5 OpenClaw Automations That Will Save You 10 Hours a Week
Automations aren't about replacing your judgment — they're about eliminating repetitive grunt work so you can focus on what actually matters. These 5 automations are copy-paste ready with full cron configs.
How OpenClaw Cron Jobs Work
OpenClaw supports scheduled tasks via cron syntax in your config. Unlike system cron, these jobs run through your AI agent — so they can browse the web, write files, send Telegram messages, call APIs, and do anything else your agent can do.
{
"crons": [
{
"schedule": "0 8 * * 1-5",
"message": "Your task instruction here",
"model": "anthropic/claude-haiku-4",
"channel": "telegram",
"enabled": true
}
]
}Common cron patterns:
0 8 * * 1-58:00 AM, Monday–Friday0 * * * *Every hour*/15 * * * *Every 15 minutes0 9 * * 1Every Monday at 9 AMDaily Morning Briefing
Every morning you probably check: email, news, calendar, market prices, maybe GitHub. This automation does all of that in parallel and delivers a consolidated briefing to Telegram before you're out of bed.
{
"schedule": "0 7 * * 1-5",
"message": "Generate my morning briefing. Use parallel sub-agents to simultaneously: (1) fetch BTC, ETH, SOL prices + 24h change, (2) summarize top 5 tech news from HN and Twitter, (3) check my calendar for today's events, (4) check inbox for any urgent emails. Compile into a clean briefing and send to Telegram.",
"model": "anthropic/claude-haiku-4",
"channel": "telegram",
"enabled": true
}Auto-Deploy on Command
Instead of SSH-ing into servers, running build commands, checking logs, and deploying manually — just message your agent "deploy prod" and it handles the whole pipeline, then reports back.
## Deploy Commands When I say "deploy prod" or "deploy production": 1. cd to the project directory 2. Run: git pull origin main 3. Run: npm run build 4. If build succeeds: run deploy script 5. Check logs for errors 6. Report status to me via Telegram When I say "deploy staging": - Same flow but to staging environment - Always report build output and deploy URL
Add this to SOUL.md, not the cron config — it's triggered on demand.
Always test deploy automations manually first. Start with enabled: false and confirm it behaves correctly.
Email Triage via Himalaya Skill
Email is a time sink. This automation scans your inbox every morning, categorizes emails by priority, drafts responses for routine messages, and flags anything that needs your actual attention.
{
"schedule": "0 8 * * 1-5",
"message": "Run email triage: (1) Use himalaya to fetch unread emails from last 24h. (2) Categorize by priority: urgent (needs reply today), important (reply within 48h), FYI (no action needed), spam/newsletter (archive). (3) For routine/simple emails, draft a response. (4) Send a summary to Telegram: count by category, list urgent items with suggested actions. NEVER send any emails without my explicit confirmation.",
"model": "anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-6",
"channel": "telegram",
"enabled": true
}Always include "NEVER send emails without confirmation" in email automation prompts. The agent should triage and draft — you approve before anything goes out.
Web Research → Telegram Summary
Stay on top of your industry without spending 30 minutes reading articles. This automation monitors specific topics, sources, and keywords — and delivers a curated summary twice a week.
{
"schedule": "0 9 * * 2,4",
"message": "Run industry research. Use parallel sub-agents to simultaneously: (1) search HN for posts about AI agents, openclaw, automation in last 7 days, (2) check /r/MachineLearning and /r/LocalLLaMA for top posts this week, (3) search web for 'OpenClaw news' and 'AI automation tools 2026'. Summarize top 5-7 most interesting items. Format as bullet points. Send to Telegram.",
"model": "anthropic/claude-haiku-4",
"channel": "telegram",
"enabled": true
}GitHub PR Monitor
Never miss a PR review request, failing CI build, or stale PR again. This automation checks your GitHub activity and surfaces anything that needs attention.
{
"schedule": "0 */3 * * *",
"message": "Check GitHub activity: (1) List any PRs waiting for my review across all repos, (2) Check if any CI jobs are failing on my recent PRs, (3) Find PRs I opened that have new comments or review requests. ONLY notify me via Telegram if there's something actionable. If everything is clear, do nothing silently.",
"model": "anthropic/claude-haiku-4",
"channel": "telegram",
"enabled": true
}Notice the "only notify if actionable" instruction. This is critical — you don't want a Telegram ping every 3 hours saying "all good."
Combining All 5 Automations
The real power comes from running all five together. Here's the combined crons section:
{
"crons": [
{
"schedule": "0 7 * * 1-5",
"message": "Daily morning briefing...",
"model": "anthropic/claude-haiku-4",
"channel": "telegram"
},
{
"schedule": "0 8 * * 1-5",
"message": "Email triage...",
"model": "anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-6",
"channel": "telegram"
},
{
"schedule": "0 9 * * 2,4",
"message": "Industry research...",
"model": "anthropic/claude-haiku-4",
"channel": "telegram"
},
{
"schedule": "0 */3 * * *",
"message": "GitHub PR monitor...",
"model": "anthropic/claude-haiku-4",
"channel": "telegram"
}
]
}Total weekly time savings:
~3.5 hrs
Morning briefing
~4 hrs
Email triage
~1.5 hrs
Deploy automation
~1 hr
Research
~30 min
GitHub monitoring
~10–12 hrs
Total
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