Bug type

Regression (worked before, now fails)

Beta release blocker

No

Summary

The Heartbeat system (agents.defaults.heartbeat.every) causes silent session resets without any user warning, resulting in complete loss of conversation context and wasted credits. This is a CRITICAL production bug affecting paying customers.

Behavior
Heartbeat triggers at configured interval (30m)
Session is forcibly reset without warning
All context moved to .reset backup file
New empty session created
User sees complete memory loss
No error message, no warning, no recovery mechanism
Related Issues
This confirms the severity of:

#58377 - LiveSessionModelSwitchError in cron triggers retry loop
#58379 - Session death loop on overloaded fallback

Related Issues
This confirms the severity of:

#58377 - LiveSessionModelSwitchError in cron triggers retry loop
#58379 - Session death loop on overloaded fallback

Steps to reproduce

Reproduction
Enable heartbeat: openclaw config set agents.defaults.heartbeat '{"every":"30m"}' --json
Have an active conversation session
Wait for heartbeat trigger
Session is reset silently

Expected behavior

Expected Behavior
Heartbeat should NEVER reset user sessions
If reset is necessary, user MUST be warned
Backup files should be automatically recoverable
Session continuity should be preserved

Actual behavior

Actual Behavior
Silent data loss
No warnings
No recovery mechanism
Backups exist but are inaccessible

OpenClaw version

2026.3.13

Operating system

OS: Ubuntu 24.04 LTS

Install method

VM: Genspark VM

Model

claude

Provider / routing chain

Gateway Mode: local (Azure Japan East)

Additional provider/model setup details

No response

Logs, screenshots, and evidence

Real-World Impact - Confirmed Case
Date: 2026-03-31 04:00:00 UTC User: Paying Genspark customer (tuplestone@gmail.com) VM: Japan East (tuplestone-0c0c46cc-3168-vm)

Data Loss Details
Session ID: 3df90563-f054-4a62-80a6-3d676cb3473b
Messages Lost: 8,323 messages
Data Size: 1.2MB
Last Activity: 03:57:42 UTC (3 minutes before reset)
Work Context:
Multiple active projects (Patents, AIRI planning docs)
Hundreds of hours of conversation history
Learned context and project knowledge
Financial Impact
Credits wasted: Hundreds of thousands to millions of tokens
Re-work required: Tens of hours of work must be repeated
Service trust: Destroyed
Technical Details
Configuration
Copy{
  "agents": {
    "defaults": {
      "heartbeat": {
        "every": "30m"
      }
    }
  }
}
Evidence
Copy# Backup file created by forced reset
$ ls -lh ~/.openclaw/agents/main/sessions/
-rw-rw-r-- 1 work work 1.2M Mar 31 12:57 3df90563-f054-4a62-80a6-3d676cb3473b.jsonl.reset.2026-03-31T04-00-00.397Z

# Current session - completely new
$ wc -l ~/.openclaw/agents/main/sessions/614a8906-3f72-4ea7-9bd9-b3829a36c93e.jsonl
10 /home/work/.openclaw/agents/main/sessions/614a8906-3f72-4ea7-9bd9-b3829a36c93e.jsonl

Impact and severity

Immediate Fix Required
Short-term
Disable heartbeat by default
Add warning in documentation
Implement session preservation mechanism
Long-term
Fix heartbeat system to NOT reset sessions
Add user warnings before any destructive operation
Implement automatic session recovery
Add session persistence layer
User Compensation Required
For this specific case:

Full credit refund for lost session
Additional credits for re-work
Subscription extension or compensation
Public acknowledgment and apology
Business Impact
This is NOT acceptable for a paid service:

Users pay for credits
Product defect wastes credits
No protection or warning
Destroys user trust

Priority: P0 - CRITICAL
This needs immediate attention. Every user with heartbeat enabled is at risk of data loss.

Additional information

Environment:

OpenClaw Version: 2026.3.13
OS: Ubuntu 24.04 LTS
Gateway Mode: local
VM: Genspark VM (Azure Japan East)