Summary

The built-in cron scheduler creates jobs successfully and stores them, but they never auto-fire. The nextWakeAtMs field stays null after job creation, suggesting the wake scheduler never picks up the job.

Reproduction

# Add a job scheduled to run soon
openclaw cron add \
  --name "Test job" \
  --at "+1m" \
  --session main \
  --system-event "Test cron fired" \
  --wake now

# Check job status
openclaw cron list --json

Expected

• nextWakeAtMs should be populated with the scheduled timestamp
• Job should fire automatically at the scheduled time

Actual

• nextWakeAtMs is null
• Job never fires automatically
• Manual trigger works fine: openclaw cron run <job-id> --force

Environment

• OpenClaw version: 2026.2.2-3
• OS: Ubuntu 24.04 (x64)
• Node: v22.22.0
• Running as systemd user service with lingering enabled

Workaround

Using system crontab to call openclaw agent instead:

# In crontab -e
0 7 * * * /path/to/openclaw agent --to <chat_id> --channel telegram --message "Morning briefing trigger" --deliver

This bypasses the internal scheduler entirely but still routes through the gateway properly.

Notes

• Gateway is running continuously (verified via systemctl --user status openclaw)
• Jobs persist correctly in ~/.openclaw/cron/jobs.json
• The issue affects both at (one-shot) and cron (recurring) schedule types
• Seems like the scheduler isn't registering the wake-up after job creation

Possibly related

Saw another user report similar symptoms on Twitter - jobs get created but "just don't do it". This appears to be a known pain point.