Maintenance Skill

Minimum Model

Any model. Both sections are scripted operations.

Trigger Phrases

• "backup workspace" / "push to git" / "save to github"
• "update openclaw" / "update skills" / "run maintenance"
• Runs automatically on schedule (see Cron section)

Section 1 — Workspace Backup

Back up the entire workspace to GitHub on a regular schedule or on demand.

When to Run

• After significant MEMORY.md changes
• After editing or creating skills
• After completing a major task
• On cron schedule: every 6 hours silently

Step 1 — Find the GitHub Token

Priority order:

1. Git remote URL — check if token is embedded:

   git -C /opt/ocana/openclaw/workspace remote get-url origin
   

2. Environment variable:

   echo $GITHUB_TOKEN
   echo $GH_TOKEN
   

3. Credentials file:

   cat ~/.credentials/github-token.txt 2>/dev/null
   cat ~/.credentials/github-pat.txt 2>/dev/null
   

If no token found → report BLOCKED to owner.

Step 2 — Commit and Push

cd /opt/ocana/openclaw/workspace

# Stage all changes
git add -A

# Commit with timestamp
TIMESTAMP=$(date -u +"%Y-%m-%d %H:%M UTC")
git commit -m "Auto-backup: $TIMESTAMP" 2>/dev/null || echo "Nothing to commit"

# Push
git push origin main

Step 3 — Report (On-Demand Only)

If triggered manually (not by cron):

✅ Workspace backed up to GitHub — [timestamp]
[X] files changed

If triggered by cron → silent (no message to owner).

Cron Schedule

openclaw cron add \
  --name "workspace-backup" \
  --every 6h \
  --session isolated \
  --message "Run the maintenance skill, Section 1 (Workspace Backup). cd /opt/ocana/openclaw/workspace && git add -A && git commit -m 'Auto-backup: $(date -u +\"%Y-%m-%d %H:%M UTC\")' && git push origin main. Silent — do not message owner unless push fails." \
  --timeout-seconds 60

Troubleshooting

Section 2 — OpenClaw Updates

Keep OpenClaw and installed skills up to date.

When to Run

• Weekly on Sunday at 03:00 UTC (cron)
• When owner says "update openclaw" or "update skills"
• After a new OpenClaw version is released

Step 1 — Update OpenClaw

# Update the OpenClaw platform
openclaw update

# Check the new version
openclaw --version

Step 2 — Update Skills via ClawHub

# Update all installed skills to latest
clawhub update

# Or update a specific skill
# clawhub update \x3Cskill-name>

Step 3 — Report What Changed

After updates, report to owner:

🔄 Maintenance complete (Sunday update):

OpenClaw: v1.2.3 → v1.2.4
  - [changelog item if available]

Skills updated:
  - skill-master: v1.1 → v1.2
  - whatsapp: v2.0 → v2.1
  - [others]

No action needed. Everything is up to date.

If nothing changed:

✅ No updates available — everything is current.

Step 4 — Verify After Update

# Check gateway is still running
openclaw gateway status

# Check agent is responding (send a test message or check logs)
openclaw logs --last 10

If gateway is down after update → run openclaw gateway restart.

Cron Schedule

openclaw cron add \
  --name "weekly-update" \
  --cron "0 3 * * 0" \
  --session isolated \
  --message "Run maintenance skill Section 2 (OpenClaw Updates): run 'openclaw update' and 'clawhub update', then report what changed to owner via WhatsApp." \
  --to "OWNER_PHONE" \
  --channel whatsapp \
  --timeout-seconds 300

Troubleshooting

Section 3 — Session Store Cleanup

Prevent sessions.json from bloating (observed growing to 67MB+ with 600+ stale cron run entries).

When to Run

• Weekly (Sunday maintenance window)
• If agent response time degrades noticeably
• Whenever sessions.json exceeds 10MB

Step 1 — Check Size

ls -lh /opt/ocana/openclaw/agents/main/sessions/sessions.json

If under 10MB → skip cleanup.

Step 2 — Clean Stale Cron Run Entries

cd /opt/ocana/openclaw/agents/main/sessions

# Backup first
cp sessions.json sessions.json.bak.$(date +%Y%m%d-%H%M%S)

# Remove all :run: entries (completed cron run histories)
python3 -c "
import json
with open('sessions.json') as f:
    d = json.load(f)
before = len(d)
cleaned = {k:v for k,v in d.items() if ':run:' not in k}
after = len(cleaned)
with open('sessions.json', 'w') as f:
    json.dump(cleaned, f)
print(f'Removed {before-after} entries. {after} remaining.')
"

Step 3 — Restart Gateway

openclaw gateway restart

Step 4 — Report

🧹 Session cleanup: [X]MB → [Y]MB, removed [N] stale cron run entries.

Cost Tips

• Both sections: Very cheap — scripted operations, no LLM tokens for the actual backup/update.
• Cron: Both jobs run in isolated sessions. Backup is silent; updates report only if something changed.
• Don't over-backup: Every 6h is enough. More frequent = wasted compute and noisy git history.
• sessions.json bloat is a known issue — cron runs accumulate unbounded. Weekly cleanup keeps response time fast.