openclaw - 💡(How to fix) Fix [Bug]: memory-core dreaming cron job created with broken delivery config (no route) — diary never written [1 comments, 2 participants]

Summary

The memory-core plugin creates an auto-managed cron job ("Memory Dreaming Promotion") with a delivery configuration that cannot succeed, causing the whole job to fail-closed. The dream diary is never written to DREAMS.md, and the user gets no dreams despite the feature being enabled and configured correctly.

Observed behavior

The auto-created cron job shows:

Delivery: none -> last (last -> no route, will fail-closed: Delivering ...

Since the cron runs at 3 AM (default schedule) when no session is active, delivery to "last" has no target. The delivery failure appears to be treated as a fatal job error, preventing the actual dreaming logic (diary generation, memory promotion) from executing.

Expected behavior

The dream diary should be written to DREAMS.md regardless of delivery status. The cron job should either:

• Use delivery.bestEffort: true by default (delivery failure should not kill the job), or
• Not set a delivery target at all since dreaming writes directly to filesystem files (DREAMS.md, MEMORY.md, memory/.dreams/)

Workaround

Running openclaw cron edit <job-id> --best-effort-deliver sets delivery.bestEffort: true and allows the job to complete, producing diary entries correctly.

Environment

• OpenClaw version: 2026.4.26 (be8c246)
• OS: Linux (systemd service)
• Gateway: loopback, port 18789

Related issues

• #67016 (Dreaming UI lacks status info — would have made this easier to debug)
• #65705 (Dreaming sweep re-triggers on heartbeat — similar auto-cron lifecycle issue)