fix(cron): tolerate malformed legacy jobs

CHANGELOG.md

@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@ Docs: https://docs.openclaw.ai
 ### Fixes
 
 - Google Chat: preserve reply text when a typing indicator message is deleted or can no longer be updated, so media captions and first text chunks are resent instead of silently disappearing. (#71498) Thanks @colin-lgtm.
+- Cron: tolerate malformed legacy job rows in startup, main-session system-event payloads, and human-readable `cron list` output so missing `state`, `payload.text`, or display fields no longer crash the scheduler or CLI. Fixes #66016, #65916, #64137, #57872, #59968, #63813, #52804, and #43163.
 - Heartbeat: clamp oversized scheduler delays through the shared safe timer helper, preventing `every` values over Node's timeout cap from becoming a 1 ms crash loop. Fixes #71414. (#71478) Thanks @hclsys.
 - Control UI/chat: collapse assistant token/model context details behind an explicit Context disclosure and show full dates in message footers, making historical transcript timing clear without noisy default metadata. (#71337) Thanks @BunsDev.
 - OpenAI/Codex OAuth: explain `unsupported_country_region_territory` token-exchange failures with a proxy/region hint instead of surfacing a generic OAuth error. Fixes #51175.

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

@@ -78,6 +78,22 @@ describe("printCronList", () => {
     expect(logs.some((line) => line.includes("isolated"))).toBe(true);
   });
 
+  it("tolerates malformed rows in human-readable output", () => {
+    const { logs, runtime } = createRuntimeLogCapture();
+    const malformedJob = {
+      id: "malformed-job",
+      name: undefined,
+      enabled: true,
+      sessionTarget: undefined,
+      payload: undefined,
+      schedule: undefined,
+      state: undefined,
+    } as unknown as CronJob;
+
+    expect(() => printCronList([malformedJob], runtime)).not.toThrow();
+    expect(logs.some((line) => line.includes("malformed-job"))).toBe(true);
+  });
+
   it("shows stagger label for cron schedules", () => {
     const { logs, runtime } = createRuntimeLogCapture();
     const job = createBaseJob({

src/cli/cron-cli/shared.ts

@@ -156,7 +156,17 @@ const CRON_DELIVERY_PAD = 64;
 const CRON_AGENT_PAD = 10;
 const CRON_MODEL_PAD = 20;
 
-const pad = (value: string, width: number) => value.padEnd(width);
+const stringifyCell = (value: unknown, fallback = "-") => {
+  if (typeof value === "string") {
+    return value;
+  }
+  if (typeof value === "number" || typeof value === "boolean") {
+    return String(value);
+  }
+  return fallback;
+};
+
+const pad = (value: unknown, width: number) => stringifyCell(value).padEnd(width);
 
 const truncate = (value: string, width: number) => {
   if (value.length <= width) {
@@ -200,13 +210,16 @@ const formatRelative = (ms: number | null | undefined, nowMs: number) => {
   return delta >= 0 ? `in ${label}` : `${label} ago`;
 };
 
-const formatSchedule = (schedule: CronSchedule) => {
-  if (schedule.kind === "at") {
+const formatSchedule = (schedule: CronSchedule | undefined) => {
+  if (schedule?.kind === "at") {
     return `at ${formatIsoMinute(schedule.at)}`;
   }
-  if (schedule.kind === "every") {
+  if (schedule?.kind === "every") {
     return `every ${formatDurationHuman(schedule.everyMs)}`;
   }
+  if (schedule?.kind !== "cron") {
+    return "-";
+  }
   const base = schedule.tz ? `cron ${schedule.expr} @ ${schedule.tz}` : `cron ${schedule.expr}`;
   const staggerMs = resolveCronStaggerMs(schedule);
   if (staggerMs <= 0) {
@@ -219,10 +232,11 @@ const formatStatus = (job: CronJob) => {
   if (!job.enabled) {
     return "disabled";
   }
-  if (job.state.runningAtMs) {
+  const state = job.state ?? {};
+  if (state.runningAtMs) {
     return "running";
   }
-  return job.state.lastStatus ?? "idle";
+  return state.lastStatus ?? "idle";
 };
 
 export function coerceCronDeliveryPreviews(value: unknown): Map<string, CronDeliveryPreview> {
@@ -275,17 +289,18 @@ export function printCronList(
   const now = Date.now();
 
   for (const job of jobs) {
+    const state = job.state ?? {};
     const idLabel = pad(job.id, CRON_ID_PAD);
-    const nameLabel = pad(truncate(job.name, CRON_NAME_PAD), CRON_NAME_PAD);
+    const nameLabel = pad(truncate(stringifyCell(job.name), CRON_NAME_PAD), CRON_NAME_PAD);
     const scheduleLabel = pad(
       truncate(formatSchedule(job.schedule), CRON_SCHEDULE_PAD),
       CRON_SCHEDULE_PAD,
     );
     const nextLabel = pad(
-      job.enabled ? formatRelative(job.state.nextRunAtMs, now) : "-",
+      job.enabled ? formatRelative(state.nextRunAtMs, now) : "-",
       CRON_NEXT_PAD,
     );
-    const lastLabel = pad(formatRelative(job.state.lastRunAtMs, now), CRON_LAST_PAD);
+    const lastLabel = pad(formatRelative(state.lastRunAtMs, now), CRON_LAST_PAD);
     const statusRaw = formatStatus(job);
     const statusLabel = pad(statusRaw, CRON_STATUS_PAD);
     const targetLabel = pad(job.sessionTarget ?? "-", CRON_TARGET_PAD);
@@ -297,7 +312,7 @@ export function printCronList(
     const agentLabel = pad(truncate(job.agentId ?? "-", CRON_AGENT_PAD), CRON_AGENT_PAD);
     const modelLabel = pad(
       truncate(
-        (job.payload.kind === "agentTurn" ? job.payload.model : undefined) ?? "-",
+        (job.payload?.kind === "agentTurn" ? job.payload.model : undefined) ?? "-",
         CRON_MODEL_PAD,
       ),
       CRON_MODEL_PAD,
@@ -339,7 +354,7 @@ export function printCronList(
         ? colorize(rich, theme.info, deliveryLabel)
         : colorize(rich, theme.muted, deliveryLabel),
       coloredAgent,
-      job.payload.kind === "agentTurn" && job.payload.model
+      job.payload?.kind === "agentTurn" && job.payload.model
         ? colorize(rich, theme.info, modelLabel)
         : colorize(rich, theme.muted, modelLabel),
     ].join(" ");

src/cron/service.jobs.test.ts

@@ -1,5 +1,10 @@
 import { describe, expect, it } from "vitest";
-import { applyJobPatch, createJob, recomputeNextRuns } from "./service/jobs.js";
+import {
+  applyJobPatch,
+  createJob,
+  recomputeNextRuns,
+  resolveJobPayloadTextForMain,
+} from "./service/jobs.js";
 import type { CronServiceState } from "./service/state.js";
 import { DEFAULT_TOP_OF_HOUR_STAGGER_MS } from "./stagger.js";
 import type { CronJob, CronJobPatch } from "./types.js";
@@ -683,6 +688,20 @@ describe("createJob delivery defaults", () => {
     });
     expect(job.delivery).toBeUndefined();
   });
+
+  it("uses legacy systemEvent message text without throwing", () => {
+    const state = createMockState(now, { defaultAgentId: "main" });
+    const job = createJob(state, {
+      name: "legacy system event",
+      enabled: true,
+      schedule: { kind: "every", everyMs: 60_000 },
+      sessionTarget: "main",
+      wakeMode: "now",
+      payload: { kind: "systemEvent", message: "legacy text" } as never,
+    });
+
+    expect(resolveJobPayloadTextForMain(job)).toBe("legacy text");
+  });
 });
 
 describe("recomputeNextRuns", () => {

src/cron/service/normalize.ts

@@ -63,7 +63,12 @@ export function inferLegacyName(job: {
 
 export function normalizePayloadToSystemText(payload: CronPayload) {
   if (payload.kind === "systemEvent") {
-    return payload.text.trim();
+    const text = (payload as { text?: unknown }).text;
+    if (typeof text === "string") {
+      return text.trim();
+    }
+    const legacyMessage = (payload as { message?: unknown }).message;
+    return typeof legacyMessage === "string" ? legacyMessage.trim() : "";
   }
-  return payload.message.trim();
+  return typeof payload.message === "string" ? payload.message.trim() : "";
 }

src/cron/service/ops.regression.test.ts

@@ -16,7 +16,7 @@ import {
   waitForActiveTasks,
 } from "../../process/command-queue.js";
 import { CommandLane } from "../../process/lanes.js";
-import { enqueueRun, run } from "./ops.js";
+import { enqueueRun, run, start } from "./ops.js";
 import type { CronEvent } from "./state.js";
 import { createCronServiceState } from "./state.js";
 import { onTimer } from "./timer.js";
@@ -27,6 +27,37 @@ const opsRegressionFixtures = setupCronRegressionFixtures({
 });
 
 describe("cron service ops regressions", () => {
+  it("does not crash startup when a loaded job is missing state", async () => {
+    const scheduledAt = Date.now() + 60_000;
+    const store = opsRegressionFixtures.makeStorePath();
+    const state = createCronServiceState({
+      cronEnabled: true,
+      storePath: store.storePath,
+      log: noopLogger,
+      enqueueSystemEvent: vi.fn(),
+      requestHeartbeatNow: vi.fn(),
+      runIsolatedAgentJob: vi.fn(),
+    });
+    state.store = {
+      version: 1,
+      jobs: [
+        {
+          ...createIsolatedRegressionJob({
+            id: "missing-state-startup",
+            name: "missing-state-startup",
+            scheduledAt,
+            schedule: { kind: "at", at: new Date(scheduledAt).toISOString() },
+            payload: { kind: "agentTurn", message: "noop" },
+          }),
+          state: undefined as never,
+        },
+      ],
+    };
+
+    await expect(start(state)).resolves.toBeUndefined();
+    expect(state.store.jobs[0]?.state).toEqual(expect.any(Object));
+  });
+
   it("skips forced manual runs while a timer-triggered run is in progress", async () => {
     const store = opsRegressionFixtures.makeStorePath();
     const dueAt = Date.now() - 1;

src/cron/service/ops.ts

@@ -96,6 +96,7 @@ export async function start(state: CronServiceState) {
     await ensureLoaded(state, { skipRecompute: true });
     const jobs = state.store?.jobs ?? [];
     for (const job of jobs) {
+      job.state ??= {};
       if (typeof job.state.runningAtMs === "number") {
         state.deps.log.warn(
           { jobId: job.id, runningAtMs: job.state.runningAtMs },