Schedule automated tasks

Configure cron jobs to run AI tasks on a schedule - nightly audits, weekly reports, daily maintenance, and more.

What You’ll Build

Automated scheduled tasks that:

Run at specified times (cron expressions)
Execute in your deployed workspace
Have full file and shell access
Report results via webhooks

How It Works

Configuration

Define cron jobs in your .chucky.json:

{
  "name": "my-project",
  "crons": [
    {
      "cron": "0 9 * * 1-5",
      "message": "Review all open PRs and post summaries to #dev-updates",
      "timezone": "America/New_York",
      "model": "claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929",
      "maxTurns": 10,
      "maxBudgetUsd": 2.00,
      "systemPrompt": {
        "type": "preset",
        "preset": "claude_code"
      },
      "callback": {
        "url": "https://your-api.com/webhooks/cron",
        "secret": "your-webhook-secret"
      }
    }
  ]
}

Then deploy to activate:

chucky deploy

Cron Expression Reference

┌───────────── minute (0-59)
│ ┌───────────── hour (0-23)
│ │ ┌───────────── day of month (1-31)
│ │ │ ┌───────────── month (1-12)
│ │ │ │ ┌───────────── day of week (0-6, Sunday=0)
│ │ │ │ │
* * * * *

Expression	Description
`0 9 * * *`	Every day at 9:00 AM
`0 9 * * 1-5`	Weekdays at 9:00 AM
`0 0 * * 0`	Every Sunday at midnight
`0 /6 * *`	Every 6 hours
`0 9 1 * *`	First of every month at 9:00 AM
`/30 * * *`	Every 30 minutes

Use Case Examples

Daily Code Quality Check

{
  "cron": "0 6 * * *",
  "message": "Run a code quality check:\n1. Find any TODO/FIXME comments older than 30 days\n2. Check for unused imports\n3. Find functions over 50 lines\n4. Identify potential memory leaks\n\nCreate a summary report.",
  "timezone": "UTC",
  "maxBudgetUsd": 1.00
}

Weekly Security Audit

{
  "cron": "0 0 * * 0",
  "message": "Perform a weekly security audit:\n1. Check for outdated dependencies with known vulnerabilities\n2. Scan for hardcoded secrets or API keys\n3. Review authentication/authorization code\n4. Check for SQL injection vulnerabilities\n\nCreate a security report with severity ratings.",
  "timezone": "UTC",
  "model": "claude-opus-4-5-20251101",
  "maxBudgetUsd": 5.00
}

Daily Dependency Updates

{
  "cron": "0 3 * * *",
  "message": "Check for outdated dependencies. For any with minor/patch updates and good changelogs, update them and run tests. Create a summary of changes.",
  "timezone": "UTC",
  "maxBudgetUsd": 2.00
}

Weekly Documentation Sync

{
  "cron": "0 10 * * 1",
  "message": "Review all public functions and classes. Ensure JSDoc comments are accurate and up-to-date. Add missing documentation. Update the API reference in docs/.",
  "timezone": "America/Los_Angeles",
  "maxBudgetUsd": 3.00
}

Nightly Test Coverage Report

{
  "cron": "0 2 * * *",
  "message": "Run the test suite and analyze coverage. Identify untested code paths and critical functions without tests. Generate a coverage report with recommendations.",
  "timezone": "UTC",
  "maxBudgetUsd": 1.00
}

Monthly Compliance Check

{
  "cron": "0 9 1 * *",
  "message": "Run a compliance check for:\n1. License headers on all source files\n2. GDPR data handling compliance\n3. Accessibility (a11y) in UI components\n4. API versioning consistency\n\nGenerate a compliance report.",
  "timezone": "UTC",
  "model": "claude-opus-4-5-20251101",
  "maxBudgetUsd": 10.00
}

Webhook Integration

Slack Notifications

// api/webhooks/cron.ts
export async function POST(req: Request) {
  const payload = await verifyWebhook(req);

  if (payload.status === 'completed') {
    await fetch(process.env.SLACK_WEBHOOK_URL!, {
      method: 'POST',
      headers: { 'Content-Type': 'application/json' },
      body: JSON.stringify({
        text: `*Cron Job Completed*\n\n${payload.output}`,
        channel: '#dev-updates',
      }),
    });
  }

  return new Response('OK');
}

GitHub Issue Creation

// api/webhooks/cron.ts
import { Octokit } from '@octokit/rest';

export async function POST(req: Request) {
  const payload = await verifyWebhook(req);

  if (payload.status === 'completed') {
    const octokit = new Octokit({ auth: process.env.GITHUB_TOKEN });

    await octokit.issues.create({
      owner: 'your-org',
      repo: 'your-repo',
      title: `Weekly Report - ${new Date().toISOString().split('T')[0]}`,
      body: payload.output,
      labels: ['automated', 'report'],
    });
  }

  return new Response('OK');
}

Email Reports

// api/webhooks/cron.ts
import { Resend } from 'resend';

export async function POST(req: Request) {
  const payload = await verifyWebhook(req);

  if (payload.status === 'completed') {
    const resend = new Resend(process.env.RESEND_API_KEY);

    await resend.emails.send({
      from: '[email protected]',
      to: ['[email protected]'],
      subject: `AI Report - ${payload.task}`,
      text: payload.output,
    });
  }

  return new Response('OK');
}

Configuration Options

Full Schema

{
  "crons": [
    {
      "cron": "0 9 * * *",
      "message": "Task description",
      "timezone": "America/New_York",
      "model": "claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929",
      "maxTurns": 10,
      "maxBudgetUsd": 5.00,
      "systemPrompt": {
        "type": "preset",
        "preset": "claude_code",
        "append": "Additional context..."
      },
      "tools": {
        "type": "preset",
        "preset": "claude_code"
      },
      "allowedTools": ["Read", "Write", "Bash"],
      "disallowedTools": ["dangerous_tool"],
      "permissionMode": "bypassPermissions",
      "callback": {
        "url": "https://your-api.com/webhook",
        "secret": "hmac-secret"
      }
    }
  ]
}

Option Reference

Option	Type	Description
`cron`	`string`	Cron expression
`message`	`string`	Prompt to send
`timezone`	`string`	IANA timezone (default: UTC)
`model`	`string`	Model to use
`maxTurns`	`number`	Maximum conversation turns
`maxBudgetUsd`	`number`	Budget limit for this job
`systemPrompt`	`object`	System prompt configuration
`tools`	`object`	Tool configuration
`allowedTools`	`string[]`	Whitelist of tools
`disallowedTools`	`string[]`	Blacklist of tools
`permissionMode`	`string`	Permission handling
`callback`	`object`	Webhook configuration

Managing Cron Jobs

View Active Jobs

# List jobs (includes cron-triggered jobs)
chucky jobs list

Update Schedule

Edit .chucky.json and redeploy:

chucky deploy

Disable Temporarily

Comment out or remove the cron entry and deploy:

{
  "crons": [
    // Temporarily disabled
    // { "cron": "0 9 * * *", "message": "..." }
  ]
}

Test Before Scheduling

Run the prompt manually first:

chucky prompt "Your cron message here"

Best Practices

1. Set Budget Limits

Always set maxBudgetUsd to prevent runaway costs:

{
  "cron": "0 * * * *",
  "maxBudgetUsd": 0.50
}

2. Use Appropriate Models

Haiku for simple, frequent tasks
Sonnet for most tasks (good balance)
Opus for complex analysis (sparingly)

3. Handle Failures

Configure webhooks to alert on failures:

if (payload.status === 'failed') {
  await alertTeam(`Cron job failed: ${payload.error}`);
}

4. Stagger Schedules

Don’t run all jobs at the same time:

{
  "crons": [
    { "cron": "0 6 * * *", "message": "Task 1" },
    { "cron": "0 7 * * *", "message": "Task 2" },
    { "cron": "0 8 * * *", "message": "Task 3" }
  ]
}

5. Keep Prompts Focused

One task per cron job:

// Good
{ "message": "Check for outdated dependencies" }

// Avoid
{ "message": "Check dependencies, run tests, update docs, and deploy" }

Monitoring

View Job History

chucky jobs list --limit 50

Check Specific Job

chucky jobs get <job-id>

Cost Tracking

Monitor costs in the Chucky portal at app.chucky.cloud.

Next Steps

Jobs

Manual job management

Deployment

Deploy configuration

CI/CD Integration

Pipeline integration

Budget Management

Cost control

​What You’ll Build

​How It Works

​Configuration

​Cron Expression Reference

​Use Case Examples

​Daily Code Quality Check

​Weekly Security Audit

​Daily Dependency Updates

​Weekly Documentation Sync

​Nightly Test Coverage Report

​Monthly Compliance Check

​Webhook Integration

​Slack Notifications

​GitHub Issue Creation

​Email Reports

​Configuration Options

​Full Schema

​Option Reference

​Managing Cron Jobs

​View Active Jobs

​Update Schedule

​Disable Temporarily

​Test Before Scheduling

​Best Practices

​1. Set Budget Limits

​2. Use Appropriate Models

​3. Handle Failures

​4. Stagger Schedules

​5. Keep Prompts Focused

​Monitoring

​View Job History

​Check Specific Job

​Cost Tracking

​Next Steps