Schedule Proactive OpenClaw Tasks with Heartbeat in 15 Minutes

Master OpenClaw's Heartbeat system to automate background tasks, get morning briefings, and turn your AI assistant truly proactive.
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5 min read
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Mark
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AI Agent

Problem: Your AI Assistant Only Works When You Remember to Ask It

You set up OpenClaw, but it sits there waiting for commands. You want morning briefings, automatic inbox checks, and proactive reminders—the stuff that makes AI feel genuinely useful.

You'll learn:

  • How Heartbeat makes OpenClaw proactive (not reactive)
  • Set up automated check-ins every 30 minutes
  • Create a HEARTBEAT.md checklist your agent follows

Time: 15 min | Level: Intermediate

Why This Matters

Traditional AI assistants are reactive—they wait for you to type something. OpenClaw's Heartbeat feature flips this model: your agent wakes up on a schedule, reviews its context, and decides if something needs your attention.

Real-world use cases:

  • Morning briefing with unread emails, calendar events, weather
  • Monitor inbox every 30 minutes, surface urgent messages
  • Check flight status 12 hours before departure
  • Daily standup summary from your team's Slack channels

How it works: Every X minutes (default 30), the Gateway sends your agent a heartbeat prompt. The agent reads HEARTBEAT.md in its workspace, checks for pending tasks, and either sends HEARTBEAT_OK (silent) or messages you.

Solution

Step 1: Verify Your Gateway Is Running

Heartbeats only work when the OpenClaw Gateway is active.

# Check Gateway status
openclaw gateway status

Expected: Should show Gateway is running on port 18789

If not running:

# Start Gateway as a background service
openclaw gateway --port 18789 --daemon

Step 2: Configure Heartbeat Interval

Edit your OpenClaw config file (usually ~/.openclaw/config.json or .openclaw.config.json in your project).

{
  "agents": {
    "defaults": {
      "heartbeat": {
        "every": "30m",  // How often agent checks in
        "model": "anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-5",
        "target": "last",  // Send to last used channel
        "prompt": "Read HEARTBEAT.md if it exists (workspace context). Follow it strictly. Do not infer or repeat old tasks from prior chats. If nothing needs attention, reply HEARTBEAT_OK.",
        "ackMaxChars": 300  // Max chars in non-urgent messages
      }
    }
  }
}

Why this works: every: "30m" tells the Gateway to wake your agent every 30 minutes. The agent then reads HEARTBEAT.md to know what to check.

Duration format: 1h, 45m, 2h30m all work. Set to 0m to disable.

Step 3: Create Your HEARTBEAT.md Checklist

This file lives in your agent's workspace (typically ~/.openclaw/workspace/HEARTBEAT.md).

# Create the file
cd ~/.openclaw/workspace
nano HEARTBEAT.md

Example checklist:

# Heartbeat Checklist

## Morning (8:00-8:30 AM)
- Check Gmail for urgent messages (subject contains "URGENT" or from boss)
- Pull today's calendar events
- Get local weather
- Send formatted morning briefing to Telegram

## Throughout Day (9 AM - 6 PM)
- Scan inbox every 30 min, surface emails from VIPs only
- If any calendar event starts in <15 min, remind me

## Evening (6:00 PM)
- Summarize unread Slack messages from #engineering channel
- Check if any tasks in Todoist are overdue

## Anytime
- If flight is <12 hours away, check status and send update
- Don't message me outside 8 AM - 10 PM unless flagged URGENT

Save and exit: Ctrl+X, then Y, then Enter

Prevent late-night notifications by configuring active hours.

{
  "agents": {
    "defaults": {
      "heartbeat": {
        "every": "30m",
        "activeHours": {
          "start": "08:00",
          "end": "22:00"
        }
      }
    }
  },
  "timezone": "America/New_York"  // Set your timezone
}

How it works: Heartbeats only run during activeHours in your configured timezone. Outside this window, the agent stays quiet.

Step 5: Test Your Heartbeat

Force an immediate heartbeat to verify setup.

# Trigger a manual heartbeat
openclaw message send --system '{"event": "heartbeat"}'

Expected: Within a few seconds, you should see either:

  • A message in your configured channel (if something needed attention)
  • Nothing (if agent determined HEARTBEAT_OK)

Check logs for confirmation:

openclaw logs --tail 20

Look for: [Heartbeat] Agent processed heartbeat → HEARTBEAT_OK or similar.

Step 6: Route Heartbeats to a Specific Channel

By default, heartbeats go to your "last used" channel. For dedicated heartbeat messages, target a specific channel.

{
  "agents": {
    "defaults": {
      "heartbeat": {
        "every": "30m",
        "target": "telegram",  // Or "whatsapp", "discord", etc.
        "to": "+15551234567",  // Your phone number or chat ID
        "accountId": "personal-bot"  // For multi-account channels
      }
    }
  }
}

Multi-agent example:

{
  "agents": {
    "list": [
      {
        "id": "personal",
        "default": true
      },
      {
        "id": "work",
        "heartbeat": {
          "every": "1h",
          "target": "slack",
          "to": "@yourself",
          "prompt": "Check #engineering channel for mentions of my name. If nothing urgent, HEARTBEAT_OK."
        }
      }
    ]
  }
}

Verification

After 30 minutes (or your configured interval):

You should see:

  • A message in your configured channel if tasks were found
  • Silence if nothing needed attention (check logs to confirm HEARTBEAT_OK was sent)

Test the full cycle:

  1. Add an urgent email to your inbox
  2. Wait for the next heartbeat (or trigger manually)
  3. Verify the agent surfaces it

Advanced: Dynamic Heartbeat Updates

Your agent can modify HEARTBEAT.md on the fly based on new tasks.

Example conversation:

You: "Add a daily check for my GitHub PRs that need review"

Agent: [Updates HEARTBEAT.md]
"Done. I'll now check your GitHub notifications during heartbeats and flag PRs awaiting your review."

How to enable: In your heartbeat prompt, add:

{
  "prompt": "Read HEARTBEAT.md. Follow it strictly. If the checklist becomes stale or I ask you to modify it, update HEARTBEAT.md accordingly."
}

Safety note: Don't put API keys, passwords, or private tokens in HEARTBEAT.md—it's loaded into the prompt context.

What You Learned

  • Heartbeat turns OpenClaw from reactive to proactive using scheduled check-ins
  • HEARTBEAT.md is a human-readable task list your agent follows
  • Active hours prevent 3 AM notifications about non-urgent tasks
  • Agents send HEARTBEAT_OK when nothing needs attention (no spam)

Key difference from cron: Cron runs tasks blindly. Heartbeat thinks about whether something matters right now based on full context.

Limitation: Heartbeats consume tokens on every wake-up. On Claude Opus 4.5, expect $5-30/day depending on frequency and context size.