clawdbot/docs/heartbeat.md

Heartbeat polling plan (2025-11-26)

Goal: add a simple heartbeat poll for command-based auto-replies (Claude-driven) that only notifies users when something matters, using the HEARTBEAT_OK sentinel.

Prompt contract

• Extend the Claude system/identity text to explain: “If this is a heartbeat poll and nothing needs attention, reply exactly HEARTBEAT_OK and nothing else. For any alert, do not include HEARTBEAT_OK; just return the alert text.”
• Keep existing WhatsApp length guidance; forbid burying the sentinel inside alerts.

Config & defaults

• New config key: inbound.reply.heartbeatMinutes (number of minutes; 0 or undefined disables).
• Default: 30 minutes when a command-mode reply is configured.
• New optional idle override for heartbeats: inbound.reply.session.heartbeatIdleMinutes (defaults to idleMinutes). Heartbeat skips do not update the session updatedAt so idle expiry still works.

Poller behavior

• When relay runs with command-mode auto-reply, start a timer with the resolved heartbeat interval.
• Each tick invokes the configured command with a short heartbeat body (e.g., “(heartbeat) summarize any important changes since last turn”) while reusing the active session args so Claude context stays warm.
• Abort timer on SIGINT/abort of the relay.

Sentinel handling

• Trim output. If the trimmed text equals HEARTBEAT_OK (case-sensitive) -> skip outbound message.
• Otherwise, send the text/media as normal, stripping the sentinel if it somehow appears.
• Treat empty output as HEARTBEAT_OK to avoid spurious pings.

Logging requirements

• Normal mode: single info line per tick, e.g., heartbeat: ok (skipped) or heartbeat: alert sent (32ms).
• --verbose: log start/end, command argv, duration, and whether it was skipped/sent/error; include session ID and connection/run IDs via getChildLogger for correlation.
• On command failure: warn-level one-liner in normal mode; verbose log includes stdout/stderr snippets.

Failure/backoff

• If a heartbeat command errors, log it and retry on the next scheduled tick (no exponential backoff unless command repeatedly fails; keep it simple for now).

Tests to add

• Unit: sentinel detection (HEARTBEAT_OK, empty output, mixed text), skip vs send decision, default interval resolver (30m, override, disable).
• Unit/integration: verbose logger emits start/end lines; normal logger emits a single line.

Documentation

• Add a short README snippet under configuration showing heartbeatMinutes and the sentinel rule.
• Expose CLI triggers:
  • warelay heartbeat (web provider, defaults to first allowFrom; optional --to override)
  • warelay relay:heartbeat to run the relay loop with an immediate heartbeat (no tmux)
  • warelay relay:heartbeat:tmux to run the same in tmux (detached, attachable)
  • Relay supports --heartbeat-now to fire once at startup (including the tmux helper).