Help my Heartbeat!

[tender steeple]

Hi — trying to set per-agent heartbeat intervals. The doctor output shows Heartbeat interval: 30m (jack) but I can't find the correct config key.

Tried and rejected:

• agents.defaults.heartbeat.interval: "24h" → Unrecognized key
• agents.list[n].heartbeat.intervalMinutes: 1440 → Unrecognized key
• Top-level heartbeat: {} → Unrecognized key

What I want:

• Jack: every 30 min, 7am–9pm daily
• Tess/Faith/Grace/Mandy/Jane: hourly, 9am–7pm Mon–Sat
• Jessica/Olivia/Whitney/Violet: as needed only

Version: OpenClaw 2026.4.15

What's the correct config schema for per-agent heartbeat frequency and time windows?

[ionic locust]

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[crude pike]

The right keys are:

• agents.defaults.heartbeat.every
• agents.list[].heartbeat.every
• agents.list[].heartbeat.activeHours.start
• agents.list[].heartbeat.activeHours.end
• agents.list[].heartbeat.activeHours.timezone

So the current schema is every, not interval / intervalMinutes.

A good pattern for your setup is:

{
  agents: {
    defaults: {

      userTimezone: "America/Chicago", // or your real TZ
      heartbeat: {
        every: "1h",
        activeHours: {
          start: "09:00",
          end: "19:00",
          timezone: "user",
        },
      },
    },
    list: [
      {
        id: "jack",
        heartbeat: {
          every: "30m",

          activeHours: {
            start: "07:00",
            end: "21:00",
            timezone: "user",
          },
        },
      },

      { id: "tess", heartbeat: {} },
      { id: "faith", heartbeat: {} },
      { id: "grace", heartbeat: {} },
      { id: "mandy", heartbeat: {} },
      { id: "jane", heartbeat: {} },

      { id: "jessica" },

      { id: "olivia" },
      { id: "whitney" },
      { id: "violet" }
    ],
  },
}

Important bit: if any agent has a heartbeat block, then only those agents run heartbeats. So for your “as needed only” agents, just omit the heartbeat block entirely.

One limitation though: in 2026.4.15, heartbeat supports daily time windows only (start, end, timezone). There is no weekday / Mon-Sat field in heartbeat config. So:

• Jack, 30m, 7am to 9pm daily: ✅
• Tess/Faith/Grace/Mandy/Jane, hourly, 9am to 7pm: ✅
• Mon-Sat only: ❌ not with heartbeat alone