Summary

• Problem: Cron tool preserves internal whitespace in model IDs (e.g. custom-1/ minimax/ minimax-m2.5-free), causing OpenRouter to reject them with 400 ... is not a valid model ID (format).
• Why it matters: All cron jobs using affected model IDs fail silently, and users cannot fix them via update/delete due to the same corruption path.
• What changed: coercePayload() and copyTopLevelAgentTurnFields() in src/cron/normalize.ts now strip all internal whitespace from model and fallbacks fields via .replace(/\s+/g, '').
• What did NOT change (scope boundary): No changes to store serialization, schedule normalization, delivery logic, or any other payload fields.

Change Type (select all)

• Bug fix
• Feature
• Refactor required for the fix
• Docs
• Security hardening
• Chore/infra

Scope (select all touched areas)

• Gateway / orchestration
• Skills / tool execution
• Auth / tokens
• Memory / storage
• Integrations
• API / contracts
• UI / DX
• CI/CD / infra

Linked Issue/PR

• Closes [Bug]: Cron Tool Corrupts Model IDs openclaw/openclaw#66203
• This PR fixes a bug or regression

Root Cause (if applicable)

• Root cause: TrimmedNonEmptyStringFieldSchema only .trim()s leading/trailing whitespace. LLMs frequently insert spaces around / and - separators when generating tool call parameters. The normalization layer had no guard against internal whitespace in model IDs.
• Missing detection / guardrail: No validation that model IDs are whitespace-free after trimming.
• Contributing context (if known): LLM-generated tool call parameters are the input source; they routinely break on long slash-delimited identifiers.

Regression Test Plan (if applicable)

• Coverage level that should have caught this:
  • Unit test
  • Seam / integration test
  • End-to-end test
  • Existing coverage already sufficient
• Target test or file: src/cron/normalize.test.ts
• Scenario the test should lock in: normalizeCronJobCreate with model "custom-1/ minimax/ minimax- m2.5- free" and fallbacks containing internal spaces should output clean IDs with zero whitespace.
• Why this is the smallest reliable guardrail: The corruption happens in coercePayload during normalization — a unit test on normalizeCronJobCreate catches it at the exact mutation point.
• Existing test that already covers this (if any): Existing test only covered leading/trailing trim, not internal whitespace.
• If no new test is added, why not: New test added.

User-visible / Behavior Changes

Model IDs with accidental internal whitespace are now silently corrected instead of being persisted as-is. No config changes.

Diagram (if applicable)

Before:
[LLM sends "custom-1/ minimax/ minimax-m2.5-free"] -> [coercePayload .trim()] -> [stored with spaces] -> [OpenRouter 400]

After:
[LLM sends "custom-1/ minimax/ minimax-m2.5-free"] -> [coercePayload .trim() + .replace(/\s+/g, '')] -> [stored clean] -> [OpenRouter OK]

Security Impact (required)

• New permissions/capabilities? No
• Secrets/tokens handling changed? No
• New/changed network calls? No
• Command/tool execution surface changed? No
• Data access scope changed? No

Repro + Verification

Environment

• OS: Windows 11 / Ubuntu 24 (reported)
• Runtime/container: Node.js / Docker
• Model/provider: OpenRouter → MiniMax
• Integration/channel (if any): Cron → isolated session
• Relevant config (redacted): custom-1/minimax/minimax-m2.5-free

Steps

1. Create cron job with model custom-1/minimax/minimax-m2.5-free
2. LLM inserts spaces: custom-1/ minimax/ minimax- m2.5- free
3. Job fails with 400 invalid model ID

Expected

• Model ID stored as custom-1/minimax/minimax-m2.5-free

Actual

• Model ID stored as custom-1/ minimax/ minimax- m2.5- free

Evidence

• Failing test/log before + passing after
• Trace/log snippets
• Screenshot/recording
• Perf numbers (if relevant)

53/53 tests pass including new "strips internal whitespace from model IDs" test.

Human Verification (required)

• Verified scenarios: normalizeCronJobCreate with internal spaces in model and fallbacks fields
• Edge cases checked: model with only leading/trailing spaces (existing test), model with multiple consecutive internal spaces, fallbacks array with spaces
• What you did not verify: Live cron execution on a running OpenClaw instance

Review Conversations

• I replied to or resolved every bot review conversation I addressed in this PR.
• I left unresolved only the conversations that still need reviewer or maintainer judgment.

Compatibility / Migration

• Backward compatible? Yes
• Config/env changes? No
• Migration needed? No

Risks and Mitigations

• Risk: Model IDs that intentionally contain spaces would be broken.
  • Mitigation: No known provider uses spaces in model IDs. OpenRouter, Anthropic, Google, and OpenAI all use / and - delimiters without spaces.