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

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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

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How It Works

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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

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Cron Expression Reference

┌───────────── minute (0-59)
│ ┌───────────── hour (0-23)
│ │ ┌───────────── day of month (1-31)
│ │ │ ┌───────────── month (1-12)
│ │ │ │ ┌───────────── day of week (0-6, Sunday=0)
│ │ │ │ │
* * * * *
ExpressionDescription
0 9 * * *Every day at 9:00 AM
0 9 * * 1-5Weekdays at 9:00 AM
0 0 * * 0Every Sunday at midnight
0 */6 * * *Every 6 hours
0 9 1 * *First of every month at 9:00 AM
*/30 * * * *Every 30 minutes

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Use Case Examples

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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
}

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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 Check for outdated dependencies with known vulnerabilities\n2.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
}

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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
}

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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
}

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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
}

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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
}

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Webhook Integration

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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');
}

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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');
}

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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');
}

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Configuration Options

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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"
      }
    }
  ]
}

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Option Reference

OptionTypeDescription
cronstringCron expression
messagestringPrompt to send
timezonestringIANA timezone (default: UTC)
modelstringModel to use
maxTurnsnumberMaximum conversation turns
maxBudgetUsdnumberBudget limit for this job
systemPromptobjectSystem prompt configuration
toolsobjectTool configuration
allowedToolsstring[]Whitelist of tools
disallowedToolsstring[]Blacklist of tools
permissionModestringPermission handling
callbackobjectWebhook configuration

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Managing Cron Jobs

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View Active Jobs

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

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Update Schedule

Edit .chucky.json and redeploy: 
chucky deploy

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Disable Temporarily

Comment out or remove the cron entry and deploy: 
{
  "crons": [
    // Temporarily disabled
    // { "cron": "0 9 * * *", "message": "..." }
  ]
}

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Test Before Scheduling

Run the prompt manually first: 
chucky prompt "Your cron message here"

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Best Practices

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1. Set Budget Limits

Always set maxBudgetUsd to prevent runaway costs: 
{
  "cron": "0 * * * *",
  "maxBudgetUsd": 0.50
}

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2. Use Appropriate Models

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

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3. Handle Failures

Configure webhooks to alert on failures: 
if (payload.status === 'failed') {
  await alertTeam(`Cron job failed: ${payload.error}`);
}

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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" }
  ]
}

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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" }

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Monitoring

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View Job History

chucky jobs list --limit 50

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Check Specific Job

chucky jobs get <job-id>

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Cost Tracking

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

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Next Steps

Jobs

Manual job management

Deployment

Deploy configuration

CI/CD Integration

Pipeline integration

Budget Management

Cost control