Background Tasks
Cron vs Heartbeat vs Tasks? See Cron vs Heartbeat for choosing the right scheduling mechanism. This page covers tracking background work, not scheduling it.
Background tasks track work that runs outside your main conversation session:
ACP runs, subagent spawns, isolated cron job executions, and CLI-initiated operations.
Tasks do not replace sessions, cron jobs, or heartbeats — they are the activity ledger that records what detached work happened, when, and whether it succeeded.
Not every agent run creates a task. Heartbeat turns and normal interactive chat do not. All cron executions, ACP spawns, subagent spawns, and CLI agent commands do.
TL;DR
- Tasks are records, not schedulers — cron and heartbeat decide when work runs, tasks track what happened.
- ACP, subagents, all cron jobs, and CLI operations create tasks. Heartbeat turns do not.
- Each task moves through
queued → running → terminal (succeeded, failed, timed_out, cancelled, or lost).
- Completion notifications are delivered directly to a channel or queued for the next heartbeat.
openclaw tasks list shows all tasks; openclaw tasks audit surfaces issues.- Terminal records are kept for 7 days, then automatically pruned.
Quick start
# List all tasks (newest first)
openclaw tasks list
# Filter by runtime or status
openclaw tasks list --runtime acp
openclaw tasks list --status running
# Show details for a specific task (by ID, run ID, or session key)
openclaw tasks show <lookup>
# Cancel a running task (kills the child session)
openclaw tasks cancel <lookup>
# Change notification policy for a task
openclaw tasks notify <lookup> state_changes
# Run a health audit
openclaw tasks audit
What creates a task
| Source | Runtime type | When a task record is created | Default notify policy |
|---|
| ACP background runs | acp | Spawning a child ACP session | done_only |
| Subagent orchestration | subagent | Spawning a subagent via sessions_spawn | done_only |
| Cron jobs (all types) | cron | Every cron execution (main-session and isolated) | silent |
| CLI operations | cli | openclaw agent commands that run through the gateway | done_only |
silent notify policy by default — they create records for tracking but do not generate notifications. Isolated cron tasks also default to silent but are more visible because they run in their own session.
What does not create tasks:
- Heartbeat turns — main-session; see Heartbeat
- Normal interactive chat turns
- Direct
/command responses
Task lifecycle
| Status | What it means |
|---|
queued | Created, waiting for the agent to start |
running | Agent turn is actively executing |
succeeded | Completed successfully |
failed | Completed with an error |
timed_out | Exceeded the configured timeout |
cancelled | Stopped by the operator via openclaw tasks cancel |
lost | Backing child session disappeared (detected after a 5-minute grace period) |
Delivery and notifications
When a task reaches a terminal state, OpenClaw notifies you. There are two delivery paths:
Direct delivery — if the task has a channel target (the requesterOrigin), the completion message goes straight to that channel (Telegram, Discord, Slack, etc.).
Session-queued delivery — if direct delivery fails or no origin is set, the update is queued as a system event in the requester’s session and surfaces on the next heartbeat.
Task completion triggers an immediate heartbeat wake so you see the result quickly — you do not have to wait for the next scheduled heartbeat tick.
Notification policies
Control how much you hear about each task:
| Policy | What is delivered |
|---|
done_only (default) | Only terminal state (succeeded, failed, etc.) — this is the default |
state_changes | Every state transition and progress update |
silent | Nothing at all |
openclaw tasks notify <lookup> state_changes
CLI reference
tasks list
openclaw tasks list [--runtime <acp|subagent|cron|cli>] [--status <status>] [--json]
tasks show
openclaw tasks show <lookup>
tasks cancel
openclaw tasks cancel <lookup>
cancelled and a delivery notification is sent.
tasks notify
openclaw tasks notify <lookup> <done_only|state_changes|silent>
tasks audit
openclaw tasks audit [--json]
openclaw status when issues are detected.
| Finding | Severity | Trigger |
|---|
stale_queued | warn | Queued for more than 10 minutes |
stale_running | error | Running for more than 30 minutes |
lost | error | Backing session is gone |
delivery_failed | warn | Delivery failed and notify policy is not silent |
missing_cleanup | warn | Terminal task with no cleanup timestamp |
inconsistent_timestamps | warn | Timeline violation (for example ended before started) |
Status integration (task pressure)
openclaw status includes an at-a-glance task summary:
Tasks: 3 queued · 2 running · 1 issues
- active — count of
queued + running
- failures — count of
failed + timed_out + lost
- byRuntime — breakdown by
acp, subagent, cron, cli
Storage and maintenance
Where tasks live
Task records persist in SQLite at:
$OPENCLAW_STATE_DIR/tasks/runs.sqlite
Automatic maintenance
A sweeper runs every 60 seconds and handles three things:
- Reconciliation — checks if active tasks’ backing sessions still exist. If a child session has been gone for more than 5 minutes, the task is marked
lost.
- Cleanup stamping — sets a
cleanupAfter timestamp on terminal tasks (endedAt + 7 days).
- Pruning — deletes records past their
cleanupAfter date.
Retention: terminal task records are kept for 7 days, then automatically pruned. No configuration needed.
How tasks relate to other systems
Tasks and cron
A cron job definition lives in ~/.openclaw/cron/jobs.json. Every cron execution creates a task record — both main-session and isolated. Main-session cron tasks default to silent notify policy so they track without generating notifications.
See Cron Jobs.
Tasks and heartbeat
Heartbeat runs are main-session turns — they do not create task records. When a task completes, it can trigger a heartbeat wake so you see the result promptly.
See Heartbeat.
Tasks and sessions
A task may reference a childSessionKey (where work runs) and a requesterSessionKey (who started it). Sessions are conversation context; tasks are activity tracking on top of that.
Tasks and agent runs
A task’s runId links to the agent run doing the work. Agent lifecycle events (start, end, error) automatically update the task status — you do not need to manage the lifecycle manually.
