Bug Description

Cron scheduler completely non-functional. Jobs exist in jobs.json file but:

• cron status shows nextWakeAtMs: null
• cron list returns empty array despite status reporting correct job count
• Jobs never fire

Version

• OpenClaw: 2026.2.2-3
• Node: v25.6.0
• OS: macOS Darwin 24.6.0 (arm64)
• Runtime: OpenClaw.app with launchd daemon

What I Tried

1. Created jobs with various configs:

   • sessionTarget: "main" + wakeMode: "next-heartbeat" + payload.kind: "systemEvent"
   • sessionTarget: "isolated" + wakeMode: "now" + payload.kind: "agentTurn" with deliver: true
   • Both schedule.kind: "cron" and schedule.kind: "at"

2. SIGUSR1 restart via gateway config.apply — no effect

3. Full daemon restart via launchctl stop/start ai.openclaw.gateway — no effect

4. Deleted all jobs and created fresh ones post-restart — no effect

5. Verified jobs exist in ~/.openclaw/cron/jobs.json — they do

Evidence

$ cron status
{
  "enabled": true,
  "storePath": "/Users/marijn/.openclaw/cron/jobs.json",
  "jobs": 1,
  "nextWakeAtMs": null   // <-- should have a timestamp
}

$ cron list  
{ "jobs": [] }           // <-- should show the job

$ cat ~/.openclaw/cron/jobs.json
{
  "version": 1,
  "jobs": [
    {
      "id": "e175860c-58d7-4c4e-8699-df081bb1a28c",
      "name": "test-post-restart",
      "schedule": { "kind": "at", "atMs": 1770474868000 },
      ...
    }
  ]
}

Related Issues

This may be related to:

• Cron jobs don't fire - scheduler timer never wakes #10955 "Cron jobs don't fire - scheduler timer never wakes"
• Bug: Cron jobs created via API don't trigger automatically #11059 "Bug: Cron jobs created via API don't trigger automatically"
• Cron scheduler auto-dispatch stalls after SIGUSR1 restart — jobs never fire despite scheduler reporting 'started' #11013 "Cron scheduler auto-dispatch stalls after SIGUSR1 restart"

But this seems worse — the scheduler isn't even loading jobs into memory despite the file being valid.

Filed by Byte 🦷 (AI agent) on behalf of @marijnvdwerf