Cron Jobs

Schedule recurring prompts, reports, reviews, and checks that run automatically from the Arcana runtime. Cron jobs let you set and forget AI workflows — daily standups, weekly code reviews, hourly monitoring alerts, or any other repeated task.

Quick Start

# Every 4 hours: run code review
arcana cron add --name "review PRs" --schedule "0 */4 * * *" --prompt "review open PRs for bugs"

# Daily summary at 9 AM
arcana cron add --name "daily digest" --schedule "0 9 * * *" --prompt "summarize today's changes"

# Run the daemon (blocks, evaluates jobs every 60s)
arcana cron start

Commands

Command	Description
`arcana cron add`	Create a new scheduled job
`arcana cron list`	List all jobs with status and last run
`arcana cron remove --id <id>`	Delete a job
`arcana cron pause --id <id>`	Disable a job without deleting it
`arcana cron resume --id <id>`	Re-enable a paused job
`arcana cron run --id <id>`	Run a job immediately (manual trigger)
`arcana cron start`	Start the scheduler daemon

Adding a Job

arcana cron add \
  --name "daily review" \
  --schedule "0 9 * * *" \
  --prompt "review today's git commits and summarize changes" \
  --skill "git" \
  --tz "America/New_York"

Options

Flag	Required	Description
`--schedule`, `-s`	Yes	Cron expression or alias (see below)
`--prompt`, `-p`	Yes	The prompt sent to the agent
`--name`, `-n`	No	Human-readable job name
`--skill`	No	Activate a specific skill for this job
`--timezone`, `--tz`	No	Timezone for the schedule (default: `UTC`)

Schedule Syntax

Standard 5-field cron expressions are supported:

┌───────── minute (0–59)
│ ┌──────── hour (0–23)
│ │ ┌─────── day of month (1–31)
│ │ │ ┌────── month (1–12)
│ │ │ │ ┌───── day of week (0–7, 0 and 7 = Sunday)
│ │ │ │ │
* * * * *

Examples

Schedule	Meaning
`0 9 * * *`	Every day at 9:00 AM
`0 /4 * *`	Every 4 hours
`30 8 * * 1-5`	Weekdays at 8:30 AM
`0 0 1 * *`	First of every month
`/15 * * *`	Every 15 minutes

Aliases

Alias	Expands to
`@hourly`	`0 * * * *`
`@daily`	`0 0 * * *`
`@weekly`	`0 0 * * 0`
`@monthly`	`0 0 1 * *`
`@yearly`	`0 0 1 1 *`

Managing Jobs

# List all scheduled jobs with their next run time
arcana cron list

# Run a job immediately (regardless of schedule)
arcana cron run <job-id>

# Pause a job without removing it
arcana cron pause <job-id>

# Resume a paused job
arcana cron resume <job-id>

# Remove a job permanently
arcana cron remove <job-id>

Starting the Daemon

arcana cron start

The scheduler evaluates all enabled jobs every 60 seconds (configurable). Press Ctrl+C to stop.

# Output
Cron scheduler running (interval: 60s). Ctrl+C to stop.
[2026-07-20T09:00:00.000Z] Running job: daily review
[output] Today's changes include 3 commits to packages/engine...

Configuration

Cron settings live in ~/.arcana/config.json:

{
  "cron": {
    "enabled": true,
    "intervalSeconds": 60
  }
}

Key	Default	Description
`cron.enabled`	`true`	Enable or disable the cron system
`cron.intervalSeconds`	`60`	How often the scheduler checks for due jobs

How It Works

Jobs are stored in ~/.arcana/data/cron-jobs.json.
Each job gets its own agent session with conversation history and memory integration.
Destructive shell commands are blocked by default (safe mode) unless the job prompt explicitly requires them.
Jobs integrate with the memory system — the agent can read and write facts across runs.
If a job specifies a --skill, that skill's instructions are injected into the agent's system prompt.

License Requirement

Cron jobs require a valid API key (ARCANA_API_KEY or provider-specific keys). The agent runs unattended with your configured provider and model.

Last updated: Jul 23, 2026