fix: don't bleed top-level interval/prompt into heartbeat task parsing (#64488)

Merged via squash.

Prepared head SHA: c0cd0fc823
Co-authored-by: Rahulkumar070 <151990777+Rahulkumar070@users.noreply.github.com>
Co-authored-by: jalehman <550978+jalehman@users.noreply.github.com>
Reviewed-by: @jalehman

CHANGELOG.md

@@ -148,7 +148,7 @@ Docs: https://docs.openclaw.ai
 - Daemon/launchd: keep `openclaw gateway stop` persistent without uninstalling the macOS LaunchAgent, re-enable it on explicit restart or repair, and harden launchd label handling. (#64447) Thanks @ngutman.
 - Agents/Slack: preserve threaded announce delivery when `sessions.list` rows lack stored thread metadata by falling back to the thread id encoded in the session key. (#63143) Thanks @mariosousa-finn.
 - Plugins/context engines: preserve `plugins.slots.contextEngine` through normalization and keep explicitly selected workspace context-engine plugins enabled, so loader diagnostics and plugin activation stop dropping that slot selection. (#64192) Thanks @hclsys.
-
+- Heartbeat: stop top-level `interval:` and `prompt:` fields outside the `tasks:` block from bleeding into the last parsed heartbeat task. (#64488) Thanks @Rahulkumar070.
 ## 2026.4.9
 
 ### Changes

src/auto-reply/heartbeat.test.ts

@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@ import { describe, expect, it } from "vitest";
 import {
   DEFAULT_HEARTBEAT_ACK_MAX_CHARS,
   isHeartbeatContentEffectivelyEmpty,
+  parseHeartbeatTasks,
   stripHeartbeatToken,
 } from "./heartbeat.js";
 import { HEARTBEAT_TOKEN } from "./tokens.js";
@@ -109,7 +110,6 @@ describe("stripHeartbeatToken", () => {
   });
 
   it("strips trailing punctuation only when directly after the token", () => {
-    // Token with trailing dot/exclamation/dashes → should still strip
     expect(stripHeartbeatToken(`${HEARTBEAT_TOKEN}.`, { mode: "heartbeat" })).toEqual({
       shouldSkip: true,
       text: "",
@@ -128,7 +128,6 @@ describe("stripHeartbeatToken", () => {
   });
 
   it("strips a sentence-ending token and keeps trailing punctuation", () => {
-    // Token appears at sentence end with trailing punctuation.
     expect(
       stripHeartbeatToken(`I should not respond ${HEARTBEAT_TOKEN}.`, {
         mode: "message",
@@ -156,7 +155,6 @@ describe("stripHeartbeatToken", () => {
   });
 
   it("preserves trailing punctuation on text before the token", () => {
-    // Token at end, preceding text has its own punctuation — only the token is stripped
     expect(stripHeartbeatToken(`All clear. ${HEARTBEAT_TOKEN}`, { mode: "message" })).toEqual({
       shouldSkip: false,
       text: "All clear.",
@@ -194,10 +192,6 @@ describe("isHeartbeatContentEffectivelyEmpty", () => {
   });
 
   it("returns false when a template includes plain instructional prose", () => {
-    // Regression: this test used to be named "returns true for default template
-    // content" while asserting `false`, which obscured the real behavior. The
-    // heuristic does NOT skip plain-text instructional sentences because they
-    // are indistinguishable from actionable content.
     const defaultTemplate = `# HEARTBEAT.md
 
 Keep this file empty unless you want a tiny checklist. Keep it small.
@@ -270,3 +264,21 @@ Check the server logs
     expect(isHeartbeatContentEffectivelyEmpty(content)).toBe(true);
   });
 });
+
+describe("parseHeartbeatTasks", () => {
+  it("does not bleed top-level interval/prompt fields into task parsing", () => {
+    const content = `tasks:
+  - name: email-check
+    interval: 30m
+    prompt: Check for urgent emails
+interval: should-not-bleed
+`;
+    expect(parseHeartbeatTasks(content)).toEqual([
+      {
+        name: "email-check",
+        interval: "30m",
+        prompt: "Check for urgent emails",
+      },
+    ]);
+  });
+});

src/auto-reply/heartbeat.ts

@@ -249,12 +249,18 @@ export function parseHeartbeatTasks(content: string): HeartbeatTask[] {
         }
 
         // Check for task fields BEFORE checking for end of block
-        if (nextTrimmed.startsWith("interval:")) {
+        if (
+          nextTrimmed.startsWith("interval:") &&
+          (nextLine.startsWith(" ") || nextLine.startsWith("\t"))
+        ) {
           interval = nextTrimmed
             .replace("interval:", "")
             .trim()
             .replace(/^["']|["']$/g, "");
-        } else if (nextTrimmed.startsWith("prompt:")) {
+        } else if (
+          nextTrimmed.startsWith("prompt:") &&
+          (nextLine.startsWith(" ") || nextLine.startsWith("\t"))
+        ) {
           prompt = nextTrimmed
             .replace("prompt:", "")
             .trim()