Create Your First Morning Briefing

Now for the fun part — you'll create a cron job that sends you a morning briefing every day. OpenClaw's cron system is built into the Gateway, so there's nothing extra to install.

Create the cron job

Run this command to schedule a daily briefing at 7:00 AM:

openclaw cron add \
  --name "Morning Briefing" \
  --cron "0 7 * * *" \
  --tz "America/New_York" \
  --session isolated \
  --message "Give me a morning briefing for today. Include:
1. A friendly greeting with today's date and day of the week
2. A motivational quote or interesting fact
3. A summary of what's likely happening in the world today (major news, tech, business)
4. 3 productivity tips or reminders for having a great day

Format it as a clean, easy-to-read message with emoji section headers. Keep it concise — aim for a message I can read in under 60 seconds." \
  --announce \
  --channel telegram \
  --to "CHAT_ID"

Replace the values:

America/New_York — your timezone (list of timezone names)
CHAT_ID — your Telegram chat ID from the previous lesson

Flag	Purpose
`--cron "0 7 * * *"`	Runs at minute 0, hour 7, every day. Standard cron syntax.
`--tz`	Ensures 7 AM means 7 AM in your timezone
`--session isolated`	Each run gets a fresh context (no memory bleed between days)
`--announce`	Sends the response to the chat channel
`--channel` and `--to`	Where to deliver the message

Verify the job was created

List your cron jobs to confirm:

List jobs

openclaw cron list

You should see your "Morning Briefing" job with its schedule and next run time.

Test it right now

Don't want to wait until 7 AM? Run the job immediately:

Run now

openclaw cron run <job-id>

Replace <job-id> with the ID shown in openclaw cron list. Within a few seconds, you should receive a briefing message in your Telegram chat.

Iterate on the prompt

If the output isn't quite right, edit the prompt and test again:

Edit prompt

openclaw cron edit <job-id> --message 'Your updated prompt here'

Then run it again with openclaw cron run <job-id> to test.

Adjust the schedule (optional)

Skip weekends:

Weekdays at 7 AM

openclaw cron edit <job-id> --cron '0 7 * * 1-5'

Common cron patterns:

Pattern	Meaning
`0 7 * * *`	Every day at 7:00 AM
`0 7 * * 1-5`	Weekdays only at 7:00 AM
`0 9 * * 0,6`	Weekends only at 9:00 AM
`30 6 * * *`	Every day at 6:30 AM
`0 7,18 * * *`	Twice daily: 7 AM and 6 PM

What You Have So Far

Your briefing is now working. Every morning at 7:00 AM, OpenClaw will:

Wake up (isolated session, no prior context)
Run your prompt through the AI model
Generate a formatted briefing
Send it to your Telegram chat

This version uses the AI's general knowledge — it's great for motivational content, date facts, and general tips. But it doesn't yet have real-time data like your actual weather, calendar, or tasks.

That's what the next lesson covers.

Knowledge Check

What flag ensures each morning briefing starts with a fresh AI context?

Already useful!

Even without real-time data, this basic briefing is genuinely useful. Many people stop here and are happy with a daily motivational message and reminders. The next lessons are for those who want to go further.

Create Your First Morning Briefing

Create Your First Morning Briefing

Create the cron job

Verify the job was created

Test it right now

Adjust the schedule (optional)

What You Have So Far

Configuring Reliable Cron Jobs in OpenClaw