Chapter 3: Supervision failure analysis

Actual blocker: OpenClaw cron agentTurn startup enters the runner and stalls before the agent receives the prompt. This invalidates cron agentTurn as the current long-running executor.

Observed failures

RunObservedMeaning
2026-06-06 23:34 PM testStalled after about 60 seconds before execution start.PM prompt was never reached.
2026-06-07 06:33 retestSame stall with lighter context.Context size was not primary cause.
Persistent-session smoke testSame stall for a minimal NO_REPLY task.Failure is in cron agentTurn runner startup.
systemEvent fallbackQueued and ended immediately.Works as wake/check path, not as autonomous worker.

State taxonomy

Only Started counts as active work. Only Completed counts as useful autonomous work.

Source report: v3 blocker report