schedule - SKILL.md Agent Skill

name: schedule description: Create, manage, and run scheduled Claude Code tasks. Use when the user wants to schedule automated tasks, set up recurring jobs, list or remove scheduled tasks, pause/resume schedules, run a task immediately, or view task logs. Recognizes time expressions like "every weekday at 9am", "daily", "every hour", cron expressions, and similar scheduling language. user-invocable: true allowed-tools: Bash, Read

Claude Code Scheduler

You help users create and manage scheduled Claude Code tasks that run automatically via the operating system's native scheduler (launchd on macOS, crontab on Linux).

Scripts

All scripts are located at ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/scripts/. Always use the full path with ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT} when calling them.

task-manager.sh — Task CRUD

# Create a new task
${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/scripts/task-manager.sh create \
  --name "Task name" \
  --schedule "0 9 * * 1-5" \
  --schedule-human "Every weekday at 9am" \
  --working-dir "/path/to/project" \
  --prompt "What Claude should do" \
  --allowed-tools "Read,Grep,Glob" \
  --max-turns 10 \
  --notify true

# List all tasks
${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/scripts/task-manager.sh list --format table

# Get task details
${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/scripts/task-manager.sh get <task-id>

# Update a task
${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/scripts/task-manager.sh update <task-id> --status paused

# Delete a task (also removes logs)
${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/scripts/task-manager.sh delete <task-id>

platform-scheduler.sh — OS Scheduler Registration

# Register task with launchd/crontab
${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/scripts/platform-scheduler.sh register <task-id>

# Unregister (remove from scheduler)
${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/scripts/platform-scheduler.sh unregister <task-id>

# Force immediate execution (macOS: launchctl start; Linux: no-op, cron fires within 60s)
${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/scripts/platform-scheduler.sh start <task-id>

# Check registration status
${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/scripts/platform-scheduler.sh status <task-id>

# Check all tasks
${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/scripts/platform-scheduler.sh status-all

run-task.sh — Execute a Task Immediately

${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/scripts/run-task.sh <task-id>

Note: One-shot tasks (created with --one-shot true) automatically unregister from the scheduler and mark themselves as completed after execution.

Operations

Adding a scheduled task

When the user wants to schedule something:

Parse their request to determine: task name, schedule, working directory, prompt, and tool restrictions
Convert natural language time expressions to a 5-field cron expression (see CRON_REFERENCE.md)
Use the current working directory unless the user specifies otherwise
Call task-manager.sh create with all parameters
Call platform-scheduler.sh register with the returned task ID
Confirm to the user with the full schedule summary

For the --prompt argument, write a detailed, self-contained prompt. The task runs in a completely fresh Claude session with no conversation history, so the prompt must include everything Claude needs to know. Be specific about what to do and where to put the output.

Bad prompt: "Send a greeting to the user" Good prompt: "Write a friendly greeting for Bryan to stdout. Mention the current day of the week and wish him a productive day."

Bad prompt: "Review the code" Good prompt: "In the repository at /Users/bryan/project, review all commits from the last 24 hours. Summarize what changed, flag anything that looks risky, and write the summary to stdout."

For --allowed-tools, choose appropriate tools based on what the task needs:

Read-only tasks: "Read,Grep,Glob"
Tasks that run commands: "Read,Grep,Glob,Bash"
Tasks that modify files: "Read,Grep,Glob,Edit,Write,Bash"

Listing tasks

${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/scripts/task-manager.sh list --format table

Present the output to the user. If they want more detail on a specific task, use get.

Removing a task

Always unregister from the OS scheduler first, then delete the task:

${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/scripts/platform-scheduler.sh unregister <task-id>
${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/scripts/task-manager.sh delete <task-id>

Running a task immediately

IMPORTANT: You CANNOT call run-task.sh from within this Claude session. It invokes claude -p which starts a nested Claude process, and nested Claude sessions are not supported. The call will fail.

Instead, to run a task "now":

Create the task with --one-shot true and schedule "* * * * *"
Register it with platform-scheduler.sh register
Force immediate execution with platform-scheduler.sh start

The start command calls launchctl start on macOS to trigger the job immediately via launchd (not as a nested process). On Linux, cron will fire within 60 seconds.

The task automatically cleans up after itself: run-task.sh unregisters the task from the scheduler and marks it as completed after execution. A lock file prevents duplicate runs.

Tell the user the task is running now (macOS) or will run within 60 seconds (Linux). They'll get a desktop notification with the output when it completes.

# Create a one-shot task
${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/scripts/task-manager.sh create \
  --name "One-time task" \
  --schedule "* * * * *" \
  --one-shot true \
  --working-dir "$(pwd)" \
  --prompt "The task prompt"

# Register and start immediately
${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/scripts/platform-scheduler.sh register <task-id>
${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/scripts/platform-scheduler.sh start <task-id>

The user can check the result afterward with:

cat ~/.claude-scheduler/logs/<task-id>/latest

Pausing a task

Unregister from scheduler and update status:

${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/scripts/platform-scheduler.sh unregister <task-id>
${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/scripts/task-manager.sh update <task-id> --status paused

Resuming a task

Update status and re-register:

${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/scripts/task-manager.sh update <task-id> --status active
${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/scripts/platform-scheduler.sh register <task-id>

Viewing logs

cat ~/.claude-scheduler/logs/<task-id>/latest

Or list all log files:

ls -la ~/.claude-scheduler/logs/<task-id>/

Important notes

Never call run-task.sh from this session. It starts a nested claude -p process which will fail. Use the register-then-unregister pattern for immediate execution.
Cron/launchd minimum granularity is 1 minute. You cannot schedule anything with sub-minute precision.
Tasks run with the user's system permissions
The claude CLI must be installed and in PATH for scheduled execution
Desktop notifications are enabled by default
Logs are stored at ~/.claude-scheduler/logs/<task-id>/
macOS uses launchd (persists across reboots, runs missed jobs after wake)
Linux uses crontab (persists across reboots)
Windows is not supported
Tasks do NOT use --dangerously-skip-permissions — they run with the allowed tools specified