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Create an automation schedule

An Automation Schedule files a task for you on a timer. Use one for work that recurs: a weekly status report, a nightly dependency check, a monthly documentation review. Each time it fires, it files one task per project you pick, and a runner works on it like any other task.

Who can do this: Schedule is shown only to Owners and Admins of your organization.

Create the schedule​

  1. In the sidebar, select Automation, then the Schedule tab.

  2. Select ＋. The New cron form opens.

    The New cron form: Activity Runner, Name, Description, the Schedule line with Edit, Instructions, Projects, Persona, Model, Hidden task, Full auto, Enabled, Keep logs and Create cron

  3. Leave Activity on Runner: it files a task each time it fires.

  4. In Name, enter a name you'll recognize in the list, such as Weekly status report. To group schedules into folders in the tree view, use /, as in Reports/Weekly status.

  5. Optional: add a Description saying what the schedule is for.

  6. Set when it fires, as in Set the schedule.

  7. In Instructions, write what each task should do, exactly as you would describe a task. This becomes the description of every task the schedule files.

  8. In Projects, pick the projects to work on. Each firing files one task per project.

  9. Check Persona: the kind of expert each task runs as. Coder delivers a change; pick another persona for work such as research or a report.

  10. Optional: tick Hidden task to keep these tasks off the default task board.

  11. Decide on Full auto. On, the runner never asks you anything and fails instead when it needs a person. Off, it stops and asks, and waits for your answer.

  12. Leave Enabled ticked so the schedule starts firing.

  13. Select Create cron. The schedule's page opens, and it appears in the Schedule list.

Set the schedule​

  1. On the Schedule line, select Edit.

    The schedule editor: Schedule as A cron expression, and the builder set to every day at 9, minute 0

  2. In Schedule as, pick A cron expression to fire at named times, or A fixed interval to fire every so many minutes or hours.

  3. For named times, pick a Period such as day or week, then the days, hours and minutes it fires at. For an interval, enter Every and pick a Unit.

  4. Read the summary on the Schedule line: it says when the schedule fires, in words, and when it fires next.

  5. Select Done.

Check it​

  1. Open the schedule from the Schedule list.
  2. Read Next fire on its Advanced tab.
  3. To see it work without waiting, select Run now. See Run, pause or change a schedule.
  • Schedule — every field and tab of a schedule.
  • Start a task — how a task is written and what its settings mean.
  • How schedules work — firings, states and how a schedule relates to tasks.