Auto-Watchdog 🐕

Your OpenClaw setup runs 24/7. But what watches the watchers?

Auto-Watchdog monitors everything and fixes what it can — silently. You only hear about real problems.

Features

1. Cron Health Monitor

Checks all cron jobs every heartbeat:

• consecutiveErrors > 0 → immediate alert
• Job not running when expected → alert
• Disabled jobs piling up → cleanup recommendation

2. Process Guardian

Monitors critical processes by log freshness (not just PID):

• Log file not updated in X minutes → kill + restart
• Works with any Node.js process
• Configurable per-process thresholds

3. Disk Monitor

• Log files growing too large → auto-rotate
• Workspace size alerts
• Temp file cleanup

4. Gateway Health

• Checks openclaw gateway status every heartbeat
• Auto-restart if down (via Task Scheduler or systemd)

5. Silent by Default

• Everything OK → no output (HEARTBEAT_OK)
• Issue found → targeted alert to your chat
• No spam. No unnecessary reports.

Setup

Add to HEARTBEAT.md:

## 🔍 Health Check (silent = good)

### Crons
- `cron list` → check consecutiveErrors > 0 → alert
- Frequent crons not running >2 hours → alert

### Processes
- Check [your process] log freshness < [X] minutes
- If stale → restart and alert

### Gateway
- `openclaw gateway status` → alert if down

### Disk
- Check log sizes > 10MB → rotate
- Check workspace size > 1GB → alert

For Windows (Task Scheduler Guardian):

Create a VBS wrapper for zero-flash execution:

' guardian-silent.vbs — zero flash process monitor
Set oShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
oShell.Run "powershell.exe -NonInteractive -WindowStyle Hidden -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File ""C:\path\to\guardian.ps1""", 0, True

Register as Task Scheduler job running every 1-5 minutes.

For Linux (systemd):

# /etc/systemd/system/openclaw-watchdog.service
[Service]
ExecStart=/usr/bin/node /path/to/guardian.js
Restart=always
RestartSec=60

Philosophy

> Monitor by output freshness, not PID.

> A process can be "alive" but stuck. Check its log timestamp.

> Fix first, alert second.

> If you can restart it automatically, do it. Only alert for things that need human intervention.

> Silent = healthy.

> No news is good news. Only speak up when something breaks.

Production-Tested

Built for a 24/7 autonomous trading system with:

• 5 competing AI agents
• 20+ cron jobs
• Strategy researcher running 23h/day
• Zero downtime over weeks of operation