https://www.chenk.top/en/tags/cron/Recent content in Cron on Chen Kai BlogHugoenWed, 15 Apr 2026 09:00:00 +0000https://www.chenk.top/en/openclaw-quickstart/08-cron-and-heartbeat/Wed, 15 Apr 2026 09:00:00 +0000https://www.chenk.top/en/openclaw-quickstart/08-cron-and-heartbeat/<p>The first time I deployed OpenClaw I sat there sending it messages. After two days I realized I had built a chatbot, not an agent. The thing that made it an agent was the moment it started messaging <em>me</em> without being asked.</p> <p>This piece is about the two ways to make that happen.</p> <p><figure class="article-figure"> <img src="https://blog-pic-ck.oss-cn-beijing.aliyuncs.com/posts/en/openclaw-quickstart/08-cron-and-heartbeat/illustration_1.png" alt="OpenClaw QuickStart (8): Heartbeat, Cron, and Getting Pinged at 7am — Chapter overview" loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="content-image"> </figure> </p> <hr> <h2 id="heartbeat-vs-cron--pick-one-in-your-head" class="heading-anchor">Heartbeat vs Cron — pick one in your head<a href="#heartbeat-vs-cron--pick-one-in-your-head" class="heading-link" aria-label="Permalink to this section" title="Copy link to this section">#</a> </h2><p><figure class="article-figure"> <img src="https://blog-pic-ck.oss-cn-beijing.aliyuncs.com/posts/en/openclaw-quickstart/08-cron-and-heartbeat/fig_hb_vs_cron.png" alt="Heartbeat vs Cron scheduling model comparison" loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="content-image"> </figure> </p>https://www.chenk.top/en/openclaw-quickstart/06-skills-and-mcp/Mon, 13 Apr 2026 09:00:00 +0000https://www.chenk.top/en/openclaw-quickstart/06-skills-and-mcp/<p>After five pieces, you have a working OpenClaw with a chat channel. This is where it stops being a demo.</p> <p><figure class="article-figure"> <img src="https://blog-pic-ck.oss-cn-beijing.aliyuncs.com/posts/en/openclaw-quickstart/06-skills-and-mcp/illustration_1.png" alt="OpenClaw QuickStart (6): Skills, MCP, and Shipping Something Real — Chapter overview" loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="content-image"> </figure> </p> <hr> <h2 id="what-well-build" class="heading-anchor">What we&rsquo;ll build<a href="#what-well-build" class="heading-link" aria-label="Permalink to this section" title="Copy link to this section">#</a> </h2><p><figure class="article-figure"> <img src="https://blog-pic-ck.oss-cn-beijing.aliyuncs.com/posts/en/openclaw-quickstart/06-skills-and-mcp/fig_skills.png" alt="Skill composition pipeline — from trigger to tool execution" loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="content-image"> </figure> </p> <p>A morning-briefing agent that:</p> <ol> <li>Runs at 7am every weekday</li> <li>Fetches the top headlines from Hacker News (via a Playwright MCP server)</li> <li>Reads my calendar for the day (via a Skill that wraps <code>gcalcli</code>)</li> <li>Summarizes both into a paragraph and pushes it to my Telegram</li> </ol> <p>This is a real workflow. By the end, you&rsquo;ll have the structure to swap in your own data sources. But first, let&rsquo;s understand the two systems we&rsquo;re combining.</p>