Bug Report: Cron Scheduler Skips Jobs After Mid-Day Gateway Restart

Summary

When the OpenClaw gateway restarts mid-day, cron jobs scheduled for earlier in the day (before the restart time) incorrectly skip to the next occurrence 48 hours later instead of running the next morning.

Environment

• OpenClaw Version: 2026.2.3-1
• Platform: macOS 15.2.1 (Sequoia)
• Gateway Config: Default cron scheduler with Asia/Kuala_Lumpur timezone

Reproduction Steps

1. Configure daily cron jobs scheduled for early morning (e.g., 0 6 * * * for 6:00 AM)
2. Run the gateway and let jobs execute normally on Day 1
3. Perform a hard gateway restart mid-afternoon (e.g., 5:20 PM on Day 1)
4. Observe job states after restart

Expected Behavior

After a mid-day restart on Day 1 at 5:20 PM:

• Jobs scheduled for 6:00 AM should have nextRunAtMs set to Day 2 at 6:00 AM (next occurrence)

Actual Behavior

After restart on Day 1 at 5:20 PM:

• Jobs scheduled BEFORE restart time (6:00 AM) have nextRunAtMs set to Day 3 at 6:00 AM (48 hours later)
• Jobs scheduled AFTER restart time (9:00 AM+) correctly set to Day 2

Evidence

Affected Jobs (Early Morning)

Unaffected Jobs (After Restart Time)

Gateway restart time: Day 1, ~5:20 PM (1770320400000 ms epoch)

Root Cause Hypothesis

The cron scheduler's next-run calculation logic appears to:

1. Check if current time > scheduled time today
2. If YES, skip to next occurrence (Day 2)
3. If NO, skip to Day 3 (incorrectly treating Day 2 as "already considered")

The logic fails to recognize that for jobs scheduled earlier than the restart time, Day 2's scheduled time is still upcoming and should be the next run.

Impact

• Cron jobs scheduled for early morning hours skip execution on the day after a mid-day gateway restart
• Users lose automated daily tasks (morning briefings, email checks, backups, etc.)
• Pattern self-corrects after the skipped day (resumes normal 24h cadence)

Suggested Fix

Update cron scheduler's next-run calculation to:

function calculateNextRun(schedule, currentTime, lastRun) {
  const todayScheduled = getScheduledTimeToday(schedule);
  const tomorrowScheduled = getScheduledTimeTomorrow(schedule);
  
  // If today's scheduled time hasn't passed yet, use it
  if (currentTime < todayScheduled) {
    return todayScheduled;
  }
  
  // Otherwise, use tomorrow
  return tomorrowScheduled;
}

Instead of comparing against lastRun, compare against the scheduled time relative to current day.

Workaround

Manually trigger affected jobs or avoid mid-day gateway restarts when possible. Jobs self-correct and resume normal schedule after one skipped execution.

Additional Context

• This occurred after updating from 2026.2.2-3 to 2026.2.3-1 (hard restart required for npm package reload)
• Related to recent delivery mode migration (deliver: true → delivery: "announce")
• Timezone: Asia/Kuala_Lumpur (GMT+8)

Version Info

$ openclaw --version
2026.2.3-1

$ node --version  
v22.22.0

Reporter: rex05ai (via user rene05@pm.me)
Date: 2026-02-06
Session: Direct chat with René Fischer-Bernard