15 Cron Job Recipes You Can Set Up in 5 Minutes

OpenClaw's cron system lets you schedule tasks to run automatically. No more forgetting to check your email or missing your morning briefing; these recipes run on autopilot.

#Quick Reference

All cron jobs use the openclaw cron command:

openclaw cron create --name "Job Name" --schedule "0 7 * * *" --task "Task description"

Schedule format: minute hour day month weekday (cron syntax)

• 0 7 * * * = 7:00 AM daily
• 0 */2 * * * = Every 2 hours
• 0 9 * * 1 = 9:00 AM Mondays

#1. Morning Briefing at 7 AM

Start your day with a personalized summary.

openclaw cron create \
  --name "Morning Briefing" \
  --schedule "0 7 * * *" \
  --task "Generate and send morning briefing with weather, calendar events for today, unread email count, top 3 priorities from task manager, and one interesting headline. Send via Telegram."

What it does: Checks weather, calendar, email, tasks, and news at 7 AM, then sends a summary to your preferred channel.

Customize: Change the time, add/remove data sources, or switch to Discord/email delivery.

#2. Email Inbox Check Every 2 Hours

Stay on top of important emails without constant checking.

openclaw cron create \
  --name "Email Check" \
  --schedule "0 */2 * * *" \
  --task "Check Gmail for unread emails from VIP senders (boss, clients, family). If any found, send summary with subject lines and sender names to Telegram."

What it does: Every 2 hours, scans for important emails and alerts you if anything needs attention.

Customize: Adjust frequency, add filters for specific labels or keywords.

#3. Calendar Reminder 1 Hour Before Events

Never miss a meeting again.

openclaw cron create \
  --name "Meeting Reminder" \
  --schedule "0 * * * *" \
  --task "Check Google Calendar for events starting in the next 60 minutes. For each event found, send reminder with event title, time, and any prep notes from the description."

What it does: Runs every hour, alerts you about upcoming meetings with prep time.

Customize: Change to 15/30 minutes before, add Zoom link extraction.

#4. Daily Git Backup of Workspace

Protect your work with automatic backups.

openclaw cron create \
  --name "Daily Git Backup" \
  --schedule "0 23 * * *" \
  --task "Navigate to ~/.openclaw/workspace, git add -A, commit with timestamp message 'Auto backup YYYY-MM-DD', push to origin main. If there are uncommitted changes, include summary in commit message."

What it does: At 11 PM, commits and pushes all workspace changes to git.

Customize: Add multiple workspace folders, include memory files in backup.

#5. Weekly Memory Maintenance

Keep your memory files organized and useful.

openclaw cron create \
  --name "Memory Maintenance" \
  --schedule "0 10 * * 0" \
  --task "Review this week's daily memory files in memory/. Extract key decisions, learnings, and action items. Update MEMORY.md with distilled insights. Archive old daily files to memory/archive/. Send summary of what was added to MEMORY.md."

What it does: Every Sunday at 10 AM, reviews the week's memories and updates long-term storage.

Customize: Change to monthly, add automatic pruning of outdated info.

#6. Social Media Posting Schedule

Maintain consistent social presence.

openclaw cron create \
  --name "Twitter Morning Post" \
  --schedule "0 9 * * *" \
  --task "Check content queue in Notion. If there's a post scheduled for today, publish it to Twitter/X with appropriate hashtags. If queue is empty, generate a tip about AI/automation and post that instead."

What it does: Posts your queued content (or auto-generates something) at 9 AM daily.

Customize: Add LinkedIn, Instagram, or other platforms. Create multiple jobs for different times.

#7. Competitor Price Monitoring

Track competitor pricing automatically.

openclaw cron create \
  --name "Price Check" \
  --schedule "0 12 * * 1" \
  --task "Visit competitor pricing pages using Playwright skill. Extract current prices for key products. Compare to last week's prices in my spreadsheet. If any prices changed by more than 10%, alert me with details."

What it does: Weekly check of competitor prices, alerts on significant changes.

Customize: Change frequency, add more competitors, track features too.

#8. Daily Standup Report Generator

Automate your standup updates.

openclaw cron create \
  --name "Standup Report" \
  --schedule "0 8 * * 1-5" \
  --task "Check Linear for tickets I worked on yesterday (completed, in progress, blocked). Check git commits from yesterday. Summarize: what I completed yesterday, what I'm working on today, any blockers. Post to #standup Slack channel."

What it does: Weekday mornings, generates and posts your standup update.

Customize: Add GitHub PRs, include Jira if that's what you use.

#9. Weekend Project Status Summary

Stay on top of side projects.

openclaw cron create \
  --name "Weekend Project Update" \
  --schedule "0 10 * * 6" \
  --task "Check all GitHub repos I contribute to. Summarize: open PRs needing review, issues assigned to me, recent commits. Check Notion for project tasks. Send summary email with links to everything that needs attention."

What it does: Saturday morning, gives you a complete picture of all your projects.

Customize: Adjust timing, add specific project priorities.

#10. Hourly System Health Check

Monitor your agent's health.

openclaw cron create \
  --name "Health Check" \
  --schedule "0 * * * *" \
  --task "Run 'openclaw status' to check gateway health. Check if any skills have errors in logs. Verify disk space usage. If any issues found, send alert to Telegram with details and suggested fixes."

What it does: Every hour, checks that everything is running smoothly.

Customize: Add memory usage checks, include node health if using paired nodes.

#11. Monthly Subscription Renewal Reminders

Never miss a subscription renewal.

openclaw cron create \
  --name "Renewal Reminders" \
  --schedule "0 9 1 * *" \
  --task "Check my subscriptions spreadsheet. Identify any renewals happening this month. Send email summary with renewal dates and amounts. Flag any that have increased in price since last year."

What it does: First of every month, alerts you about upcoming renewals.

Customize: Integrate with actual billing APIs, add cancellation suggestions.

#12. Daily Blog Post Publisher

Maintain consistent content output.

openclaw cron create \
  --name "Auto Blog Post" \
  --schedule "0 8 * * *" \
  --task "Check my content calendar. If a post is scheduled for today, publish it to my blog (via API or git push). If not, use the Blog Post Generator prompt to create one about trending AI topics, then publish it."

What it does: Publishes scheduled or auto-generated blog posts daily.

Customize: Add SEO optimization, cross-post to Medium/Dev.to.

#13. Weather-Based Activity Suggestions

Get personalized recommendations.

openclaw cron create \
  --name "Weather Suggestions" \
  --schedule "0 7 * * *" \
  --task "Check weather for today. If sunny and warm, suggest outdoor activities from my list. If rainy, suggest indoor projects or learning resources. If snowing, suggest cozy indoor activities. Send suggestion via Telegram with relevant links."

What it does: Recommends activities based on the day's weather.

Customize: Add calendar availability check, include friends' availability.

#14. Weekly Learning Digest (RSS Feeds)

Stay current without drowning in feeds.

openclaw cron create \
  --name "Learning Digest" \
  --schedule "0 18 * * 0" \
  --task "Check all RSS feeds in my reader. Identify top 5 most relevant articles based on my interests (AI, coding, productivity). Summarize each with key takeaways. Send digest email with links and summaries."

What it does: Sunday evening, delivers a curated summary of the week's best content.

Customize: Change frequency, add podcast/video sources.

#15. Nightly Security Scan

Keep your systems secure.

openclaw cron create \
  --name "Security Scan" \
  --schedule "0 2 * * *" \
  --task "Run flaw0 security scanner on my codebase. Check for dependency vulnerabilities with npm audit. Scan for exposed secrets in recent commits. Generate report and email me any findings with severity ratings."

What it does: 2 AM daily, scans for security issues across your projects.

Customize: Add more scanners, auto-create GitHub issues for findings.

#Managing Your Cron Jobs

List all jobs:

openclaw cron list

Every subcommand below takes a job id, which openclaw cron list prints. There is no --name selector and no --enabled flag.

Check job status:

openclaw cron runs <job-id> --limit 5

Remove a job:

openclaw cron remove <job-id>

Pause a job: pausing and resuming are disable and enable, and the docs say to "Use openclaw automations enable <job-id> to resume scheduled runs."

openclaw cron disable <job-id>
openclaw cron enable <job-id>

#Tips for Cron Success

1. Start small: Pick one recipe, get it working, then add more
2. Test first: Run the task manually before scheduling it
3. Monitor early: Check the first few runs to make sure they work
4. Use notifications: Send yourself confirmation when jobs run (at least at first)
5. Review monthly: Check which jobs are actually useful, remove the rest

#What's Next?

Want to go deeper? Check out these guides:

• Heartbeat & Cron Job Configuration: optimize your scheduling strategy
• Cost Optimization: keep API bills under control when running cron jobs
• Sub-Agents Mastery: delegate complex cron tasks to parallel sub-agents

Start with recipe #1 or #4; they're the most universally useful. Happy automating!