diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 13883e8e6..02a621e22 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -19,6 +19,7 @@ Docs: https://docs.openclaw.ai
 - Telegram: cap bot menu registration to Telegram's 100-command limit with an overflow warning while keeping typed hidden commands available. (#15844) Thanks @battman21.
 - CLI: lazily load outbound provider dependencies and remove forced success-path exits so commands terminate naturally without killing intentional long-running foreground actions. (#12906) Thanks @DrCrinkle.
 - Auto-reply/Heartbeat: strip sentence-ending `HEARTBEAT_OK` tokens even when followed by up to 4 punctuation characters, while preserving surrounding sentence punctuation. (#15847) Thanks @Spacefish.
+- Heartbeat: allow explicit wake (`wake`) and hook wake (`hook:*`) reasons to run even when `HEARTBEAT.md` is effectively empty so queued system events are processed. (#14527) Thanks @arosstale.
 - Clawdock: avoid Zsh readonly variable collisions in helper scripts. (#15501) Thanks @nkelner.
 - Discord: route autoThread replies to existing threads instead of the root channel. (#8302) Thanks @gavinbmoore, @thewilloftheshadow.
 - Discord/Agents: apply channel/group `historyLimit` during embedded-runner history compaction to prevent long-running channel sessions from bypassing truncation and overflowing context windows. (#11224) Thanks @shadril238.
diff --git a/src/infra/heartbeat-runner.returns-default-unset.test.ts b/src/infra/heartbeat-runner.returns-default-unset.test.ts
index 687ea5dbf..90359fada 100644
--- a/src/infra/heartbeat-runner.returns-default-unset.test.ts
+++ b/src/infra/heartbeat-runner.returns-default-unset.test.ts
@@ -1020,6 +1020,142 @@ describe("runHeartbeatOnce", () => {
     }
   });
 
+  it("does not skip wake-triggered heartbeat when HEARTBEAT.md is effectively empty", async () => {
+    const tmpDir = await fs.mkdtemp(path.join(os.tmpdir(), "openclaw-hb-"));
+    const storePath = path.join(tmpDir, "sessions.json");
+    const workspaceDir = path.join(tmpDir, "workspace");
+    const replySpy = vi.spyOn(replyModule, "getReplyFromConfig");
+    try {
+      await fs.mkdir(workspaceDir, { recursive: true });
+      await fs.writeFile(
+        path.join(workspaceDir, "HEARTBEAT.md"),
+        "# HEARTBEAT.md\n\n## Tasks\n\n",
+        "utf-8",
+      );
+
+      const cfg: OpenClawConfig = {
+        agents: {
+          defaults: {
+            workspace: workspaceDir,
+            heartbeat: { every: "5m", target: "whatsapp" },
+          },
+        },
+        channels: { whatsapp: { allowFrom: ["*"] } },
+        session: { store: storePath },
+      };
+      const sessionKey = resolveMainSessionKey(cfg);
+
+      await fs.writeFile(
+        storePath,
+        JSON.stringify(
+          {
+            [sessionKey]: {
+              sessionId: "sid",
+              updatedAt: Date.now(),
+              lastChannel: "whatsapp",
+              lastTo: "+1555",
+            },
+          },
+          null,
+          2,
+        ),
+      );
+
+      replySpy.mockResolvedValue({ text: "wake event processed" });
+      const sendWhatsApp = vi.fn().mockResolvedValue({
+        messageId: "m1",
+        toJid: "jid",
+      });
+
+      const res = await runHeartbeatOnce({
+        cfg,
+        reason: "wake",
+        deps: {
+          sendWhatsApp,
+          getQueueSize: () => 0,
+          nowMs: () => 0,
+          webAuthExists: async () => true,
+          hasActiveWebListener: () => true,
+        },
+      });
+
+      expect(res.status).toBe("ran");
+      expect(replySpy).toHaveBeenCalled();
+      expect(sendWhatsApp).toHaveBeenCalledTimes(1);
+    } finally {
+      replySpy.mockRestore();
+      await fs.rm(tmpDir, { recursive: true, force: true });
+    }
+  });
+
+  it("does not skip hook-triggered heartbeat when HEARTBEAT.md is effectively empty", async () => {
+    const tmpDir = await fs.mkdtemp(path.join(os.tmpdir(), "openclaw-hb-"));
+    const storePath = path.join(tmpDir, "sessions.json");
+    const workspaceDir = path.join(tmpDir, "workspace");
+    const replySpy = vi.spyOn(replyModule, "getReplyFromConfig");
+    try {
+      await fs.mkdir(workspaceDir, { recursive: true });
+      await fs.writeFile(
+        path.join(workspaceDir, "HEARTBEAT.md"),
+        "# HEARTBEAT.md\n\n## Tasks\n\n",
+        "utf-8",
+      );
+
+      const cfg: OpenClawConfig = {
+        agents: {
+          defaults: {
+            workspace: workspaceDir,
+            heartbeat: { every: "5m", target: "whatsapp" },
+          },
+        },
+        channels: { whatsapp: { allowFrom: ["*"] } },
+        session: { store: storePath },
+      };
+      const sessionKey = resolveMainSessionKey(cfg);
+
+      await fs.writeFile(
+        storePath,
+        JSON.stringify(
+          {
+            [sessionKey]: {
+              sessionId: "sid",
+              updatedAt: Date.now(),
+              lastChannel: "whatsapp",
+              lastTo: "+1555",
+            },
+          },
+          null,
+          2,
+        ),
+      );
+
+      replySpy.mockResolvedValue({ text: "hook event processed" });
+      const sendWhatsApp = vi.fn().mockResolvedValue({
+        messageId: "m1",
+        toJid: "jid",
+      });
+
+      const res = await runHeartbeatOnce({
+        cfg,
+        reason: "hook:wake",
+        deps: {
+          sendWhatsApp,
+          getQueueSize: () => 0,
+          nowMs: () => 0,
+          webAuthExists: async () => true,
+          hasActiveWebListener: () => true,
+        },
+      });
+
+      expect(res.status).toBe("ran");
+      expect(replySpy).toHaveBeenCalled();
+      expect(sendWhatsApp).toHaveBeenCalledTimes(1);
+    } finally {
+      replySpy.mockRestore();
+      await fs.rm(tmpDir, { recursive: true, force: true });
+    }
+  });
+
   it("runs heartbeat when HEARTBEAT.md has actionable content", async () => {
     const tmpDir = await fs.mkdtemp(path.join(os.tmpdir(), "openclaw-hb-"));
     const storePath = path.join(tmpDir, "sessions.json");
diff --git a/src/infra/heartbeat-runner.ts b/src/infra/heartbeat-runner.ts
index d90a978bd..9ee8bcc09 100644
--- a/src/infra/heartbeat-runner.ts
+++ b/src/infra/heartbeat-runner.ts
@@ -426,10 +426,11 @@ export async function runHeartbeatOnce(opts: {
 
   // Skip heartbeat if HEARTBEAT.md exists but has no actionable content.
   // This saves API calls/costs when the file is effectively empty (only comments/headers).
-  // EXCEPTION: Don't skip for exec events or cron events - they have pending system events
-  // to process regardless of HEARTBEAT.md content.
+  // EXCEPTION: Don't skip for exec events, cron events, or explicit wake requests -
+  // they have pending system events to process regardless of HEARTBEAT.md content.
   const isExecEventReason = opts.reason === "exec-event";
   const isCronEventReason = Boolean(opts.reason?.startsWith("cron:"));
+  const isWakeReason = opts.reason === "wake" || Boolean(opts.reason?.startsWith("hook:"));
   const workspaceDir = resolveAgentWorkspaceDir(cfg, agentId);
   const heartbeatFilePath = path.join(workspaceDir, DEFAULT_HEARTBEAT_FILENAME);
   try {
@@ -437,7 +438,8 @@ export async function runHeartbeatOnce(opts: {
     if (
       isHeartbeatContentEffectivelyEmpty(heartbeatFileContent) &&
       !isExecEventReason &&
-      !isCronEventReason
+      !isCronEventReason &&
+      !isWakeReason
     ) {
       emitHeartbeatEvent({
         status: "skipped",