Going Further
You've built a personal AI assistant with skills, memory, and personality. Now let's unlock the advanced features: automation, multi-device setups, and integration recipes that make your agent truly indispensable.
1Cron Jobs: Scheduled Tasks & Reminders
Cron jobs let you schedule tasks to run automatically — daily briefings, weekly summaries, recurring reminders, or any task that should happen at specific times.
Setting Up Cron Jobs
Basic Syntax
openclaw cron add "0 9 * * MON" "Weekly team standup in 30 minutes!"Sends a reminder every Monday at 9 AM
Natural Language
openclaw cron add "daily at 8:00" "Good morning briefing"More readable — OpenClaw translates to cron syntax
Practical Cron Job Examples
🌅 Daily Morning Briefing
openclaw cron add "daily at 8:00" "
Check today's calendar events.
Get weather forecast.
Summarize urgent emails.
Send morning briefing to main channel."📧 Email Digest
openclaw cron add "0 17 * * MON-FRI" "
Scan inbox for unread emails.
Categorize by importance.
Send end-of-day email summary."🗑️ Weekly Cleanup
openclaw cron add "0 22 * * SUN" "
Archive old memory files (>30 days).
Clean up downloads folder.
Update MEMORY.md with week's highlights."Pro Tips for Cron Jobs
- • Start simple — one or two reliable jobs
- • Test your cron expressions with
openclaw cron test - • Use specific times to avoid conflicts (8:00, not "morning")
- • Include error handling for failed tasks
- • Remember timezones — cron runs in your system timezone
2Heartbeats: Proactive Check-Ins
Heartbeats make your agent proactive. Instead of waiting for you to ask, it periodically checks if there's anything you need to know about.
How Heartbeats Work
🔄 The Process
- 1. Gateway sends heartbeat prompt
- 2. Agent reads HEARTBEAT.md
- 3. Agent checks what's configured
- 4. Reports findings or says "all clear"
⚙️ Configuration
- • Frequency: Every 30-60 minutes
- • Smart timing: Avoids late nights
- • Context-aware: Batches related checks
- • Respectful: Won't spam you
HEARTBEAT.md Configuration
Create ~/.openclaw/workspace/HEARTBEAT.md to define what your agent should check periodically:
# HEARTBEAT.md - Proactive Checks## Email (every 2 hours)- Check for urgent emails (VIP senders) - Flag emails with "urgent" or "ASAP" - Ignore newsletters and promotions## Calendar (every 4 hours)- Upcoming events in next 2 hours - Conflicts or double-bookings - Events missing location info## Weather (morning & afternoon)- Check if rain expected today - Temperature changes >15°F from morning - Weather alerts or warnings## System (once daily)- Low disk space (<10GB) - Available OpenClaw updates - Failed backup attempts## Personal (as needed)- Spanish streak maintenance - Upcoming project deadlines - Bills due in next 3 days
Heartbeat vs Cron: When to Use Each
💓 Use Heartbeat For:
- • Multiple related checks in one batch
- • Context from recent conversations
- • Flexible timing (roughly every hour)
- • Interactive responses needed
⏰ Use Cron For:
- • Exact timing required ("9:00 AM sharp")
- • One-shot reminders
- • Independent tasks (no conversation context)
- • Direct delivery to channels
3Multi-Device with Nodes
Nodes let you connect multiple devices to your OpenClaw instance — your phone, tablet, other computers. Your agent can take photos, send notifications, and run commands across all your devices.
What Are Nodes?
Main Gateway
Your primary OpenClaw instance
Phone Node
Camera, GPS, notifications
Other Computers
Work laptop, home server, etc.
Setting Up Phone Pairing
- 1Install OpenClaw Node app:
Download from App Store or Google Play (or install via TestFlight for beta)
- 2Generate pairing code:
openclaw nodes pairThis creates a secure pairing code valid for 10 minutes
- 3Enter code in phone app:
Type the 6-digit code to establish encrypted connection
- 4Grant permissions:
Camera, location, notifications — only what you want to share
- 5Test the connection:
Ask your agent "Take a photo with my phone" or "Where am I?"
What You Can Do With Nodes
📱 Phone Capabilities
- • Camera: "Take a photo", "Show me what you see"
- • Location: "Where am I?", "Find coffee shops nearby"
- • Notifications: Send alerts directly to your phone
- • Sensors: Battery level, network status
🖥️ Computer Nodes
- • Remote commands: Run scripts on other machines
- • File access: Read files from work laptop
- • Screen sharing: See what's on remote desktop
- • Cross-device sync: Share data between machines
4Channel Integrations
Connect your agent to all the platforms you use — Telegram, Discord, Signal, WhatsApp, email. Same agent, different interfaces, all synced perfectly.
Supported Platforms
Telegram
Full featured
Discord
Bots & interactions
Signal
Secure messaging
Via Business API
Quick Setup: Discord Integration
- 1Create Discord Application: Go to Discord Developer Portal and create new application
- 2Add bot: Create bot user and copy the token
- 3Configure OpenClaw:
openclaw channel add discord --token="YOUR_BOT_TOKEN" - 4Invite to server: Use OAuth2 URL to add bot to your Discord server
- 5Test it: @mention your agent in Discord and have a conversation
Cross-Platform Benefits
- • Same personality and memory across all platforms
- • Start conversation in Telegram, continue in Discord
- • Send notifications to the platform you're currently using
- • Different contexts — professional in email, casual in Discord
5Browser Control: Automating Web Tasks
Your agent can control web browsers — clicking buttons, filling forms, taking screenshots, automating repetitive web tasks. It's like having a virtual assistant that can actually use websites.
Browser Automation Examples
📊 Data Collection
"Check my analytics dashboard and summarize this week's traffic"
Agent opens dashboard, takes screenshots, analyzes data
🛒 E-commerce
"Check if that camera I was looking at went on sale"
Navigates to product page, compares prices, reports changes
📋 Form Filling
"Fill out this job application with my standard info"
Reads forms, fills fields from your profile, handles uploads
Browser Control Commands
Basic Actions
browser.open("https://example.com")browser.click("button[type=submit]")browser.type("#email", "user@example.com")browser.screenshot()
Advanced Actions
browser.wait_for_text("Success")browser.extract_table(".data-table")browser.upload("#file", "/path/to/file")browser.evaluate_js("window.scrollTo(0, 0)")
6Canvas: Presenting Visual Content
Canvas lets your agent create and present visual content — charts, diagrams, presentations, interactive displays. Perfect for data visualization and rich information presentation.
Canvas Use Cases
📈 Data Visualization
- • Create charts from your data
- • Interactive dashboards
- • Real-time monitoring displays
- • Progress tracking visuals
🎨 Rich Presentations
- • Project status reports
- • Meeting agenda displays
- • Interactive tutorials
- • Information kiosks
Simple Canvas Example
// Create a dashboard showing daily statscanvas.present(` <div style="background: #111; padding: 20px; color: white;"> <h1>Daily Summary</h1> <div style="display: flex; gap: 20px;"> <div class="stat-card"> <h3>Emails</h3> <div class="number">${emailCount}</div> </div> <div class="stat-card"> <h3>Tasks</h3> <div class="number">${tasksCompleted}</div> </div> </div> </div> `);7Automation Recipes
Here are proven automation setups that make your agent truly indispensable. Mix and match these recipes to build your perfect assistant.
🌅 Morning Briefing Assistant
Setup:
- • Cron job: Daily 8:00 AM
- • Skills: weather, calendar, email
- • Channel: Telegram (mobile notification)
What it does:
- • Weather forecast + commute advice
- • Today's calendar overview
- • Urgent emails summary
- • Prep reminders for meetings
"Good morning! ☀️ It's 72°F and sunny — perfect bike weather. You have 3 meetings today, including the 2 PM Johnson project review (conference room B). Two urgent emails from marketing about tomorrow's launch. Traffic looks normal for your 9:30 commute."
📧 Smart Inbox Monitor
Setup:
- • Heartbeat: Every 2 hours
- • Skills: email, calendar
- • Smart filtering by sender/keywords
Intelligence:
- • Learns which senders are important
- • Detects urgency from content
- • Groups related emails
- • Suggests quick responses
🏠 Smart Home Evening Routine
Trigger:
- • Location: Arriving home
- • Time: After 6 PM
- • Or manual: "I'm home"
Actions:
- • Adjust thermostat to preferred temp
- • Turn on evening lighting
- • Queue up evening music playlist
- • Check if anything needs attention
📱 Social Media Manager
Monitoring:
- • Twitter mentions and DMs
- • LinkedIn messages
- • Instagram comments on recent posts
Responses:
- • Draft replies for review
- • Auto-like positive mentions
- • Alert for important interactions
- • Weekly engagement summary
8Community & Resources
You're now part of the OpenClaw community — a growing group of people building personal AI assistants. Here's where to go for help, inspiration, and the latest developments.
Discord Community
Get help, share setups, and connect with other OpenClaw users.
discord.com/invite/clawd →GitHub Repository
Source code, issues, feature requests, and contribution guidelines.
github.com/openclaw/openclaw →Contributing Back
As you build cool automations and solve interesting problems, consider sharing back:
- • Share useful automation recipes in Discord
- • Create and publish skills on ClawHub
- • Report bugs and suggest features on GitHub
- • Help newcomers get started
✓You've Built Something Amazing
Congratulations!
You've successfully built a personal AI assistant that knows who you are, remembers your conversations, has real-world capabilities, and can work across all your devices and platforms.
What You've Learned
Core Concepts
- • Why personal AI agents matter
- • Installation and configuration
- • Channel integrations
- • Skills and capabilities
Advanced Features
- • Memory and personality systems
- • Automation with cron and heartbeats
- • Multi-device with nodes
- • Browser and canvas control
What's Next?
This is just the beginning. Your agent will get smarter as you use it, learn new skills as you install them, and become more helpful as you customize its personality and memory.
Welcome to the future of personal AI. You're not just using it — you're shaping it.
Module 6 Complete!
Great work! You've finished "Going Further". Ready to continue your OpenClaw journey?
Course Complete! 🎉
Congratulations! You've mastered OpenClaw and built your personal AI agent.