AI Bot Automation with Cron Jobs

Overview

Cron jobs transform your AI chatbot from a reactive tool into a proactive assistant. Schedule daily summaries, automated reminders, system checks, and more - all running automatically on your VPS.

What You Can Automate

Daily/Weekly Reports: Weather, news, calendar summary
Reminders: Scheduled messages to channels or DMs
System Monitoring: VPS health checks, usage alerts
Data Tasks: Backup reminders, cleanup operations
Integrations: Sync data, update feeds, check APIs

Cron Basics

Cron Syntax

┌───────────── minute (0-59)
│ ┌───────────── hour (0-24)
│ │ ┌───────────── day of month (1-31)
│ │ │ ┌───────────── month (1-12)
│ │ │ │ ┌───────────── day of week (0-6, Sunday=0)
│ │ │ │ │
* * * * * command

Common Schedules

| Schedule | Cron Expression | |----------|-----------------| | Every hour | 0 * * * * | | Daily at 9 AM | 0 9 * * * | | Weekly Monday 8 AM | 0 8 * * 1 | | First of month | 0 0 1 * * | | Every 15 minutes | */15 * * * * |

Setup Guide

Step 1: Create Automation Scripts

Create a scripts directory:

mkdir -p /opt/openclaw/scripts

Step 2: Example - Daily Summary

Create /opt/openclaw/scripts/daily-summary.js:

const fetch = require('node-fetch');

const WEBHOOK_URL = process.env.DISCORD_WEBHOOK;
const CHANNEL_ID = process.env.SUMMARY_CHANNEL;

async function sendDailySummary() {
  const today = new Date().toLocaleDateString('en-GB');

  // Gather data for summary
  const summary = {
    date: today,
    weather: await getWeather(),
    tasks: await getTodaysTasks(),
    reminders: await getReminders()
  };

  // Send via webhook or bot API
  await sendMessage(CHANNEL_ID, formatSummary(summary));
}

sendDailySummary().catch(console.error);

Step 3: Make Executable

chmod +x /opt/openclaw/scripts/daily-summary.js

Step 4: Add to Crontab

crontab -e

Add your scheduled tasks:

# Daily summary at 8 AM
0 8 * * * cd /opt/openclaw && /usr/bin/node scripts/daily-summary.js >> /var/log/bot-cron.log 2>&1

# Weekly report every Monday at 9 AM
0 9 * * 1 cd /opt/openclaw && /usr/bin/node scripts/weekly-report.js >> /var/log/bot-cron.log 2>&1

# Hourly health check
0 * * * * cd /opt/openclaw && /usr/bin/node scripts/health-check.js >> /var/log/bot-cron.log 2>&1

Practical Automation Examples

Morning Briefing

Send a morning briefing to your Discord channel:

// scripts/morning-brief.js
async function morningBrief() {
  const brief = `
**Good Morning! ☀️**

📅 **Date:** ${new Date().toLocaleDateString('en-GB', { weekday: 'long', day: 'numeric', month: 'long' })}

🌤️ **Weather:** ${await getWeather('London')}

📰 **Top Headlines:**
${await getHeadlines(3)}

📋 **Your Day:**
${await getCalendarEvents()}

Have a productive day!
  `;

  await sendToChannel(process.env.BRIEFING_CHANNEL, brief);
}

Schedule: 0 7 * * 1-5 (7 AM weekdays)

Server Health Monitor

Alert if VPS resources are critical:

// scripts/health-check.js
const os = require('os');

async function healthCheck() {
  const memUsage = (1 - os.freemem() / os.totalmem()) * 100;
  const loadAvg = os.loadavg()[0];

  const alerts = [];

  if (memUsage > 90) {
    alerts.push(`⚠️ Memory usage critical: ${memUsage.toFixed(1)}%`);
  }

  if (loadAvg > os.cpus().length * 2) {
    alerts.push(`⚠️ CPU load high: ${loadAvg.toFixed(2)}`);
  }

  if (alerts.length > 0) {
    await sendAlert(alerts.join('\n'));
  }
}

Schedule: */15 * * * * (every 15 minutes)

Automated Backup Reminder

// scripts/backup-reminder.js
async function backupReminder() {
  const lastBackup = await getLastBackupDate();
  const daysSince = (Date.now() - lastBackup) / (1000 * 60 * 60 * 24);

  if (daysSince > 7) {
    await sendDM(process.env.ADMIN_USER,
      `🔔 Reminder: It's been ${Math.floor(daysSince)} days since your last backup. Consider backing up your bot data.`
    );
  }
}

Schedule: 0 10 * * * (daily at 10 AM)

Weekly Activity Report

// scripts/weekly-report.js
async function weeklyReport() {
  const stats = await getBotStats();

  const report = `
**📊 Weekly Bot Report**

**Messages Processed:** ${stats.messages}
**Active Users:** ${stats.users}
**Avg Response Time:** ${stats.avgResponseTime}ms
**Errors:** ${stats.errors}

**Top Commands:**
${stats.topCommands.map((c, i) => `${i+1}. ${c.name}: ${c.count}`).join('\n')}

**Cost Summary:**
API calls: ${stats.apiCalls}
Estimated cost: £${stats.estimatedCost.toFixed(2)}
  `;

  await sendToChannel(process.env.REPORTS_CHANNEL, report);
}

Schedule: 0 9 * * 1 (Monday 9 AM)

Using Environment Variables

Create a cron-specific env file:

# /opt/openclaw/.env.cron
DISCORD_WEBHOOK=https://discord.com/api/webhooks/...
ADMIN_USER=123456789
BRIEFING_CHANNEL=987654321
WEATHER_API_KEY=your-key

Load in cron jobs:

0 8 * * * . /opt/openclaw/.env.cron && cd /opt/openclaw && node scripts/morning-brief.js

Logging Best Practices

Dedicated Log File

# Create log with rotation
0 8 * * * cd /opt/openclaw && node scripts/task.js >> /var/log/bot-automation.log 2>&1

Log Rotation

Create /etc/logrotate.d/bot-automation:

/var/log/bot-automation.log {
    daily
    rotate 7
    compress
    missingok
    notifempty
}

Error Handling

Notify on Failure

// Wrapper for all scripts
async function runWithNotification(task) {
  try {
    await task();
  } catch (error) {
    await sendAlert(`❌ Automation failed: ${error.message}`);
    process.exit(1);
  }
}

runWithNotification(morningBrief);

Retry Logic

async function withRetry(fn, attempts = 3) {
  for (let i = 0; i < attempts; i++) {
    try {
      return await fn();
    } catch (error) {
      if (i === attempts - 1) throw error;
      await sleep(5000 * (i + 1)); // Exponential backoff
    }
  }
}

PM2 Alternative

For complex scheduling, use PM2 cron:

// ecosystem.config.js
module.exports = {
  apps: [
    {
      name: 'daily-summary',
      script: './scripts/daily-summary.js',
      cron_restart: '0 8 * * *',
      autorestart: false
    },
    {
      name: 'health-check',
      script: './scripts/health-check.js',
      cron_restart: '*/15 * * * *',
      autorestart: false
    }
  ]
};

Start: pm2 start ecosystem.config.js

Security Considerations

Limit Script Permissions

# Run cron as dedicated user
sudo -u botuser crontab -e

Don't Store Secrets in Scripts

Always use environment variables or secure vaults.

Monitor Cron Execution

# Check cron logs
grep CRON /var/log/syslog | tail -20

Troubleshooting

Cron not running

Check cron service: systemctl status cron
Verify syntax: crontab -l
Check user has cron access

Script works manually but not in cron

Use absolute paths
Set PATH in crontab
Load environment explicitly

PATH=/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin
0 8 * * * cd /opt/openclaw && node scripts/task.js

Time zone issues

# Set timezone in crontab
TZ=Europe/London
0 8 * * * cd /opt/openclaw && node scripts/task.js

Related Guides

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