PR #70891: fix(tasks): stop cron audit noise from 1ms startedAt/createdAt skew (#70887)

• Repository: openclaw/openclaw
• Author: neeravmakwana
• State: open | merged: False
• Link: https://github.com/openclaw/openclaw/pull/70891

Description (problem / solution / changelog)

Summary

openclaw tasks audit was producing 700+ inconsistent_timestamps warnings per run, 99% of them startedAt exactly 1ms before createdAt on cron-runtime tasks. Root cause is two separate Date.now() reads: the cron runner captures startedAt = Date.now() just before invoking createRunningTaskRun(...), and createTaskRecord reads Date.now() again for createdAt. When the wall clock ticks between the two reads (very common under load), the audit's startedAt < createdAt check fires for every successful cron run, drowning out real warnings.

Fix is a one-branch monotonicity clamp inside createTaskRecord: when a caller supplies a startedAt that is strictly earlier than the registry's own Date.now(), anchor createdAt to that startedAt. This also keeps the natural semantics for retroactive records (task was started before the ledger row was persisted). Callers that do not supply startedAt (the common subagent/ACP/queued paths) are unchanged — createdAt still comes from Date.now().

Fixes #70887.

Root cause

// src/cron/service/timer.ts
const startedAt = state.deps.nowMs();          // first Date.now()
...
createRunningTaskRun({ ..., startedAt, lastEventAt: startedAt });
  -> createTaskRecord(...)
       const now = Date.now();                  // second Date.now(), 1-4ms later
       ...
       createdAt: now,
       startedAt: params.startedAt,             // < now on any ms tick

src/cron/service/ops.ts (manual cron runs) has the same shape, and is covered by the same single fix since both paths funnel through createTaskRecord.

Why this is safe

• Only affects the branch where params.startedAt is explicitly supplied and strictly earlier than the in-function Date.now(); every other call site keeps the existing createdAt = now behavior.
• cleanupAfter computation uses endedAt ?? lastEventAt ?? createdAt, and lastEventAt already defaulted to params.startedAt ?? now, so retention math stays consistent with the pre-fix behavior on the caller-supplied startedAt path.
• No change to the audit check, to mergeExistingTaskForCreate, to persistence schema, or to the TaskRecord type shape.
• Existing src/tasks/task-registry.test.ts (43 tests including the terminal-task prune test that passes startedAt: Date.now() - 9 * 24 * 60 * 60_000) continues to pass.

Security / runtime controls unchanged

• No changes to owner/scope enforcement, delivery status, notify policy, or any permission/approval surface.
• inconsistent_timestamps is an observability/debug aid in openclaw tasks audit, not a runtime security gate.
• No prompt/text-level behavior was relied on; the fix is a pure write-time data-consistency clamp.
• No CODEOWNERS-protected paths touched.

Testing

• Added focused regression: src/tasks/task-registry.test.ts - "anchors createdAt to caller-supplied startedAt when the wall clock ticks between reads". Uses vi.spyOn(Date, 'now') to deterministically simulate the 1ms race, verifies (a) task.createdAt === startedAt, and (b) listTaskAuditFindings returns no inconsistent_timestamps findings for the record.
• pnpm test src/tasks/task-registry.test.ts - 43/43 pass.
• pnpm test src/tasks/task-registry.audit.test.ts src/tasks/task-registry.maintenance.issue-60299.test.ts src/tasks/detached-task-runtime.test.ts - 13/13 pass.
• pnpm test:changed (origin/main base) - 116/116 pass across the tasks lane.
• npx oxlint src/tasks/task-registry.ts src/tasks/task-registry.test.ts - 0 warnings, 0 errors.
• pnpm format src/tasks/task-registry.ts src/tasks/task-registry.test.ts applied.
• pnpm tsgo shows no new errors in the touched files; the remaining tsgo/lint:core failures (typebox module, plugin-sdk/*, gateway/server-methods/*, ui/*) reproduce on an unmodified origin/main checkout and are unrelated to this change.

Notes for reviewers

• AI-assisted PR.
• Lightly tested (unit-level regression + adjacent lanes green). Not exercised against a live cron runtime.
• One changelog entry added under ## Unreleased > ### Fixes.

Made with Cursor

Changed files

• CHANGELOG.md (modified, +1/-0)
• src/tasks/task-registry.test.ts (modified, +36/-0)
• src/tasks/task-registry.ts (modified, +8/-1)