Scheduled Tasks

Use /loop and cron scheduling tools to run prompts repeatedly, poll for status, or set one-time reminders within a Claude Code session. Requires Claude Code v2.1.72+.

Overview

Scheduled tasks let Claude re-run a prompt automatically on an interval. Use them to:

• Poll a deployment status
• Babysit a PR review cycle
• Check on a long-running build
• Set reminders during a session

Tasks are session-scoped: they live in the current process and are gone when you exit. For durable scheduling, use Cloud, Desktop, or GitHub Actions.

Scheduling Options Comparison

	Cloud	Desktop	/loop
Runs on	Anthropic cloud	Your machine	Your machine
Requires machine on	No	Yes	Yes
Requires open session	No	No	Yes
Persistent across restarts	Yes	Yes	No
Access to local files	No (fresh clone)	Yes	Yes
MCP servers	Connectors per task	Config files + connectors	Inherits from session
Permission prompts	No (autonomous)	Configurable	Inherits from session
Minimum interval	1 hour	1 minute	1 minute

Schedule with /loop

The quickest way to schedule a recurring prompt:

/loop 5m check if the deployment finished and tell me what happened

Interval Syntax

Form	Example	Parsed
Leading token	/loop 30m check the build	Every 30 minutes
Trailing every clause	/loop check the build every 2 hours	Every 2 hours
No interval	/loop check the build	Default: every 10 minutes

Units: s (seconds, rounded to nearest minute), m (minutes), h (hours), d (days).

Loop Over Commands

Schedule any command or skill:

/loop 20m /review-pr 1234

One-Time Reminders

Use natural language for single-fire tasks:

remind me at 3pm to push the release branch

in 45 minutes, check whether the integration tests passed

Manage Tasks

what scheduled tasks do I have?
cancel the deploy check job

Underlying Tools

Tool	Purpose
CronCreate	Schedule new task (5-field cron, prompt, recurrence flag)
CronList	List all tasks with IDs, schedules, prompts
CronDelete	Cancel task by ID

Max 50 tasks per session. Each has an 8-character ID.

How Tasks Run

• Scheduler checks every second for due tasks
• Tasks fire between your turns (low priority), not mid-response
• If Claude is busy, task waits until current turn ends
• All times in local timezone (not UTC)

Jitter

• Recurring: fire up to 10% of period late, capped at 15 min
• One-shot at :00 or :30: fire up to 90 seconds early
• Offset derived from task ID (deterministic)

Three-Day Expiry

Recurring tasks auto-expire after 3 days. Fires one final time, then deletes itself. Recreate before expiry for longer runs, or use Cloud/Desktop for durable scheduling.

Cron Expression Reference

5-field format: minute hour day-of-month month day-of-week

Expression	Meaning
*/5 * * * *	Every 5 minutes
0 * * * *	Every hour on the hour
7 * * * *	Every hour at :07
0 9 * * *	Daily at 9am local
0 9 * * 1-5	Weekdays at 9am local
30 14 15 3 *	March 15 at 2:30pm local

Day-of-week: 0/7 = Sunday through 6 = Saturday. No extended syntax (L, W, ?, name aliases).

CI/CD and Pipeline Integration

Scheduled tasks are powerful for build and deployment monitoring:

Deploy Watch

/loop 2m check the deployment status of staging and report any failures

Build Monitor

/loop 5m check if CI pipeline #1234 has completed. If it failed, analyze the logs and suggest fixes

PR Babysitter

/loop 10m check PR #456 for new review comments and CI status changes

Health Check Polling

/loop 1m curl the /health endpoint and alert me if it returns non-200

Disable

Set CLAUDE_CODE_DISABLE_CRON=1 to disable the scheduler entirely. Tools and /loop become unavailable.

Limitations

• Tasks only fire while Claude Code is running and idle
• No catch-up for missed fires (fires once when idle, not once per missed interval)
• No persistence across restarts
• Session-scoped only (max 50 tasks)

Cloud Scheduled Tasks

Cloud tasks run on Anthropic's infrastructure without your machine. They get a fresh repo clone via GitHub connector.

Minimum interval: 1 hour. No local files. Requires connector per task.

# Create via API
POST https://api.anthropic.com/v1/scheduled_tasks
{
  "name": "Weekly dep audit",
  "schedule": "0 8 * * 1",
  "model": "claude-sonnet-4-6",
  "prompt": "Audit npm dependencies for vulnerabilities...",
  "connectors": [{ "type": "github", "repo": "owner/repo" }]
}

Best for: Nightly/weekly jobs that run unattended. GitHub-native workflows. Tasks that must survive machine off.

Desktop Scheduled Tasks

Desktop tasks run on your local machine via the Claude Desktop app. Full local file + MCP access. Require Desktop open.

Minimum interval: 1 minute. Full local access. Config files + connectors.

In Claude Desktop → Settings → Scheduled Tasks → New Task
Name: Daily PR Review
Schedule: 0 9 * * 1-5
Prompt: {your prompt}
Working directory: /path/to/repo

Best for: Daily dev workflows, tasks needing local filesystem, git, or local MCP servers.

Use /cc-schedule for Blueprint Prompts

/cc-schedule generates optimized, guardrailed prompts for 6 common maintenance workflows, pre-configured for each target:

/cc-schedule pr-review --target desktop     # Daily PR review → Desktop task
/cc-schedule ci-triage --target loop        # CI triage → /loop command
/cc-schedule dep-audit --target cloud       # Dep audit → Cloud task
/cc-schedule docs-drift                     # Docs drift check
/cc-schedule release-check                  # Release readiness
/cc-schedule branch-hygiene                 # Branch cleanup

Each blueprint includes skip conditions, guardrails, branch naming policy, and a verification block. See commands/cc-schedule.md for full specifications.

Prompt Guardrails for Scheduled Tasks

Every effective scheduled prompt needs these four sections:

SKIP CONDITIONS:
- If [condition], output "[message]" and stop.

STEPS:
1. [action]
2. [action]

GUARDRAILS:
- Never [dangerous action]
- Maximum [N] operations per run

VERIFICATION:
Output: {N} items processed, {M} actions taken, {K} skipped.

Why: Without skip conditions, tasks run wastefully. Without guardrails, autonomous tasks cause incidents.

See Also

• Cloud Scheduled Tasks — Durable cloud-based scheduling
• Desktop Scheduled Tasks — Local persistent scheduling
• GitHub Actions — CI/CD schedule triggers
• Channels — Push events instead of polling
• cc-schedule command — Blueprint generator for 6 maintenance workflows