openclaw - 💡(How to fix) Fix [Bug]: shipped HEARTBEAT.md scaffold is not treated as empty, so standard installs keep polling [1 participants]

Summary

The shipped workspace HEARTBEAT.md scaffold is no longer treated as effectively empty. Standard installs can therefore keep running interval heartbeat polls even when the file only contains the stock scaffold text.

Root cause

The runtime emptiness check skips blank lines, markdown headers, and empty checklist markers, but not markdown fence wrappers. The current shipped HEARTBEAT template includes a fenced markdown block around comment-only guidance, so the stock seeded file is classified as actionable.

Regression history

• The empty-file optimization was introduced in #1534 / commit dd06028827.
• At that point the template was comment-only after frontmatter stripping, so fresh installs skipped correctly.
• Later docs change 198de10523 changed the template to a fenced scaffold.
• The seeded workspace file is created by stripping only frontmatter and writing the rest verbatim, so deployed instances with that scaffold now poll.

Expected behavior

A stock seeded HEARTBEAT.md scaffold with only wrapper formatting and comment-only guidance should be treated as effectively empty.

Actual behavior

The stock scaffold is treated as non-empty and interval heartbeat runs continue.

Scope

This affects already deployed instances that bootstrapped the fenced scaffold, not just new installs.

Proposed fix

• Add a narrow compatibility rule so the shipped markdown-fenced scaffold shape is treated as empty.
• Keep fenced blocks with actual tasks actionable.
• Optionally update the template separately for future installs.

Repro

1. Bootstrap a workspace with the current shipped HEARTBEAT.md template.
2. Leave the file unchanged.
3. Wait for interval heartbeat.
4. Observe heartbeat prompt polling despite no real tasks being configured.