diff --git a/cmd/claw/hermes_base_image_test.go b/cmd/claw/hermes_base_image_test.go
index 3ed300c..e8fcc74 100644
--- a/cmd/claw/hermes_base_image_test.go
+++ b/cmd/claw/hermes_base_image_test.go
@@ -70,6 +70,9 @@ func TestHermesBaseImageSourceContract(t *testing.T) {
 		`Matching tolerates case, whitespace, and punctuation`,
 		`os.chmod(real_path, 0o666)`,
 		`HERMES_CRON_DELIVER_TRANSIENT_FAILURES`,
+		`cron scheduler protected toolsets documentation`,
+		`cron scheduler memory tool suppression`,
+		`["cronjob", "messaging", "clarify", "memory"]`,
 		`_claw_should_deliver_cron_failure`,
 		`upstream request failed`,
 		`suppressing transient cron failure delivery`,
diff --git a/cmd/claw/hermes_base_spike_test.go b/cmd/claw/hermes_base_spike_test.go
index 84ac073..1007974 100644
--- a/cmd/claw/hermes_base_spike_test.go
+++ b/cmd/claw/hermes_base_spike_test.go
@@ -49,6 +49,22 @@ assert importlib.util.find_spec("minisweagent_path") is not None
 import tools.terminal_tool
 
 from cron import scheduler as cron_scheduler
+from model_tools import get_tool_definitions
+cron_disabled = cron_scheduler._resolve_cron_disabled_toolsets({})
+assert "memory" in cron_disabled
+cron_tools = {
+    tool["function"]["name"]
+    for tool in get_tool_definitions(disabled_toolsets=cron_disabled, quiet_mode=True)
+}
+assert "memory" not in cron_tools
+interactive_tools = {
+    tool["function"]["name"]
+    for tool in get_tool_definitions(
+        disabled_toolsets=["cronjob", "messaging", "clarify"],
+        quiet_mode=True,
+    )
+}
+assert "memory" in interactive_tools
 assert not cron_scheduler._claw_should_deliver_cron_failure("upstream request failed")
 assert not cron_scheduler._claw_should_deliver_cron_failure("Internal Server Error")
 assert cron_scheduler._claw_should_deliver_cron_failure("prompt injection scanner blocked the job")
@@ -61,6 +77,7 @@ assert str(_get_lock_dir()) == "/tmp/hermes-gateway-locks"
 
 from toolsets import _HERMES_CORE_TOOLS, TOOLSETS
 assert "text_to_speech" not in _HERMES_CORE_TOOLS
+assert "memory" in _HERMES_CORE_TOOLS
 for _name, _toolset in TOOLSETS.items():
     if isinstance(_toolset, dict) and isinstance(_toolset.get("tools"), list):
         assert "text_to_speech" not in _toolset["tools"], _name
diff --git a/dockerfiles/hermes-base/patch-hermes-runtime.py b/dockerfiles/hermes-base/patch-hermes-runtime.py
index d453b87..fbbb732 100644
--- a/dockerfiles/hermes-base/patch-hermes-runtime.py
+++ b/dockerfiles/hermes-base/patch-hermes-runtime.py
@@ -844,6 +844,30 @@ def _atomic_write_text(file_path: Path, content: str, encoding: str = "utf-8") -
 cron_scheduler = purelib / "cron" / "scheduler.py"
 text = cron_scheduler.read_text()
 
+# Cron jobs initialize Hermes with skip_memory=True so their system prompts do
+# not mutate user representations. Keep the advertised tools consistent with
+# that runtime capability while leaving native memory available to interactive
+# agents.
+text = replace_once(
+    text,
+    "    Three protected toolsets are always disabled in cron context:\n"
+    "      - ``cronjob`` — would let a cron-spawned agent schedule more cron jobs\n"
+    "      - ``messaging`` — interactive, needs a live gateway session\n"
+    "      - ``clarify`` — interactive, blocks waiting for user input\n",
+    "    Four protected toolsets are always disabled in cron context:\n"
+    "      - ``cronjob`` — would let a cron-spawned agent schedule more cron jobs\n"
+    "      - ``messaging`` — interactive, needs a live gateway session\n"
+    "      - ``clarify`` — interactive, blocks waiting for user input\n"
+    "      - ``memory`` — unavailable because cron agents use ``skip_memory=True``\n",
+    "cron scheduler protected toolsets documentation",
+)
+text = replace_once(
+    text,
+    '    disabled = ["cronjob", "messaging", "clarify"]\n',
+    '    disabled = ["cronjob", "messaging", "clarify", "memory"]\n',
+    "cron scheduler memory tool suppression",
+)
+
 # Cron transient-failure delivery: provider/cllama outages are already logged
 # and recorded on the job run. They should not be posted into user channels as
 # actionable cron responses, while real operator-actionable cron failures still