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Heartbeat (Gateway)

Heartbeat vs Cron? See Cron vs Heartbeat for guidance on when to use each.
Heartbeat runs periodic agent turns in the main session so the model can surface anything that needs attention without spamming you.

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Quick start (beginner)

  1. Leave heartbeats enabled (default is 30m, or 1h for Anthropic OAuth/setup-token) or set your own cadence.
  2. Create a tiny HEARTBEAT.md checklist in the agent workspace (optional but recommended).
  3. Decide where heartbeat messages should go (target: "last" is the default).
  4. Optional: enable heartbeat reasoning delivery for transparency.
  5. Optional: restrict heartbeats to active hours (local time).
Example config: 
{
  agents: {
    defaults: {
      heartbeat: {
        every: "30m",
        target: "last",
        // activeHours: { start: "08:00", end: "24:00" },
        // includeReasoning: true, // optional: send separate `Reasoning:` message too
      }
    }
  }
}

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Defaults

  • Interval: 30m (or 1h when Anthropic OAuth/setup-token is the detected auth mode). Set agents.defaults.heartbeat.every or per-agent agents.list[].heartbeat.every; use 0m to disable.
  • Prompt body (configurable via agents.defaults.heartbeat.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.
  • The heartbeat prompt is sent verbatim as the user message. The system prompt includes a “Heartbeat” section and the run is flagged internally.
  • Active hours (heartbeat.activeHours) are checked in the configured timezone. Outside the window, heartbeats are skipped until the next tick inside the window.

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What the heartbeat prompt is for

The default prompt is intentionally broad:
  • Background tasks: “Consider outstanding tasks” nudges the agent to review follow-ups (inbox, calendar, reminders, queued work) and surface anything urgent.
  • Human check-in: “Checkup sometimes on your human during day time” nudges an occasional lightweight “anything you need?” message, but avoids night-time spam by using your configured local timezone (see /concepts/timezone).
If you want a heartbeat to do something very specific (e.g. “check Gmail PubSub stats” or “verify gateway health”), set agents.defaults.heartbeat.prompt (or agents.list[].heartbeat.prompt) to a custom body (sent verbatim).

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Response contract

  • If nothing needs attention, reply with HEARTBEAT_OK.
  • During heartbeat runs, Clawdia treats HEARTBEAT_OK as an ack when it appears at the start or end of the reply. The token is stripped and the reply is dropped if the remaining content is ≤ ackMaxChars (default: 300).
  • If HEARTBEAT_OK appears in the middle of a reply, it is not treated specially.
  • For alerts, do not include HEARTBEAT_OK; return only the alert text.
Outside heartbeats, stray HEARTBEAT_OK at the start/end of a message is stripped and logged; a message that is only HEARTBEAT_OK is dropped.

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Config

{
  agents: {
    defaults: {
      heartbeat: {
        every: "30m",           // default: 30m (0m disables)
        model: "anthropic/claude-opus-4-5",
        includeReasoning: false, // default: false (deliver separate Reasoning: message when available)
        target: "last",         // last | none | <channel id> (core or plugin, e.g. "bluebubbles")
        to: "+15551234567",     // optional channel-specific override
        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 allowed after HEARTBEAT_OK
      }
    }
  }
}

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Scope and precedence

  • agents.defaults.heartbeat sets global heartbeat behavior.
  • agents.list[].heartbeat merges on top; if any agent has a heartbeat block, only those agents run heartbeats.
  • channels.defaults.heartbeat sets visibility defaults for all channels.
  • channels.<channel>.heartbeat overrides channel defaults.
  • channels.<channel>.accounts.<id>.heartbeat (multi-account channels) overrides per-channel settings.

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Per-agent heartbeats

If any agents.list[] entry includes a heartbeat block, only those agents run heartbeats. The per-agent block merges on top of agents.defaults.heartbeat (so you can set shared defaults once and override per agent). Example: two agents, only the second agent runs heartbeats. 
{
  agents: {
    defaults: {
      heartbeat: {
        every: "30m",
        target: "last"
      }
    },
    list: [
      { id: "main", default: true },
      {
        id: "ops",
        heartbeat: {
          every: "1h",
          target: "whatsapp",
          to: "+15551234567",
          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."
        }
      }
    ]
  }
}

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Field notes

  • every: heartbeat interval (duration string; default unit = minutes).
  • model: optional model override for heartbeat runs (provider/model).
  • includeReasoning: when enabled, also deliver the separate Reasoning: message when available (same shape as /reasoning on).
  • session: optional session key for heartbeat runs.
    • main (default): agent main session.
    • Explicit session key (copy from clawdia sessions --json or the sessions CLI).
    • Session key formats: see Sessions and Groups.
  • target:
    • last (default): deliver to the last used external channel.
    • explicit channel: whatsapp / telegram / discord / googlechat / slack / msteams / signal / imessage.
    • none: run the heartbeat but do not deliver externally.
  • to: optional recipient override (channel-specific id, e.g. E.164 for WhatsApp or a Telegram chat id).
  • prompt: overrides the default prompt body (not merged).
  • ackMaxChars: max chars allowed after HEARTBEAT_OK before delivery.

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Delivery behavior

  • Heartbeats run in the agent’s main session by default (agent:<id>:<mainKey>), or global when session.scope = "global". Set session to override to a specific channel session (Discord/WhatsApp/etc.).
  • session only affects the run context; delivery is controlled by target and to.
  • To deliver to a specific channel/recipient, set target + to. With target: "last", delivery uses the last external channel for that session.
  • If the main queue is busy, the heartbeat is skipped and retried later.
  • If target resolves to no external destination, the run still happens but no outbound message is sent.
  • Heartbeat-only replies do not keep the session alive; the last updatedAt is restored so idle expiry behaves normally.

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Visibility controls

By default, HEARTBEAT_OK acknowledgments are suppressed while alert content is delivered. You can adjust this per channel or per account: 
channels:
  defaults:
    heartbeat:
      showOk: false      # Hide HEARTBEAT_OK (default)
      showAlerts: true   # Show alert messages (default)
      useIndicator: true # Emit indicator events (default)
  telegram:
    heartbeat:
      showOk: true       # Show OK acknowledgments on Telegram
  whatsapp:
    accounts:
      work:
        heartbeat:
          showAlerts: false # Suppress alert delivery for this account
Precedence: per-account → per-channel → channel defaults → built-in defaults.

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What each flag does

  • showOk: sends a HEARTBEAT_OK acknowledgment when the model returns an OK-only reply.
  • showAlerts: sends the alert content when the model returns a non-OK reply.
  • useIndicator: emits indicator events for UI status surfaces.
If all three are false, Clawdia skips the heartbeat run entirely (no model call).

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Per-channel vs per-account examples

channels:
  defaults:
    heartbeat:
      showOk: false
      showAlerts: true
      useIndicator: true
  slack:
    heartbeat:
      showOk: true # all Slack accounts
    accounts:
      ops:
        heartbeat:
          showAlerts: false # suppress alerts for the ops account only
  telegram:
    heartbeat:
      showOk: true

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Common patterns

GoalConfig
Default behavior (silent OKs, alerts on)(no config needed)
Fully silent (no messages, no indicator)channels.defaults.heartbeat: { showOk: false, showAlerts: false, useIndicator: false }
Indicator-only (no messages)channels.defaults.heartbeat: { showOk: false, showAlerts: false, useIndicator: true }
OKs in one channel onlychannels.telegram.heartbeat: { showOk: true }

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HEARTBEAT.md (optional)

If a HEARTBEAT.md file exists in the workspace, the default prompt tells the agent to read it. Think of it as your “heartbeat checklist”: small, stable, and safe to include every 30 minutes. If HEARTBEAT.md exists but is effectively empty (only blank lines and markdown headers like # Heading), Clawdia skips the heartbeat run to save API calls. If the file is missing, the heartbeat still runs and the model decides what to do. Keep it tiny (short checklist or reminders) to avoid prompt bloat. Example HEARTBEAT.md: 
# Heartbeat checklist

- Quick scan: anything urgent in inboxes?
- If it’s daytime, do a lightweight check-in if nothing else is pending.
- If a task is blocked, write down *what is missing* and ask Peter next time.

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Can the agent update HEARTBEAT.md?

Yes — if you ask it to. HEARTBEAT.md is just a normal file in the agent workspace, so you can tell the agent (in a normal chat) something like:
  • “Update HEARTBEAT.md to add a daily calendar check.”
  • “Rewrite HEARTBEAT.md so it’s shorter and focused on inbox follow-ups.”
If you want this to happen proactively, you can also include an explicit line in your heartbeat prompt like: “If the checklist becomes stale, update HEARTBEAT.md with a better one.” Safety note: don’t put secrets (API keys, phone numbers, private tokens) into HEARTBEAT.md — it becomes part of the prompt context.

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Manual wake (on-demand)

You can enqueue a system event and trigger an immediate heartbeat with: 
clawdia system event --text "Check for urgent follow-ups" --mode now
If multiple agents have heartbeat configured, a manual wake runs each of those agent heartbeats immediately. Use --mode next-heartbeat to wait for the next scheduled tick.

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Reasoning delivery (optional)

By default, heartbeats deliver only the final “answer” payload. If you want transparency, enable:
  • agents.defaults.heartbeat.includeReasoning: true
When enabled, heartbeats will also deliver a separate message prefixed Reasoning: (same shape as /reasoning on). This can be useful when the agent is managing multiple sessions/codexes and you want to see why it decided to ping you — but it can also leak more internal detail than you want. Prefer keeping it off in group chats.

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Cost awareness

Heartbeats run full agent turns. Shorter intervals burn more tokens. Keep HEARTBEAT.md small and consider a cheaper model or target: "none" if you only want internal state updates.