PR #62506: Tasks: allow openclaw tasks cancel for CLI runtime (#62419)

• Repository: openclaw/openclaw
• Author: neeravmakwana
• State: closed | merged: True
• Link: https://github.com/openclaw/openclaw/pull/62506

Description (problem / solution / changelog)

Summary

• Problem: openclaw tasks cancel returned "Task runtime does not support cancellation yet" for CLI-tracked tasks (for example gateway agent runs), so operators could not clear stuck running rows.
• Why it matters: CLI tasks can remain running when follow-up bookkeeping never runs; without a working cancel path there was no supported way to mark them terminal.
• What changed: cancelTaskById treats runtime === "cli" like other local cancellations: record cancelled in the task registry (CLI uses the main session as childSessionKey; there is no separate ACP/subagent session to stop). Docs and changelog updated; unit test covers the path.
• What did NOT change: Cron and any other non-ACP/subagent/CLI runtimes still return the unsupported message. Maintenance/audit behavior for stale_running is unchanged (audit remains informational).

Change Type

• Bug fix

Scope

• Gateway / orchestration

Linked Issue/PR

• Closes #62419
• This PR fixes a bug or regression

Root Cause

• Root cause: cancelTaskById only wired teardown for ACP and subagent runtimes; CLI fell through to the unsupported branch despite using a normal session key.
• Missing detection / guardrail: Unit tests only covered ACP and subagent cancellation.

Regression Test Plan

• Coverage: Unit test (src/tasks/task-registry.test.ts) asserts CLI cancel updates the task to cancelled, does not call ACP/subagent hooks, and delivers the expected terminal message when delivery is pending.

User-visible / Behavior Changes

• openclaw tasks cancel succeeds for active CLI-tracked tasks and sets status to cancelled with operator error text.

Diagram

N/A

Security Impact

• New permissions/capabilities? No
• Secrets/tokens handling changed? No
• New/changed network calls? No
• Command/tool execution surface changed? No (registry state only for CLI cancel)
• Data access scope changed? No

Repro + Verification

Environment

• Unit test run: pnpm test src/tasks/task-registry.test.ts -t "cancels"

Steps

1. Create a running CLI task record with childSessionKey set.
2. Call cancelTaskById.
3. Expect cancelled: true and no ACP/subagent control calls.

Expected

• Task transitions to cancelled.

Actual

• Matches test expectations.

Evidence

• New unit test for CLI cancel path

Human Verification

• Verified scenarios: Scoped Vitest for cancel tests in task-registry.test.ts.
• Edge cases checked: Confirms ACP/subagent mocks are not invoked for CLI.
• What I did not verify: Full pnpm check / pnpm build (local tree has unrelated TS/build failures on this checkout).

Review Conversations

• I replied to or resolved every bot review conversation I addressed in this PR.

Compatibility / Migration

• Backward compatible? Yes
• Config/env changes? No
• Migration needed? No

Risks and Mitigations

• Risk: Cancelling while a CLI run is still live does not abort the agent run; it only updates task registry state (same class of limitation as other operator-driven terminal updates if completion races).
  • Mitigation: Matches prior behavior for non-CLI paths that only had registry + session kill where applicable; documented in docs/automation/tasks.md.

Made with Cursor

Changed files

• CHANGELOG.md (modified, +1/-0)
• docs/automation/tasks.md (modified, +1/-1)
• src/tasks/task-registry.test.ts (modified, +132/-0)
• src/tasks/task-registry.ts (modified, +35/-30)