openclaw/docs/gateway/heartbeat.md

summary, read_when, title, sidebarTitle

summary	read_when	title	sidebarTitle
Heartbeat polling messages and notification rules	Adjusting heartbeat cadence or messaging Deciding between heartbeat and automations for scheduled work	Heartbeat	Heartbeat

**Heartbeat vs automations?** See [Automation](/automation) for guidance on when to use each.

Heartbeat runs periodic agent turns in the main session so the model can surface anything that needs attention without spamming you.

Heartbeat is a scheduled main-session turn - it does not create background task records. Task records are for detached work (ACP runs, subagents, isolated automation jobs).

Under the hood, heartbeat cadence is owned by the Automations scheduler: the gateway maintains one system-owned automation job per heartbeat-enabled agent (visible in openclaw cron list --all as Heartbeat (agent-id)). Heartbeat config remains the desired-state input, while the persisted monitor schedule owns the actual tick and the runner's later cooldown. The gateway writes config changes through at startup and on config reload; openclaw doctor --fix can materialize missing or stale monitor rows before the next gateway start. Edit agents.*.heartbeat, not the automation job.

Scheduled heartbeats require automations. When cron.enabled is false or OPENCLAW_SKIP_CRON=1, the gateway logs a startup warning and does not run scheduled heartbeats; manual and event-driven heartbeat wakes remain available. There is no separate heartbeat fallback timer.

Troubleshooting: Automations

Quick start (beginner)

Leave heartbeats enabled (default is `30m`, or `1h` when Anthropic OAuth/token auth is configured, including Claude CLI reuse) or set your own cadence. Store a tiny checklist in the heartbeat monitor's scratch with `openclaw cron scratch --set "..."`. `target: "none"` is the default; set `target: "last"` to route to the last contact. - Use lightweight bootstrap context if heartbeat runs only need the monitor scratch. - Enable isolated sessions to avoid sending full conversation history each heartbeat. - Restrict heartbeats to active hours (local time).

Example config:

{
  agents: {
    defaults: {
      heartbeat: {
        every: "30m",
        target: "last", // explicit delivery to last contact (default is "none")
        directPolicy: "allow", // default: allow direct/DM targets; set "block" to suppress
        lightContext: true, // optional: skip workspace bootstrap files for heartbeat runs
        isolatedSession: true, // optional: fresh session each run (no conversation history)
        // activeHours: { start: "08:00", end: "24:00" },
      },
    },
  },
}

Defaults

• Interval: 30m. Applying Anthropic provider defaults bumps this to 1h when the resolved auth mode is OAuth/token (including Claude CLI reuse), but only while heartbeat.every is unset. Set agents.defaults.heartbeat.every or per-agent agents.entries.*.heartbeat.every; use 0m to disable.
• Prompt body (configurable via agents.defaults.heartbeat.prompt): Follow the heartbeat monitor scratch context when provided. Recurring tasks are automations; create or change their schedules with the automations tool, not heartbeat scratch. Do not infer or repeat old tasks from prior chats. If nothing needs attention, reply HEARTBEAT_OK.
• Timeout: unset heartbeat turns use agents.defaults.timeoutSeconds when set. Otherwise, they use the heartbeat cadence capped at 600 seconds. Set agents.defaults.heartbeat.timeoutSeconds or per-agent agents.entries.*.heartbeat.timeoutSeconds for longer heartbeat work.
• The heartbeat prompt is sent verbatim as the user message. The system prompt automatically includes a "Heartbeats" section when cadence is enabled for the default agent; that guidance has no separate heartbeat toggle.
• When heartbeats are disabled with 0m, the monitor automation job stays but is disabled, and its scratch is retained for when you re-enable the cadence.
• When automations are disabled entirely, scheduled heartbeats do not run even if heartbeat cadence remains enabled.
• Active hours (heartbeat.activeHours) are checked in the configured timezone. Outside the window, heartbeats are skipped until the next tick inside the window.
• Scheduled heartbeats defer while the main queue or automation work is active or queued, while any reply or embedded run for the same agent is active, and while the resolved target session has active or queued work. Immediate and manual wakes bypass the broad same-agent active-run check, but still honor the main, automation, and target-session busy guards. Sibling agents do not pause each other.

What the heartbeat prompt is for

The default prompt is intentionally narrow: follow the heartbeat monitor scratch context when provided, keep recurring work in automation jobs, and reply HEARTBEAT_OK when nothing needs attention. It explicitly tells the agent not to infer or repeat old tasks from prior chats, so a default install stays quiet instead of rehashing stale conversation context.

Proactive heartbeat behavior is opt-in:

• Recurring checks: create automations for inbox review, calendar sweeps, or queued follow-ups. Each job executes its configured payload on its own schedule; the default heartbeat does not infer recurring work from prior chats.
• Human check-in: create a scheduled job if you want an occasional lightweight "anything you need?" message, and constrain its schedule to avoid night-time pings in your configured local timezone (see Timezone).

Heartbeat can react to completed background tasks, but a heartbeat run itself does not create a task record.

If you want a heartbeat to do something very specific (e.g. "check Gmail PubSub stats" or "verify gateway health"), set agents.defaults.heartbeat.prompt (or agents.entries.*.heartbeat.prompt) to a custom body (sent verbatim).

Response contract

• If nothing needs attention, reply with HEARTBEAT_OK.
• Heartbeat runs may instead call heartbeat_respond with notify: false for no visible update, or notify: true plus notificationText for an alert. When present, the structured tool response takes precedence over the text fallback.
• A meaningful heartbeat_respond result with notify: false remains silent but is remembered as bounded internal context for the next user turn in that session. no_change acknowledgments and visible notifications are not stored this way.
• During heartbeat runs, OpenClaw treats HEARTBEAT_OK as an ack when it appears at the start or end of the reply. The token is stripped and the reply is dropped if the remaining content is at most 300 characters. This suppression budget is fixed, not configurable per heartbeat.
• If HEARTBEAT_OK appears in the middle of a reply, it is not treated specially.
• For alerts, do not include HEARTBEAT_OK; return only the alert text.
• Delivery selects the last outbound-capable non-reasoning payload. Separate reasoning or thinking payloads remain internal; a reasoning-only result produces no alert.
• Tool error warnings remain enabled during heartbeat turns.

Outside heartbeats, stray HEARTBEAT_OK at the start/end of a message is stripped and logged; a message that is only HEARTBEAT_OK is dropped.

Config

{
  agents: {
    defaults: {
      heartbeat: {
        every: "30m", // default: 30m (0m disables)
        model: "anthropic/claude-opus-4-6",
        lightContext: false, // default: false; true skips workspace bootstrap files for heartbeat runs
        isolatedSession: false, // default: false; true runs each heartbeat in a fresh session (no conversation history)
        target: "last", // default: none | options: last | none | <channel id> (core or plugin, e.g. "imessage")
        to: "+15551234567", // optional channel-specific override
        accountId: "ops-bot", // optional multi-account channel id
        prompt: "Follow the heartbeat monitor scratch context when provided. Recurring tasks are automations; create or change their schedules with the automations tool, not heartbeat scratch. Do not infer or repeat old tasks from prior chats. If nothing needs attention, reply HEARTBEAT_OK.",
      },
    },
  },
}

Scope and precedence

• agents.defaults.heartbeat sets global heartbeat behavior.
• agents.entries.*.heartbeat merges on top; if any agent has a heartbeat block, only those agents run heartbeats.
• channels.defaults.heartbeatVisibility sets visibility defaults for all channels.
• channels.<channel>.heartbeatVisibility overrides channel defaults.
• channels.<channel>.accounts.<id>.heartbeatVisibility (multi-account channels) overrides per-channel settings.

Per-agent heartbeats

If any agents.entries.* entry includes a heartbeat block, only those agents run heartbeats. The per-agent block merges on top of agents.defaults.heartbeat (so you can set shared defaults once and override per agent).

Example: two agents, only the second agent runs heartbeats.

{
  agents: {
    defaults: {
      heartbeat: {
        every: "30m",
        target: "last", // explicit delivery to last contact (default is "none")
      },
    },
    list: [
      { id: "main", default: true },
      {
        id: "ops",
        heartbeat: {
          every: "1h",
          target: "whatsapp",
          to: "+15551234567",
          timeoutSeconds: 45,
          prompt: "Follow the heartbeat monitor scratch context when provided. Recurring tasks are automations; create or change their schedules with the automations tool, not heartbeat scratch. Do not infer or repeat old tasks from prior chats. If nothing needs attention, reply HEARTBEAT_OK.",
        },
      },
    ],
  },
}

Active hours example

Restrict heartbeats to business hours in a specific timezone:

{
  agents: {
    defaults: {
      heartbeat: {
        every: "30m",
        target: "last", // explicit delivery to last contact (default is "none")
        activeHours: {
          start: "09:00",
          end: "22:00",
          timezone: "America/New_York", // optional; uses your userTimezone if set, otherwise host tz
        },
      },
    },
  },
}

Outside this window (before 9am or after 10pm Eastern), heartbeats are skipped. The next scheduled tick inside the window will run normally.

24/7 setup

If you want heartbeats to run all day, use one of these patterns:

• Omit activeHours entirely (no time-window restriction; this is the default behavior).
• Set a full-day window: activeHours: { start: "00:00", end: "24:00" }.

Do not set the same `start` and `end` time (for example `08:00` to `08:00`). That is treated as a zero-width window, so heartbeats are always skipped.

Multi-account example

Use accountId to target a specific account on multi-account channels like Telegram:

{
  agents: {
    list: [
      {
        id: "ops",
        heartbeat: {
          every: "1h",
          target: "telegram",
          to: "12345678:topic:42", // optional: route to a specific topic/thread
          accountId: "ops-bot",
        },
      },
    ],
  },
  channels: {
    telegram: {
      accounts: {
        "ops-bot": { botToken: "YOUR_TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN" },
      },
    },
  },
}

Field notes

Heartbeat interval (duration string; default unit = minutes). Optional model override for heartbeat runs (`provider/model`). When true, heartbeat runs use lightweight bootstrap context and skip workspace bootstrap files. Monitor scratch is injected by the heartbeat runner either way. When true, each heartbeat runs in a fresh session with no prior conversation history. Uses the same isolation pattern as automation jobs with `sessionTarget: "isolated"`. Dramatically reduces per-heartbeat token cost. Combine with `lightContext: true` for maximum savings. Delivery routing still uses the main session context. Optional session key for heartbeat runs.

• main (default): agent main session.
• Explicit session key (copy from openclaw sessions --json or the sessions CLI).
• Session key formats: see Sessions and Groups.

- `last`: deliver to the last used external channel. - explicit channel: any configured channel or plugin id, for example `discord`, `matrix`, `telegram`, or `whatsapp`. - `none` (default): run the heartbeat but **do not deliver** externally. Controls direct/DM delivery behavior. `allow`: allow direct/DM heartbeat delivery. `block`: suppress direct/DM delivery (`reason=dm-blocked`). Optional recipient override (channel-specific id, e.g. E.164 for WhatsApp or a Telegram chat id). For Telegram topics/threads, use `:topic:`. Optional account id for multi-account channels. When `target: "last"`, the account id applies to the resolved last channel if it supports accounts; otherwise it is ignored. If the account id does not match a configured account for the resolved channel, delivery is skipped. Overrides the default prompt body (not merged). Maximum seconds allowed for a heartbeat agent turn before it is aborted. Leave unset to use `agents.defaults.timeoutSeconds` when set, otherwise the heartbeat cadence capped at 600 seconds. Restricts heartbeat runs to a time window. Object with `start` (HH:MM, inclusive; use `00:00` for start-of-day), `end` (HH:MM exclusive; `24:00` allowed for end-of-day), and optional `timezone`.

• Omitted or "user": uses your agents.defaults.userTimezone if set, otherwise falls back to the host system timezone.
• "local": always uses the host system timezone.
• Any IANA identifier (e.g. America/New_York): used directly; if invalid, falls back to the "user" behavior above.
• start and end must not be equal for an active window; equal values are treated as zero-width (always outside the window).
• Outside the active window, heartbeats are skipped until the next tick inside the window.

Heartbeat configuration is strict: only the fields listed above are accepted. Acknowledgment suppression, reasoning visibility, system-prompt guidance, busy deferral, and tool-error warning behavior are fixed runtime policies rather than heartbeat configuration fields.

Delivery behavior

- Heartbeats run in the agent's main session by default (`agent::`), or `global` when `session.scope = "global"`. Set `session` to override to a specific channel session (Discord/WhatsApp/etc.). - `session` only affects the run context; delivery is controlled by `target` and `to`. - To deliver to a specific channel/recipient, set `target` + `to`. With `target: "last"`, delivery uses the last external channel for that session. - Heartbeat deliveries allow direct/DM targets by default. Set `directPolicy: "block"` to suppress direct-target sends while still running the heartbeat turn. - Scheduled heartbeats are skipped and retried later when the main queue or automation work is busy, any reply or embedded run for the same agent is active, or the resolved target session has active or queued work. Immediate and manual wakes bypass only the broad same-agent active-run precheck. - If `target` resolves to no external destination, the run still happens but no outbound message is sent. - If `showOk`, `showAlerts`, and `useIndicator` are all disabled, the run is skipped up front as `reason=alerts-disabled`. - If only alert delivery is disabled, OpenClaw can still run the heartbeat, update due-task timestamps, restore the session idle timestamp, and suppress the outward alert payload. - If the resolved heartbeat target supports typing, OpenClaw shows typing while the heartbeat run is active. This uses the same target the heartbeat would send chat output to, and it is disabled by `typingMode: "never"`. - Heartbeat-only replies do **not** keep the session alive. Heartbeat metadata may update the session row, but idle expiry uses `lastInteractionAt` from the last real user/channel message, and daily expiry uses `sessionStartedAt`. - Control UI and WebChat history hide heartbeat prompts and OK-only acknowledgments. The underlying session transcript can still contain those turns for audit/replay. - Detached [background tasks](/automation/tasks) can enqueue a system event and wake heartbeat when the main session should notice something quickly. That wake does not make the heartbeat run a background task.

Visibility controls

By default, HEARTBEAT_OK acknowledgments are suppressed while alert content is delivered. You can adjust this per channel or per account:

channels:
  defaults:
    heartbeat:
      showOk: false # Hide HEARTBEAT_OK (default)
      showAlerts: true # Show alert messages (default)
      useIndicator: true # Emit indicator events (default)
  telegram:
    heartbeat:
      showOk: true # Show OK acknowledgments on Telegram
  whatsapp:
    accounts:
      work:
        heartbeat:
          showAlerts: false # Suppress alert delivery for this account

Precedence: per-account → per-channel → channel defaults → built-in defaults.

What each flag does

• showOk: sends a HEARTBEAT_OK acknowledgment when the model returns an OK-only reply.
• showAlerts: sends the alert content when the model returns a non-OK reply.
• useIndicator: emits indicator events for UI status surfaces.

If all three are false, OpenClaw skips the heartbeat run entirely (no model call).

Per-channel vs per-account examples

channels:
  defaults:
    heartbeat:
      showOk: false
      showAlerts: true
      useIndicator: true
  slack:
    heartbeat:
      showOk: true # all Slack accounts
    accounts:
      ops:
        heartbeat:
          showAlerts: false # suppress alerts for the ops account only
  telegram:
    heartbeat:
      showOk: true

Common patterns

Goal	Config
Default behavior (silent OKs, alerts on)	(no config needed)
Fully silent (no messages, no indicator)	channels.defaults.heartbeat: { showOk: false, showAlerts: false, useIndicator: false }
Indicator-only (no messages)	channels.defaults.heartbeat: { showOk: false, showAlerts: false, useIndicator: true }
OKs in one channel only	channels.telegram.heartbeat: { showOk: true }

Monitor scratch (optional)

Each heartbeat monitor automation job owns a private scratch document stored in the shared state database. Think of it as your "heartbeat checklist": small, stable, and safe to consider every 30 minutes. When scratch exists, its content is appended to the heartbeat prompt.

Manage it with the automations CLI (the job id comes from openclaw cron list --all):

openclaw cron scratch <jobId>                 # print the current scratch
openclaw cron scratch <jobId> --set "..."     # replace it with exact text
openclaw cron scratch <jobId> --file notes.md # replace it from a file (- for stdin)
openclaw cron scratch <jobId> --unset         # remove it

Writes are compare-and-swap guarded: pass --expected-revision <n> to fail instead of overwriting a concurrent edit. Scratch is capped at 256 KiB and never appears in cron list/cron runs output.

The agent can also update its own scratch: during a heartbeat turn, heartbeat_respond accepts an optional scratch string that fully replaces the monitor's scratch for future heartbeats.

**Migrating from HEARTBEAT.md or config-only cadence?** Run `openclaw doctor --fix`. Doctor first creates or updates the system-owned monitor rows from `agents.*.heartbeat`, then imports each agent's workspace `HEARTBEAT.md` into the monitor's scratch, converts any valid legacy `tasks:` entries into automation jobs, archives the original under the state directory (`backups/heartbeat-migration/`), and removes the file. Runtime heartbeat instructions come from database scratch only; the runtime never reads `HEARTBEAT.md`.

If scratch exists but is effectively empty (only blank lines, Markdown/HTML comments, Markdown headings like # Heading, fence markers, or empty checklist stubs), OpenClaw skips the heartbeat run to save API calls. That skip is reported as reason=empty-heartbeat-file. If no scratch exists, the heartbeat still runs and the model decides what to do.

Keep it tiny (short checklist or reminders) to avoid prompt bloat.

Example scratch:

# Heartbeat checklist

- Quick scan: anything urgent in inboxes?
- If it's daytime, do a lightweight check-in if nothing else is pending.
- If a task is blocked, write down _what is missing_ and ask Peter next time.

Schedule recurring checks with automations

Heartbeat scratch is prompt context, not a scheduler. Create each recurring check as an automation job so it has its own cadence, enable/disable state, and run history. Automation jobs can still target the main session when the check should use the normal conversation context.

Older scratch may contain a structured tasks: block. Run openclaw doctor --fix once after upgrading: Doctor converts every valid entry into an independently scheduled automation job, preserves its interval and previous last-run timing, and removes the retired block while keeping surrounding scratch prose. Runtime heartbeat turns do not parse tasks: text as schedules.

Doctor-created heartbeat task jobs keep heartbeat active-hours, cooldown, flood, and busy guards. Jobs due together can coalesce into one heartbeat turn. An occurrence outside active hours is skipped and tried again at its next scheduled occurrence.

Can the agent update its scratch?

Yes. During a heartbeat turn, the agent can pass a scratch value to heartbeat_respond to fully replace the monitor prose for future heartbeats. You can also ask it in a normal chat to run openclaw cron scratch <jobId> --set ..., or edit the scratch yourself with the same command. Manage recurring schedules with automations instead of writing scheduler syntax into scratch.

Don't put secrets (API keys, phone numbers, private tokens) into monitor scratch - it becomes part of the prompt context.

Manual wake (on-demand)

Use openclaw system event to enqueue a system event and optionally trigger an immediate heartbeat:

openclaw system event --text "Check for urgent follow-ups" --mode now

Flag	Description
--text <text>	System event text (required).
--mode <mode>	now runs an immediate heartbeat; next-heartbeat (default) waits for the next scheduled tick.
--session-key <sessionKey>	Target a specific session for the event; defaults to the agent's main session.
--json	Output JSON.

If no --session-key is given and multiple agents have heartbeat configured, --mode now runs each of those agent heartbeats immediately.

Related heartbeat controls in the same CLI group:

openclaw system heartbeat last     # show the last heartbeat event
openclaw system heartbeat enable   # enable heartbeats
openclaw system heartbeat disable  # disable heartbeats

Cost awareness

Heartbeats run full agent turns. Shorter intervals burn more tokens. To reduce cost:

• Use isolatedSession: true to avoid sending full conversation history (~100K tokens down to ~2-5K per run).
• Use lightContext: true to skip workspace bootstrap files for heartbeat runs.
• Set a cheaper model (e.g. ollama/llama3.2:1b).
• Keep the monitor scratch small.
• Use target: "none" if you only want internal state updates.

Context overflow after heartbeat

Heartbeats preserve the shared session's existing runtime model after the run completes, so a heartbeat that switched a session to a smaller local model (for example an Ollama model with a 32k window) can leave that model in place for the next main-session turn. If that next turn then reports context overflow, and the session's last runtime model matches configured heartbeat.model, OpenClaw's recovery message calls out heartbeat model bleed as the likely cause and suggests a fix.

To avoid this: use isolatedSession: true to run heartbeats in a fresh session (optionally combined with lightContext: true for the smallest prompt), or choose a heartbeat model with a context window large enough for the shared session.

Related

• Automation - all automation mechanisms at a glance
• Background Tasks - how detached work is tracked
• Timezone - how timezone affects heartbeat scheduling
• Troubleshooting - debugging automation issues