quick-reminders

✓Verified·Scanned 2/18/2026

This skill schedules short-horizon reminders via bash ./skills/quick-reminders/scripts/nohup-reminder.sh and stores state in ./reminders.json with temp files like /tmp/oclaw-rem-<key>-<id>.msg. It spawns detached nohup shell workers that call openclaw message send, which executes shell commands and performs networked messaging; these behaviors are purpose-aligned and low-risk.

from clawhub.ai·v3685d76·20.5 KB·0 installs

Scanned from 1.1.4 at 3685d76 · Transparency log ↗

$ vett add clawhub.ai/lstpsche/quick-reminders

quick-reminders (OpenClaw Skill)

Zero-LLM one-shot reminders delivered via openclaw message send. The agent composes the reminder text at creation time; at fire time a background process sends it with no LLM invocation — zero tokens consumed on delivery.

Uses nohup sleep under the hood, so it's lightweight and doesn't require external schedulers.

Recommended for short-horizon reminders (typically under 48 hours).

Requirements

jq — install via brew install jq (macOS) or your package manager
openclaw CLI in PATH (ships with any OpenClaw install)

How it works

User asks: "Remind me to X in Y minutes."
Agent composes a natural-language reminder message and calls the CLI script.
The script spawns a detached nohup sleep <seconds> && openclaw message send ... process.
When the timer fires, the message is delivered and the reminder auto-cleans from the tracking file.

All state is stored in ./reminders.json (workspace root) — one JSON array of active reminders with IDs, PIDs, text, and fire times.

Setup

Add your preferred delivery channel and target to TOOLS.md so the agent knows where to send reminders without asking:

## Reminders
- Delivery target (Telegram): 268203409

Replace the channel name and ID with your own (e.g. WhatsApp E.164 number, Discord channel ID). The agent reads this at reminder creation time and passes it to --target and --channel automatically.

CLI usage

# Set a reminder (relative time)
bash ./skills/quick-reminders/scripts/nohup-reminder.sh add "Call John back!" --target <chat_id> -t 2h

# Set a reminder (absolute time with timezone)
bash ./skills/quick-reminders/scripts/nohup-reminder.sh add "Pick up the package" --target <chat_id> -t "2026-02-07T18:00:00" -z "America/New_York"

# Set a reminder via WhatsApp
bash ./skills/quick-reminders/scripts/nohup-reminder.sh add "Check the oven!" --target +15551234567 -t 30m --channel whatsapp

# List active reminders
bash ./skills/quick-reminders/scripts/nohup-reminder.sh list

# Cancel by ID
bash ./skills/quick-reminders/scripts/nohup-reminder.sh remove 3

# Cancel multiple
bash ./skills/quick-reminders/scripts/nohup-reminder.sh remove 1 4

# Cancel all
bash ./skills/quick-reminders/scripts/nohup-reminder.sh remove --all

# Help
bash ./skills/quick-reminders/scripts/nohup-reminder.sh help

Flags

Flag	Used with	Description
`--target ID`	`add`	Delivery target (e.g. Telegram chat ID, WhatsApp E.164, Discord channel). Required.
`-t TIME`	`add`	When to fire. Relative (`30s`, `20m`, `2h`, `1d`, `1h30m`) or absolute ISO-8601. Required.
`--channel CH`	`add`	Delivery channel (default: `telegram`). E.g. `whatsapp`, `discord`, `signal`. Optional.
`-z TZ`	`add`	IANA timezone for naive absolute times (default: system local). Optional.
`--all`	`remove`	Cancel all active reminders.

Security & data access

What the skill needs and why

Data	Purpose	Source
Delivery target (e.g. Telegram chat ID)	Passed to `openclaw message send --target` so the reminder reaches the right chat.	Read from `TOOLS.md` (§ Reminders) at creation time; if missing, the agent falls back to `session_status` tool's `deliveryContext.to` and saves it to `TOOLS.md` for future use.
Delivery channel (e.g. `telegram`)	Passed to `openclaw message send --channel` to route through the correct messaging channel.	Defaults to `telegram`; overridden via `--channel` flag when the user requests a different channel.
Reminder text	The exact message delivered to the user at fire time.	Composed by the agent at creation time; stored in a temp file (`/tmp/oclaw-rem-<key>-<id>.msg`, mode 0600) until delivery, then deleted.

What it reads and writes

Path	Access	Why
`TOOLS.md`	Read (always), write (once, if delivery target missing)	Reads the delivery target. Writes it once if discovered from session context — so it doesn't need to be looked up again.
`./reminders.json`	Read/write	Tracks active reminders (ID, PID, text, fire time). Auto-pruned on every operation.
`/tmp/oclaw-rem-<key>-<id>.msg`	Write (create), read (at fire), delete (after fire or cancel)	Holds reminder text as a plain file to avoid shell quoting issues in the background process.

Credentials

The skill itself declares no API keys or tokens. Message delivery is handled entirely by the openclaw CLI, which uses whatever authentication and channel credentials are already configured in your OpenClaw instance. The skill does not read, store, or transmit any credentials directly.

Background processes

Each reminder spawns one detached nohup process that sleeps for the specified duration, then calls openclaw message send and self-removes from reminders.json. These processes:

Run under the same user as the OpenClaw gateway.
Are visible via standard process tools (ps, Activity Monitor).
Are killed and cleaned up when cancelled via remove.
Do not survive machine reboots.

Model invocation

disable-model-invocation is not set — the agent can create reminders autonomously from natural conversation (e.g. "remind me in 20 min"). This is intentional for a personal assistant workflow. If you prefer explicit-only invocation, add disable-model-invocation: true to the SKILL.md frontmatter; the skill will then only respond to the /quick-reminders slash command.

Limitations

Does not survive machine reboot. The reminder is a background sleep process — if the machine restarts, pending reminders are lost.
Best for < 48 hours. For longer-horizon reminders, use a calendar event with a notification or openclaw cron instead.
Gateway must be running at fire time for openclaw message send to deliver.
Best-effort delivery — no delivery receipt or retry on failure.
Auto-cleanup after fire attempt — reminder metadata is removed after scheduled execution even if delivery fails.

Notes

Channel-agnostic — defaults to Telegram but works with any channel supported by openclaw message send (WhatsApp, Discord, Slack, Signal, iMessage, etc.). Pass --channel <name> to override.
The script is BSD/GNU portable — handles both macOS (date -j) and Linux (date -d) date parsing.
Fired reminders self-clean: the runner script calls remove <id> after delivery, so the tracking file stays tidy.
Temp files (/tmp/oclaw-rem-<workspace-key>-<id>.msg - holds the reminder text as a plain file to avoid quoting nightmares) are cleaned up on both fire and manual removal.