fix(cron): preserve model overrides for text payloads (#73946)

Co-authored-by: openclaw-clownfish[bot] <280122609+openclaw-clownfish[bot]@users.noreply.github.com>

CHANGELOG.md

@@ -42,6 +42,7 @@ Docs: https://docs.openclaw.ai
 - Control UI: fix Peak Error Hours showing incorrect hourly rates when the browser's timezone observes DST, by storing hourly message counts with UTC date keys and using DST-aware `Date.getHours()` for local conversion. Also extract `accumulateMessageCounts` helper to reduce duplicated daily/hourly aggregation logic. (#49396) Thanks @konanok.
 - iMessage: normalize known leading attributedBody corruption markers on sent-message echo text keys so delayed reflected echoes with U+FFFD/U+FFFE/U+FFFF/FEFF prefixes are dropped without collapsing interior text. Fixes #59973; carries forward #59980 and #62191. Thanks @neeravmakwana and @maguilar631697.
 - Security/audit: recognize dangerous node command IDs as valid `gateway.nodes.denyCommands` entries, so audit only warns on real typos or unsupported patterns. (#56923) Thanks @chziyue.
+- Cron: treat implicit text payloads with agent-turn overrides as agent turns, preserving model overrides for scheduled text prompts instead of pruning them as system events. Fixes #28905. (#64060) Thanks @liaoandi.
 - Telegram/exec approvals: stop treating general Telegram chat allowlists and `defaultTo` routes as native exec approvers; Telegram now uses explicit `execApprovals.approvers` or owner identity from `commands.ownerAllowFrom`, matching the first-pairing owner bootstrap path. Thanks @pashpashpash.
 - Plugins/providers: keep Gateway startup primary-model discovery on metadata-only provider entries and reuse active non-speech capability providers even with explicit plugin entries, avoiding unnecessary provider registry loads during startup and media capability checks. Fixes #73729, #73835, and #73793; carries forward #73853 and #73794. Thanks @sg1416-zg, @brokemac79, and @poolside-ventures.
 - Chat commands: route sensitive group `/diagnostics` and `/export-trajectory` approvals and results to a private owner route, preferring same-surface DMs before falling back to the first configured owner route, so Discord group invocations can land in Telegram when that is the primary owner interface. Thanks @pashpashpash.

src/cron/normalize.test.ts

@@ -458,6 +458,51 @@ describe("normalizeCronJobCreate", () => {
     expect(validateCronAddParams(normalized)).toBe(true);
   });
 
+  it("promotes implicit text payloads with agentTurn hints for create jobs", () => {
+    const normalized = normalizeCronJobCreate({
+      name: "nested text model",
+      schedule: { kind: "every", everyMs: 60_000 },
+      payload: {
+        text: " summarize issue status ",
+        model: " anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-6 ",
+        thinking: " high ",
+      },
+    }) as unknown as Record<string, unknown>;
+
+    const payload = normalized.payload as Record<string, unknown>;
+    expect(payload).toEqual({
+      kind: "agentTurn",
+      message: "summarize issue status",
+      model: "anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-6",
+      thinking: "high",
+    });
+    expect(normalized.sessionTarget).toBe("isolated");
+    expect(validateCronAddParams(normalized)).toBe(true);
+  });
+
+  it("promotes legacy top-level text with agentTurn hints for create jobs", () => {
+    const normalized = normalizeCronJobCreate({
+      name: "legacy text model",
+      schedule: { kind: "every", everyMs: 60_000 },
+      text: " summarize issue status ",
+      model: " openrouter/deepseek/deepseek-r1 ",
+      fallbacks: [],
+      toolsAllow: [" read "],
+    }) as unknown as Record<string, unknown>;
+
+    const payload = normalized.payload as Record<string, unknown>;
+    expect(payload).toEqual({
+      kind: "agentTurn",
+      message: "summarize issue status",
+      model: "openrouter/deepseek/deepseek-r1",
+      fallbacks: [],
+      toolsAllow: ["read"],
+    });
+    expect(normalized.text).toBeUndefined();
+    expect(normalized.model).toBeUndefined();
+    expect(validateCronAddParams(normalized)).toBe(true);
+  });
+
   it("preserves timeoutSeconds=0 for no-timeout agentTurn payloads", () => {
     const normalized = normalizeCronJobCreate({
       name: "legacy no-timeout",
@@ -678,6 +723,40 @@ describe("normalizeCronJobPatch", () => {
     expect(payload.model).toBe("anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-6");
   });
 
+  it("promotes implicit text payloads with agentTurn hints for patches", () => {
+    const normalized = normalizeCronJobPatch({
+      payload: {
+        text: " summarize issue status ",
+        model: "anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-6",
+      },
+    }) as unknown as Record<string, unknown>;
+
+    const payload = normalized.payload as Record<string, unknown>;
+    expect(payload).toEqual({
+      kind: "agentTurn",
+      message: "summarize issue status",
+      model: "anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-6",
+    });
+    expect(validateCronUpdateParams({ id: "job-1", patch: normalized })).toBe(true);
+  });
+
+  it("promotes legacy top-level text with agentTurn hints for patches", () => {
+    const normalized = normalizeCronJobPatch({
+      text: " summarize issue status ",
+      model: "openrouter/deepseek/deepseek-r1",
+    }) as unknown as Record<string, unknown>;
+
+    const payload = normalized.payload as Record<string, unknown>;
+    expect(payload).toEqual({
+      kind: "agentTurn",
+      message: "summarize issue status",
+      model: "openrouter/deepseek/deepseek-r1",
+    });
+    expect(normalized.text).toBeUndefined();
+    expect(normalized.model).toBeUndefined();
+    expect(validateCronUpdateParams({ id: "job-1", patch: normalized })).toBe(true);
+  });
+
   it("infers agentTurn kind for lightContext-only payload patches", () => {
     const normalized = normalizeCronJobPatch({
       payload: {

src/cron/normalize.ts

@@ -170,13 +170,17 @@ function coercePayload(payload: UnknownRecord) {
     next.kind = kindRaw;
   }
   if (!next.kind) {
-    const hasMessage = Boolean(normalizeOptionalString(next.message));
-    const hasText = Boolean(normalizeOptionalString(next.text));
-    if (hasMessage) {
+    const message = normalizeOptionalString(next.message);
+    const text = normalizeOptionalString(next.text);
+    const hasAgentTurnHint = hasAgentTurnPayloadHint(next);
+    if (message) {
       next.kind = "agentTurn";
-    } else if (hasText) {
+    } else if (text && hasAgentTurnHint) {
+      next.kind = "agentTurn";
+      next.message = text;
+    } else if (text) {
       next.kind = "systemEvent";
-    } else if (hasAgentTurnPayloadHint(next)) {
+    } else if (hasAgentTurnHint) {
       // Accept partial agentTurn payload patches that only tweak agent-turn-only fields.
       next.kind = "agentTurn";
     }
@@ -311,6 +315,9 @@ function inferTopLevelPayload(next: UnknownRecord) {
 
   const text = normalizeOptionalString(next.text) ?? "";
   if (text) {
+    if (hasAgentTurnPayloadHint(next)) {
+      return { kind: "agentTurn", message: text } satisfies UnknownRecord;
+    }
     return { kind: "systemEvent", text } satisfies UnknownRecord;
   }