Heartbeat

Heartbeat is an automation. See Automation for guidance on choosing the system-owned monitor or an independently scheduled job.

Heartbeat is a system-owned automation that 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. If saving monitor rows fails after a config change is accepted, the Gateway keeps the accepted config and reports that recovery is required. Monitor retries use the current accepted config. Rejected changes never become retry targets. 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. Setting heartbeat.every: "0m" disables only the recurring cadence. A targeted event-driven wake can still run one agent turn, such as a background exec completion. It does not create or re-enable a recurring schedule. To keep background exec without automatic completion turns or their model calls, set tools.exec.notifyOnExit: false; check agents.entries.<id>.tools.exec.notifyOnExit for per-agent overrides. Collect results with process poll. See Background exec notifications. Tool policy and sandboxing control whether agent turns may execute commands. Targeted event wakes retain the same per-agent rate limits when recurring cadence is disabled. Those limits are a 30-second minimum between event turns, and a flood guard after five starts within 60 seconds. Deferred work resumes when its guard expires. Config reloads preserve this accounting without enrolling the agent in recurring or broadcast heartbeats. Transcript markers distinguish [OpenClaw heartbeat poll] from an exec completion, cron wake, or session event. Scheduled polls use the configured heartbeat session, which is the agent’s main session by default. Targeted completion events return to the session that owns the work. Event markers retain their source provenance without copying internal instructions into chat history. Silent acknowledgment pairs remain hidden. Troubleshooting: Automations

Quick start (beginner)

Pick a cadence

Leave heartbeats enabled (default is 30m, or 1h when Anthropic OAuth/token auth is configured, including Claude CLI reuse) or set your own cadence.

Add monitor scratch (optional)

Store a tiny checklist in the heartbeat monitor’s scratch with openclaw cron scratch <jobId> --set "...".

Decide where heartbeat messages should go

Heartbeat alerts go to the operator’s direct message by default. Set commands.ownerAllowFrom to an array such as ["telegram:123456789"], or use a concrete channel allowFrom. Wildcard-only allowlists do not identify an owner.

Optional tuning

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:

{
  commands: {
    ownerAllowFrom: ["telegram:123456789"],
  },
  agents: {
    defaults: {
      heartbeat: {
        every: "30m",
        target: "owner", // default: operator DM from ownerAllowFrom or channel allowFrom
        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" },
      },
    },
  },
}

For a configured Telegram bot, set the owner with a JSON array, even when there is only one entry. Replace 123456789 with your Telegram user ID and include any existing owners you want to keep:

openclaw config set commands.ownerAllowFrom '["telegram:123456789"]'

To select a recipient explicitly, set the channel and recipient separately:

openclaw config set agents.defaults.heartbeat.to '"123456789"'
openclaw config set agents.defaults.heartbeat.target telegram

Keep the inner double quotes around the numeric chat ID so to is stored as a string. heartbeat.target accepts owner, last, none, or a channel ID such as telegram; telegram:123456789 belongs in commands.ownerAllowFrom, not target.

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 recurring cadence.
Delivery target: owner. OpenClaw uses the first concrete commands.ownerAllowFrom entry, then channel allowFrom, and never sends this route to a group. Without a resolvable owner DM, ambient polls skip with reason=no-route. Set target: "last" to follow the most recent conversation, including groups, or target: "none" for internal-only runs.
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 NO_REPLY.
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. Turns that resume work after a background command completes or process background-task review and blocked-task events use the ordinary agent timeout (48 hours by default); heartbeat cadence and timeout settings do not shorten these continuations. The event must be included in the turn; an isolated monitor does not inherit the budget of work pending in its base session.
The heartbeat prompt is sent verbatim as the scheduled user message. Heartbeat runs use the same system prompt as ordinary agent turns. There is no heartbeat-specific system-prompt section.
When recurring heartbeats are disabled with 0m, the automation job stays but is disabled. Its monitor scratch is retained for when you re-enable the cadence. Targeted event-driven wakes remain available.
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.
A targeted background-command completion waits for its own session to become free, including final-delivery recovery, but does not wait for unrelated sessions or automations. A completion coalesced with scheduled heartbeat work retains the scheduled work’s busy guards.

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 NO_REPLY 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 NO_REPLY.
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. A generated notify: true alert whose delivery is blocked or unconfirmed is also recorded, including its alert text and delivery reason. This is the latest outcome for the session, not an alert history or exact-delivery replay queue. no_change acknowledgments and confirmed visible notifications are not stored this way.
Existing custom prompts may still return the legacy HEARTBEAT_OK acknowledgment. OpenClaw accepts it at the start or end of a reply and drops the reply when its remaining content is at most 300 characters. The suppression budget is fixed.
A legacy HEARTBEAT_OK in the middle of a reply is not treated specially.
For alerts, return only the alert text. Do not include a silent acknowledgment.
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.
openclaw system heartbeat last --json reports a confirmed message-tool send to the heartbeat recipient as sent, without sending another acknowledgment.
If the heartbeat starts background work without sending an update, its status event reports skipped with reason background-work. Check the task for completion. This is not an all-clear acknowledgment.

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: "owner", // default | options: last | none | <channel id>
        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 NO_REPLY.",
      },
    },
  },
}

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.
Ambient ownership resolves through agents.defaults.heartbeat.agentId, agents.defaults.systemAgent.agentId, the legacy default owner, then the sole agent. When no per-agent or default heartbeat block applies and that chain leaves a multi-agent roster ownerless, heartbeats stay disabled and emit validation and Gateway warnings.
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: "owner", // default: operator DM
      },
    },
    entries: {
      main: { default: true },
      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 NO_REPLY.",
        },
      },
    },
  },
}

Active hours example

Restrict heartbeats to business hours in a specific timezone:

{
  agents: {
    defaults: {
      heartbeat: {
        every: "30m",
        target: "owner", // default: operator DM
        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, which 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: {
    entries: {
      ops: {
        default: true,
        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

string

Heartbeat interval (duration string, default unit minutes).

string

Optional model override for heartbeat runs (provider/model).

boolean

default:"false"

When true, heartbeat runs use lightweight bootstrap context and skip workspace bootstrap files. Monitor scratch is injected by the heartbeat runner either way.

boolean

default:"false"

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 and conversation context still follow the selected conversation, including its channel, account, and topic. A background command’s completion keeps its original event route if that conversation later moves. It does not borrow the new room’s description or activation policy.

string

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.

string

owner (default): deliver to the first resolvable operator DM from commands.ownerAllowFrom, then channel allowFrom. This route never resolves to a group or channel.
last: explicitly follow the last used external conversation, including groups and channels.
explicit channel: any configured channel or plugin id, for example discord, matrix, telegram, or whatsapp.
none: run the heartbeat for internal state only. Do not deliver it externally.

For an explicit Telegram recipient, use target: "telegram" and to: "123456789". The target field does not accept a combined channel-and-recipient value such as "telegram:123456789".

"allow" | "block"

default:"allow"

Controls direct/DM delivery behavior. allow: allow direct/DM heartbeat delivery. block: suppress direct/DM delivery (reason=dm-blocked).

string

Recipient for an explicit channel target (for example, E.164 for WhatsApp or a Telegram chat id). owner and an unset target ignore to. For Telegram topics/threads, use <chatId>:topic:<messageThreadId>.

string

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.

string

Overrides the default prompt body (not merged).

number

default:"global timeout or min(every, 600)"

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. Exec-completion continuations use the ordinary agent timeout instead, including an explicit agents.defaults.timeoutSeconds value of 0 for no timeout.

object

Restricts heartbeat runs to a time window. Object with start (HH:MM, inclusive, with 00:00 for start-of-day), end (HH:MM exclusive, with 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

Session and target routing

Heartbeats run in the agent’s main session by default (agent:<id>:main), 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.
The default owner target chooses an explicitly configured owner identity. It reuses the exact account/thread only when the session’s last route is a direct chat to that owner.
A wake that carries a channel and recipient uses that named origin before owner discovery. This event destination can be a group because it is explicit, not inferred.
To deliver to a specific channel/recipient, set a channel target plus to. target: "last" is an explicit opt-in to the last external conversation, including groups.
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 owner has no concrete, DM-capable owner or configured channel, the poll is skipped as reason=no-route before the agent runs. Explicit last also skips when the session has no external route.
The first alert delivered by the implicit owner default explains periodic checks and how to choose target: "none". Later alerts omit that line.

Visibility and skip behavior

If the heartbeat turn fails before the model can reply, the failure notice names the reason whenever OpenClaw itself refused the run. One example is a session runtime that is still busy in another runner. Raw provider or runtime errors stay behind the verbose failure-detail setting (/verbose on or /verbose full), as in normal chats.
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 channel readiness check blocks an alert, OpenClaw records the non-delivery. It retries the heartbeat after a one-minute grace period, without consuming its cadence slot. This retry runs the heartbeat again. It does not replay the exact earlier alert. Once a send enters the durable delivery queue, that queue owns transport retries.
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".

Session lifecycle and audit

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 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, quiet heartbeat acknowledgments are suppressed while alert content is delivered. You can adjust this per channel or per account:

{
  channels: {
    defaults: {
      heartbeatVisibility: {
        showOk: false, // Hide HEARTBEAT_OK (default)
        showAlerts: true, // Show alert messages (default)
        useIndicator: true, // Emit indicator events (default)
      },
    },
    telegram: {
      heartbeatVisibility: {
        showOk: true, // Show OK acknowledgments on Telegram
      },
    },
    whatsapp: {
      accounts: {
        work: {
          heartbeatVisibility: {
            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: {
      heartbeatVisibility: {
        showOk: false,
        showAlerts: true,
        useIndicator: true,
      },
    },
    slack: {
      heartbeatVisibility: {
        showOk: true, // all Slack accounts
      },
      accounts: {
        ops: {
          heartbeatVisibility: {
            showAlerts: false, // suppress alerts for the ops account only
          },
        },
      },
    },
    telegram: {
      heartbeatVisibility: {
        showOk: true,
      },
    },
  },
}

Common patterns

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

Monitor scratch (optional)

Each heartbeat automation job owns a private monitor scratch 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. It then imports each agent’s workspace HEARTBEAT.md into the monitor scratch. It converts any valid legacy tasks: entries into automation jobs. It 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 the workspace and state directory are on different filesystems, Doctor keeps the original file in a private HEARTBEAT.md.doctor-archived.* directory beside its former location. The state-directory backup remains an immutable snapshot. Later writes through an already-open file descriptor remain recoverable in the workspace archive.

OpenClaw skips the heartbeat run to save API calls when scratch exists but is effectively empty. Effectively empty means only blank lines, Markdown or HTML comments, Markdown headings like # Heading, fence markers, or empty checklist stubs. That skip is reported as reason=empty-heartbeat-file. Scheduled interval monitors without due tasks resolve this skip before deferring behind busy execution queues. 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

Monitor 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. It preserves each entry’s interval and previous last-run timing. It removes the retired block and keeps the 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 scratch 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. Broadcast completion reports an agent failure even if another agent succeeded or was quietly skipped. Busy retries and guarded deferrals keep their existing retry behavior. 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.
Set target: "none" explicitly if you only want internal state updates.

Context overflow after heartbeat

Heartbeats preserve the shared session’s existing runtime model after the run completes. A heartbeat that switched a session to a smaller local model can therefore leave that model in place for the next main-session turn. An Ollama model with a 32k window is one example. That next turn may report context overflow. If the session’s last runtime model also matches configured heartbeat.model, OpenClaw’s recovery message calls out heartbeat model bleed as the likely cause. The message also suggests a fix. To avoid this, use isolatedSession: true to run heartbeats in a fresh session. You can combine it with lightContext: true for the smallest prompt. Otherwise choose a heartbeat model with a context window large enough for the shared session.

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

Overview

Plugins

Plugin guides

Building plugins

Skills

Automation

Tools

Agent coordination

Quick start (beginner)

Defaults

What the heartbeat prompt is for

Response contract

Config

Scope and precedence

Per-agent heartbeats

Active hours example

24/7 setup

Multi-account example

Field notes

Delivery behavior

Visibility controls

What each flag does

Per-channel vs per-account examples

Common patterns

Monitor scratch (optional)

Schedule recurring checks with automations

Can the agent update its scratch?

Manual wake (on-demand)

Cost awareness

Context overflow after heartbeat

​Quick start (beginner)

​Defaults

​What the heartbeat prompt is for

​Response contract

​Config

​Scope and precedence

​Per-agent heartbeats

​Active hours example

​24/7 setup

​Multi-account example

​Field notes

​Delivery behavior

​Visibility controls

​What each flag does

​Per-channel vs per-account examples

​Common patterns

​Monitor scratch (optional)

​Schedule recurring checks with automations

​Can the agent update its scratch?

​Manual wake (on-demand)

​Cost awareness

​Context overflow after heartbeat

​Related

Quick start (beginner)

Defaults

What the heartbeat prompt is for

Response contract

Config

Scope and precedence

Per-agent heartbeats

Active hours example

24/7 setup

Multi-account example

Field notes

Delivery behavior

Visibility controls

What each flag does

Per-channel vs per-account examples

Common patterns

Monitor scratch (optional)

Schedule recurring checks with automations

Can the agent update its scratch?

Manual wake (on-demand)

Cost awareness

Context overflow after heartbeat

Related