Bug

When a cron job specifies a model in its payload (e.g. anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-5), the agent's default model overrides it at runtime. The session runs on the agent's model, not the cron's.

Repro

1. Set agent default model to anthropic/claude-opus-4-6 in openclaw.json
2. Create a cron job with --model anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-5 (or even anthropic/claude-haiku-3.5)
3. Run the cron: openclaw cron run <id>
4. Check session history: every assistant response shows model: claude-opus-4-6

Evidence

• linkedin-publish cron: payload model = anthropic/claude-haiku-3.5, agent = main (default claude-opus-4-6). Session ran on Opus.
• Prospecting: Content Scoring cron: payload model = anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-5, agent = prospecting (default claude-sonnet-4-5 in openclaw.json, but agent AGENTS.md instructed Opus). Session ran on Opus.

Expected

The cron payload model field should take precedence over the agent's default model. The precedence should be: cron model > agent default > global default.

Workaround

Adding explicit instructions in the cron prompt message ("Do NOT override your model") and updating the agent's AGENTS.md to not assert a different model for that job. This works but is fragile.

Environment

• OpenClaw 2026.2.25 (4b5d4a4)
• macOS Darwin 24.5.0 (arm64)