-            } else if (typeof opts.tools === "string" && opts.tools.trim()) {
-              payload.toolsAllow = opts.tools
-                .split(",")
-                .map((t: string) => t.trim())
-                .filter(Boolean);
+            } else if (toolsAllow) {
+              payload.toolsAllow = toolsAllow;
             }
             patch.payload = payload;
           }

src/cli/cron-cli/shared.test.ts

@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 import { beforeEach, describe, expect, it, vi } from "vitest";
 import type { CronJob } from "../../cron/types.js";
 import type { RuntimeEnv } from "../../runtime.js";
-import { getCronChannelOptions, printCronList } from "./shared.js";
+import { getCronChannelOptions, parseCronToolsAllow, printCronList } from "./shared.js";
 
 const hoisted = vi.hoisted(() => ({
   listChannelPluginsMock: vi.fn(),
@@ -192,3 +192,19 @@ describe("getCronChannelOptions", () => {
     expect(getCronChannelOptions()).toBe("last|telegram|signal");
   });
 });
+
+describe("parseCronToolsAllow", () => {
+  it.each([
+    { input: "exec,read,write", expected: ["exec", "read", "write"] },
+    { input: "exec, read, write", expected: ["exec", "read", "write"] },
+    { input: "exec read write", expected: ["exec", "read", "write"] },
+    { input: " exec  read,write ", expected: ["exec", "read", "write"] },
+    { input: ["exec", "read", "write"], expected: ["exec", "read", "write"] },
+  ])("parses $input", ({ input, expected }) => {
+    expect(parseCronToolsAllow(input)).toEqual(expected);
+  });
+
+  it("returns undefined for empty input", () => {
+    expect(parseCronToolsAllow(" ,  ")).toBeUndefined();
+  });
+});

src/cli/cron-cli/shared.ts

@@ -9,7 +9,10 @@ import {
   parseOffsetlessIsoDateTimeInTimeZone,
 } from "../../infra/format-time/parse-offsetless-zoned-datetime.js";
 import { defaultRuntime, type RuntimeEnv } from "../../runtime.js";
-import { normalizeLowercaseStringOrEmpty } from "../../shared/string-coerce.js";
+import {
+  normalizeLowercaseStringOrEmpty,
+  normalizeOptionalString,
+} from "../../shared/string-coerce.js";
 import { colorize, isRich, theme } from "../../terminal/theme.js";
 import type { GatewayRpcOpts } from "../gateway-rpc.js";
 import { callGatewayFromCli } from "../gateway-rpc.js";
@@ -99,6 +102,19 @@ export function parseCronStaggerMs(params: {
   return parsed;
 }
 
+export function parseCronToolsAllow(input: unknown): string[] | undefined {
+  const raw = Array.isArray(input)
+    ? input.map((value) => String(value)).join(" ")
+    : typeof input === "string"
+      ? input
+      : "";
+  const tools = raw
+    .split(/[,\s]+/u)
+    .map((tool) => normalizeOptionalString(tool))
+    .filter((tool): tool is string => Boolean(tool));
+  return tools.length > 0 ? tools : undefined;
+}
+
 /**
  * Parse a one-shot `--at` value into an ISO string (UTC).
  *