Issue Station
Sign In
Tools hereToolbox

openclaw - 💡(How to fix) Fix Isolated cron sessions ignore per-agent tools.exec policy (ask=off still prompts) [1 comments, 2 participants]

Official PRs (…)
ON THIS PAGE

Recommended Tools

×6

Utilities matched from this issue’s tags and category — try them while you read without losing context.

GitHub issue graph ai analysis

Paste a GitHub issue URL. We fetch that issue, discover linked issues from bodies/comments/timeline, collect linked pull requests, and produce a structured English report.

The report is written in English Markdown for sharing and archival.

Helpful · Quick feedback

Loading…
GitHub stats
openclaw/openclaw#63211•Fetched 2026-04-09 07:56:56
View on GitHub
Comments
1
Participants
2
Timeline
1
Reactions
0
Author
sandieman2sandieman2
Participants
fyzycystfyzycystsandieman2sandieman2
Timeline (top)
commented ×1

Isolated cron sessions are prompting for exec approval despite both the OpenClaw config and the local exec-approvals.json having security: "full" and ask: "off" configured for the agent.

The approval prompt message states "The effective approval policy requires approval every time, so Allow Always is unavailable" — which directly contradicts the configured effective policy.

Root Cause

Isolated cron sessions are prompting for exec approval despite both the OpenClaw config and the local exec-approvals.json having security: "full" and ask: "off" configured for the agent.

The approval prompt message states "The effective approval policy requires approval every time, so Allow Always is unavailable" — which directly contradicts the configured effective policy.

Code Example

"tools": {
  "exec": {
    "security": "full",
    "ask": "off"
  }
}

---

{
  "id": "partnerships",
  "tools": {
    "exec": {
      "security": "full",
      "ask": "off"
    }
  }
}

---

{
  "version": 1,
  "defaults": {
    "security": "full",
    "ask": "off",
    "askFallback": "full"
  },
  "agents": {
    "partnerships": {
      "security": "full",
      "ask": "off",
      "askFallback": "full"
    }
  }
}

---

agent:partnerships  security=full  ask=off  (both requested and host agree)
RAW_BUFFERClick to expand / collapse

Bug Report

Version: 2026.4.5 (stable) Platform: macOS (arm64), Darwin 25.4.0

Description

Isolated cron sessions are prompting for exec approval despite both the OpenClaw config and the local exec-approvals.json having security: "full" and ask: "off" configured for the agent.

The approval prompt message states "The effective approval policy requires approval every time, so Allow Always is unavailable" — which directly contradicts the configured effective policy.

Config (relevant parts)

openclaw.json — global exec policy:

"tools": {
  "exec": {
    "security": "full",
    "ask": "off"
  }
}

openclaw.json — per-agent override (partnerships agent):

{
  "id": "partnerships",
  "tools": {
    "exec": {
      "security": "full",
      "ask": "off"
    }
  }
}

~/.openclaw/exec-approvals.json — local approvals:

{
  "version": 1,
  "defaults": {
    "security": "full",
    "ask": "off",
    "askFallback": "full"
  },
  "agents": {
    "partnerships": {
      "security": "full",
      "ask": "off",
      "askFallback": "full"
    }
  }
}

Effective policy per openclaw approvals get

agent:partnerships  security=full  ask=off  (both requested and host agree)

Actual behavior

A cron job running as the partnerships agent in an isolated session triggered an exec approval prompt forwarded to WhatsApp. The prompt says:

Pending command: cd ~/clawd && ./skills/mcp-direct/scripts/mcp-refresh.sh all && ...

The effective approval policy requires approval every time, so Allow Always is unavailable.

Host: gateway CWD: /Users/clawd/.openclaw/workspace-partnerships

Expected behavior

With security=full and ask=off in both config layers, exec should run without prompting. This worked correctly in prior versions.

Steps to reproduce

  1. Configure an agent with tools.exec.security: "full" and tools.exec.ask: "off"
  2. Ensure ~/.openclaw/exec-approvals.json matches with ask: "off"
  3. Create a cron job targeting that agent with sessionTarget: "isolated"
  4. The cron job runs a shell command — approval prompt is triggered despite policy

Notes

  • Interactive sessions for the same agent do NOT have this problem — only isolated cron sessions
  • This started happening after updating to 2026.4.5 (did not occur on prior versions)
  • The approval is forwarded to WhatsApp as a native approval client

extent analysis

TL;DR

  • The issue may be resolved by re-examining the configuration files and ensuring that all settings related to execution approval are consistently set to not require approval, considering the specific context of isolated cron sessions.

Guidance

  • Review the openclaw.json and exec-approvals.json files to confirm that there are no overriding settings that could be causing the approval prompt in isolated cron sessions.
  • Verify that the version update to 2026.4.5 did not introduce any changes in how execution approvals are handled for isolated sessions, potentially requiring adjustments to the configuration.
  • Check for any other configuration files or settings that might be specific to cron jobs or isolated sessions, ensuring they do not override the intended behavior of not prompting for approval.
  • Consider testing the execution approval behavior in a non-isolated session with the same agent configuration to isolate if the issue is indeed specific to isolated cron sessions.

Example

  • No specific code snippet can be provided without making assumptions about the implementation details. However, ensuring consistency in configuration settings across all relevant files is key.

Notes

  • The issue seems to be specific to isolated cron sessions and started after a version update, suggesting a potential change in how these sessions are handled.
  • The fact that interactive sessions do not exhibit this problem indicates the issue might be related to how isolated sessions are configured or handled by the updated version.

Recommendation

  • Apply workaround: Given the specific nature of the issue and its relation to isolated cron sessions, applying a workaround that ensures consistent configuration settings for these sessions might be necessary until a more permanent fix is available. This could involve temporarily adjusting the configuration to see if it resolves the issue or waiting for a potential update that addresses the behavior change introduced in version 2026.4.5.

Vote matrix · Quick signals

Works
Did the solution work? Tap to confirm.
Easy Fix
Was it a quick fix?
Time Saver
Did it save you time?
Blocking
Was it severely blocking?
Common Issue
Are others likely hitting this too?
Flaky / Intermittent
Is it intermittent?
Verified / Reproducible
Can you reproduce it reliably?
Loading…

FAQ

Expected behavior

With security=full and ask=off in both config layers, exec should run without prompting. This worked correctly in prior versions.

#logging issue#authentication issue#prompt issue#agent setup#task chaining

Still need to ship something?

×6

Another batch ranked right after the header list — different links, same matching logic.

Back to top recommendations

TRENDING