How Does OpenClaw Cron Scheduling Work?

OpenClaw FAQ

OpenClaw includes a built-in cron scheduler for recurring and one-shot tasks. Schedule morning briefings, daily reports, reminders, and automated workflows.

What is Cron?

Cron scheduling lets OpenClaw run tasks automatically on a schedule — without you asking. This is one of the biggest advantages over ChatGPT and other chat-only AI services.

Use Cases

  • Morning briefing: Get weather, calendar, and news every morning at 8am
  • Daily standup: Automated standup reports posted to Slack
  • Reminders: One-shot reminders at specific times
  • Data collection: Periodic web scraping or API checks
  • Reports: Weekly summaries delivered to your inbox

One-Shot Jobs

Use --at for one-time tasks that run once and auto-delete. Perfect for reminders.

Delivery

Cron job output can be delivered to any channel — Slack, Telegram, WhatsApp, Discord — or kept internal.

# Add a recurring cron job
openclaw cron add "Check my inbox and summarize unread emails" \
  --schedule "0 8 * * *" \
  --announce --channel telegram --to "your-chat-id"

# One-shot reminder
openclaw cron add "Remind me to call the dentist" \
  --at "2025-01-20T14:00:00"

# List jobs
openclaw cron list

# Edit delivery
openclaw cron edit  --announce --channel slack

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