Cron vs Heartbeat
✅Solved
Having an issue with heartbeat checking gmail
Agent is coming back with this:
So the heartbeat IS firing every 5 minutes and delivering the prompt. But the agent turn is just returning HEARTBEAT_OK without doing the email check — which gets suppressed silently.
The issue is that the heartbeat agent turn is a lightweight run that probably isn't executing the tools (exec/node calls) needed to actually check Gmail. It reads HEARTBEAT.md, sees "check email," but might not have the right context or might be too conservative to run exec commands in a heartbeat turn.
Let me try a different approach — use a cron job instead. Cron runs in an isolated session with full tool access, on an exact schedule:
Agent is coming back with this:
So the heartbeat IS firing every 5 minutes and delivering the prompt. But the agent turn is just returning HEARTBEAT_OK without doing the email check — which gets suppressed silently.
The issue is that the heartbeat agent turn is a lightweight run that probably isn't executing the tools (exec/node calls) needed to actually check Gmail. It reads HEARTBEAT.md, sees "check email," but might not have the right context or might be too conservative to run exec commands in a heartbeat turn.
Let me try a different approach — use a cron job instead. Cron runs in an isolated session with full tool access, on an exact schedule:
Solution
Heartbeat runs are normal agent turns in the main session (with full tool access). So the “heartbeat is a lightweight run that probably isn’t executing tools” part is just wrong.
What’s actually happening when you see only
1) The model decided “nothing needs attention” (often because “check Gmail” is too vague and it won’t invent an access method).
2) Or it did do something, but you accidentally suppressed delivery:
- If the reply starts/ends with
- Enable reasoning delivery for heartbeat:
- And/or make “OK” visible in your channel:
What’s actually happening when you see only
HEARTBEAT_OK1) The model decided “nothing needs attention” (often because “check Gmail” is too vague and it won’t invent an access method).
2) Or it did do something, but you accidentally suppressed delivery:
- If the reply starts/ends with
HEARTBEAT_OKackMaxCharsQuick debug (so you can see what it’s thinking)
Temporarily:- Enable reasoning delivery for heartbeat:
- And/or make “OK” visible in your channel:
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