Codeman/docs/cron-guide.md

Cron Jobs — User & Operator Guide

Codeman's Cron feature lets you save named, recurring jobs that automatically spin up a Claude (or shell / OpenCode / Codex / Antigravity / Gemini / Pi) session on a schedule and feed it a prompt. Think "cron for agent sessions": "every weekday at 3am, open a Claude session in ~/proj and tell it to update dependencies and open a PR."

• UI: the ⏰ Cron button in the bottom toolbar → the Cron Jobs modal (#cronModal).
• API: /api/cron/jobs* and /api/cron/runs.
• Code: src/cron/cron-service.ts, src/cron/cron-time.ts, src/cron/cron-input.ts, types in src/types/cron.ts, routes in src/web/routes/cron-routes.ts, frontend in src/web/public/cron-ui.js.

Not to be confused with ScheduledRun (/api/scheduled). That older, deliberately-separate concept is a run-now, duration-bounded autonomous loop ({prompt, workingDir, durationMinutes} → spawn/kill throwaway sessions until the duration elapses). It has no recurrence, no saved jobs, and no next-run calculation. The two systems never interact. This guide is only about Cron jobs (Cron*). See docs/cron-discovery.md §0.

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1. Quick start

In the browser

1. Click ⏰ Cron in the bottom toolbar.
2. Click + New Job.
3. Fill in a name, pick an agent type and working directory, choose a prompt (inline text or a file path), pick a schedule, and leave Enabled on.
4. Save. The job appears in the list with its computed next run.
5. Use Run Now to fire it immediately without waiting for the schedule.

With curl

API=http://localhost:3000

# Create a daily job (03:00 server-local time)
curl -s -X POST "$API/api/cron/jobs" \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{
    "name": "nightly-deps",
    "agentType": "claude",
    "workingDir": "/home/me/proj",
    "promptMode": "inline_text",
    "promptText": "Update dependencies and open a PR",
    "inputMode": "typed",
    "scheduleType": "daily",
    "dailyTime": "03:00",
    "enabled": true,
    "concurrencyPolicy": "warn_only"
  }' | jq

# List jobs
curl -s "$API/api/cron/jobs" | jq

# Run one immediately
curl -s -X POST "$API/api/cron/jobs/<jobId>/run" | jq

# See a job's run history
curl -s "$API/api/cron/jobs/<jobId>/runs" | jq

---

2. Concepts

Term	Meaning
Cron job (CronJob)	A saved, named definition: what agent to launch, where, with what prompt, on what schedule.
Run (CronJobRun)	One execution of a job — a history record with a status and a link to the session it created.
Schedule type	How fire times are computed: once, interval, daily, or weekly.
Next run (nextRunAt)	Server-computed epoch-ms of the next fire. null when the job is disabled or has no future run.
Due tick	A background loop (every 30s) that launches any enabled job whose nextRunAt has passed.

A job is essentially a trigger + persistence + history layer on top of the existing session primitives. When a job fires, the cron service does exactly what the "quick start" route does — new Session(...) → addSession → setupSessionListeners → startInteractive()/startShell() → deliver the prompt. It does not reimplement any tmux/PTY logic.

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3. The job form — every field

These map 1:1 to CronJobSchema (src/web/schemas.ts) and the CronJob type (src/types/cron.ts).

Field	Required	Values / limits	Notes
name	✅	1–200 chars	Display name; also used as the created session's name.
agentType	✅	claude | shell | opencode | codex | gemini | antigravity | pi | grok	Reuses Codeman's SessionMode. shell = a plain terminal. ⚠️ A pi or grok job's readiness poll looks for ❯/a token count, which neither CLI prints, so it burns the poll budget and then sends the prompt anyway (slower start, still works).
workingDir	✅	valid path (allowlist-validated)	Validated at create/update (must exist, be a directory, and not resolve into a blocked tree — /etc, /root, /proc, /sys, /dev, or / itself) and again at fire time.
launchCommand	—	≤ 2000 chars, single line	shell mode only: sent as the first input line once the shell is up, before the prompt. Ignored for other agent types.
promptMode	✅	inline_text | prompt_file_path	See §5.
promptText	conditional	≤ 100000 chars, single line	Required when promptMode = inline_text. Newlines are rejected (see §6).
promptFilePath	conditional	valid path	Required when promptMode = prompt_file_path. Confined to workingDir (see §5).
inputMode	✅	paste | typed	How the prompt is delivered. See §6.
scheduleType	✅	once | interval | daily | weekly	See §4.
runAt	conditional	epoch-ms (positive int)	Required for once.
intervalMinutes	conditional	1–525600 (≤ 1 year)	Required for interval.
dailyTime	conditional	HH:MM (24h)	Required for daily. Server-local time.
weeklyDays	conditional	array of 1–7 ints, each 0–6 (0 = Sunday)	Required for weekly.
weeklyTime	conditional	HH:MM (24h)	Required for weekly. Server-local time.
enabled	✅	boolean	Disabled jobs never auto-fire (but Run Now still works).
notes	—	≤ 2000 chars	Free-form.
concurrencyPolicy	✅	warn_only | skip_if_same_agent_running	Applies to automatic runs only. See §7.
autoClosePreviousSession	—	boolean (default true)	Recurring schedules only (ignored for once): when the next run fires, the still-open session created by this job's previous run is closed first via the normal cleanup path. See §8.

Cross-field validation (refineCronJob in schemas.ts): the conditional fields above are enforced by a Zod superRefine on create. A missing dependent field (e.g. scheduleType: "once" with no runAt) is rejected with INVALID_INPUT and a field-specific message.

⚠️ Update caveat. PUT /api/cron/jobs/:id uses a .partial() schema that does not re-run the cross-field superRefine. To keep partial edits safe, updateJob() re-validates the merged job against the full CronJobSchema and throws 400 if the result is inconsistent (e.g. switching to once without a runAt). So the store is never left with a half-valid job.

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4. Schedule types

Next-run math lives in src/cron/cron-time.ts (pure, unit-tested in test/cron-time.test.ts). All wall-clock times use the server's local timezone (v0.1 decision).

once

• Fires a single time at the absolute runAt epoch-ms.
• A missed one-time job (server was down at runAt) still fires once on the next tick — computeNextRunAt returns runAt even if it's in the past, until the job has fired.
• After firing, the job self-disables: completedOnce = true, enabled = false, nextRunAt = null.

interval

• Fires every intervalMinutes, computed as fireTime + intervalMinutes.
• ⚠️ Drift: the next run re-anchors to the actual fire time, not to an ideal cadence — a slow tick or restart shifts subsequent runs slightly later. This is an accepted limitation.

daily

• Fires at dailyTime (HH:MM) every day, server-local.
• If today's time has already passed, the next run is tomorrow at that time.

weekly

• Fires at weeklyTime on each weekday in weeklyDays (0 = Sunday … 6 = Saturday), server-local.
• The next run is the soonest upcoming matching weekday/time within the next 7 days.

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5. Prompt source (promptMode)

inline_text

The prompt is the literal promptText. Simplest option.

prompt_file_path

The prompt is read from a file at fire time. This path is security-hardened because a job config is attacker-controllable and the file's contents are injected into an agent session (an exfiltration sink over SSE/terminal). resolveSafePromptPath() enforces, in order:

1. realpath resolution — symlinks are resolved to their true target, for the prompt file and for workingDir itself.
2. workingDir is not a trust boundary — because it is user-supplied, the resolved workingDir is itself rejected if it is / or resolves into a blocked tree (/etc, /root, operator extras) or a pseudo-filesystem (/proc, /sys, /dev). This closes the workingDir: '/proc' + promptFilePath: '/proc/self/environ' env-exfil trick. The same rule is enforced earlier, at job create/update.
3. Blocklist (defense-in-depth) — sensitive trees (/etc, /root, /proc, /sys, /dev, known secret locations) are rejected for the resolved prompt file.
4. Allowlist (primary gate) — the resolved path must live inside the job's (resolved) workingDir (validateSessionFilePath). A symlink escaping the workspace fails here.
5. Regular-file check — directories, FIFOs, and /dev/* character devices are rejected (they would hang or OOM an unbounded read).
6. Size cap — files larger than 1 MiB (MAX_PROMPT_FILE_BYTES) are rejected.
7. Single-line check — after trailing newlines are stripped, the file content must be a single line (see §6).

If any check fails, the run is recorded as failed with the reason; no session is created.

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6. Prompt delivery (inputMode)

Once the CLI is ready (see §8), the prompt is written to the session with a trailing carriage return:

Mode	Mechanism	Use when
typed	session.writeViaMux() — the text as a tmux bracketed paste + Enter (a single character is typed, so a dialog answer selects)	Default; like a human pasting the prompt and pressing Enter.
paste	session.write() — writes directly to the PTY/mux	Bulk paste-style delivery.

⚠️ Single-line only — enforced. Like all programmatic input in Codeman, multi-line delivery would be silently corrupted (Ink-based TUIs treat a newline as submit; typed mode fuses lines). So newlines are rejected: the schema and the form refuse a multi-line promptText, and at fire time a prompt file whose content is multi-line (after stripping trailing newlines) fails the run with a clear errorMessage. Put multi-line instructions in a file the agent is told to read itself (e.g. "read TASKS.md and do it").

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7. Concurrency policy (automatic runs)

concurrencyPolicy governs what happens when a scheduled run is due and sessions of the same agentType already exist:

Policy	Behavior
warn_only	Always launch. (The count is surfaced but not blocking.)
skip_if_same_agent_running	If ≥ 1 other, live session of that mode is active, skip this fire — record a skipped run and (for recurring schedules) advance the schedule without launching.

Notes on skip_if_same_agent_running:

• Only live sessions block: a tab whose CLI already exited (status stopped/error) does not count.
• Sessions created by this job's own previous runs never block it — otherwise a recurring job would deadlock on the session it created last time and fire exactly once.
• A skipped once job is not consumed: it stays armed and retries on the next tick until the blocking session goes away, then fires its single run.
• A skip is not a run: it sets lastStatus = 'skipped' but does not advance lastRunAt.
• Consecutive skips are coalesced — a perpetually-skipped interval job writes one skip record per streak, not one every tick, so it can't bloat state.json.

Run Now ignores this policy on the server. The browser shows a confirm() warning if same-type sessions are active, but if you proceed (or call the API directly), the job launches unconditionally.

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8. What happens when a job fires

Sequence in CronService.launch():

1. A CronJobRun is created with status created and broadcast (cron:runCreated).
2. The prompt is resolved (inline or file, single-line enforced). Failure → failed.
3. workingDir is checked (statSync().isDirectory()). Missing/not-a-dir → failed.
4. Auto-close previous session (recurring schedules, unless autoClosePreviousSession: false): any still-open session created by this job's previous runs is closed via the normal session-cleanup path.
5. The global session cap is checked (MAX_CONCURRENT_SESSIONS, 50 unless CODEMAN_MAX_SESSIONS sets it). At cap → failed.
6. A Session is created with useMux: true (so it runs inside tmux), registered, listeners attached, and started via startInteractive() (startShell() for shell mode). Model/claudeMode come from global config. Run status → session_started.
7. Readiness wait (async, non-blocking): for non-shell agents the service polls the terminal buffer up to 60 × 500ms for a ❯ prompt or the string tokens, then settles 2000ms (CRON_READY_SETTLE_MS). Shell mode waits 1000ms, then sends the optional launchCommand as the first input line (+1000ms settle).
8. The prompt is delivered (typed/paste, trailing \r). Run status → prompt_sent; finishedAt stamped. Delivery failure (e.g. the mux session is gone) → failed.

The created session is a normal, persistent interactive session — it appears as its own tab and keeps running after the prompt is sent. The run's createdSessionUrl is a deep link (/?session=<id>); the UI focuses it automatically after Run Now.

⚠️ Session-cap math if you disable auto-close. With autoClosePreviousSession: false, nothing ever closes the sessions a recurring job creates — an interval job every 30 min creates 48 tabs/day and hits the global 50-session cap in ~25 hours (sooner with existing tabs), after which every fire of every job fails with "Maximum concurrent sessions reached" until you delete tabs by hand. Leave auto-close on for unattended recurring jobs, or clean up sessions yourself.

The background tick

tickDueJobs() runs every 30s (CRON_TICK_INTERVAL, registered in server.ts). For each enabled job whose nextRunAt ≤ now:

• Duplicate-launch guard: lastDueKey = jobId:fireTime. If this due time was already consumed (overlap/restart), the job is just advanced, not relaunched.
• The schedule is advanced before launching so a slow launch can't be re-triggered by the next tick.
• On boot, init() recomputes nextRunAt for loaded jobs (dead once jobs stay dead).

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9. Run history & statuses

Each job keeps a history of CronJobRun records. Statuses (CronJobRunStatus):

Status	Meaning
created	Run record created; prompt/session not yet started.
session_started	Session launched successfully.
prompt_sent	Prompt delivered — the happy-path terminal state.
failed	Something went wrong (see errorMessage).
skipped	A scheduled fire was skipped by skip_if_same_agent_running.

Each run also records triggerType (scheduled or manual_run_now), sessionId/sessionName, timestamps, and createdSessionUrl.

History is capped globally at 500 records (MAX_CRON_RUN_HISTORY); the oldest are pruned first. Deleting a job also deletes its run records.

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10. API reference

All responses use the standard ApiResponse<T> envelope ({success, data} / {success, error, errorCode}). /api/v1/* is a stable alias.

Method	Endpoint	Body	Returns
GET	/api/cron/jobs	—	CronJob[]
POST	/api/cron/jobs	CronJobSchema	{ job }
GET	/api/cron/jobs/:id	—	CronJob (404 if missing)
PUT	/api/cron/jobs/:id	partial CronJob	{ job } (400 if merge invalid)
DELETE	/api/cron/jobs/:id	—	{}
PUT	/api/cron/jobs/:id/enabled	{ enabled: boolean }	{ job }
POST	/api/cron/jobs/:id/run	—	{ run, activeAgents }
GET	/api/cron/jobs/:id/runs	—	CronJobRun[] (newest first)
GET	/api/cron/runs	—	all CronJobRun[] (newest first)

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11. SSE events

Emitted on /api/events, mirrored in SSE_EVENTS (constants.js):

Event	Payload	When
cron:jobsChanged	{ jobs }	Any job created / updated / enabled / status change.
cron:jobDeleted	{ id }	A job was deleted.
cron:runCreated	CronJobRun	A run (incl. skips) started.
cron:runUpdated	CronJobRun	A run advanced state (session_started / prompt_sent / failed).

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12. State & persistence

Persisted in ~/.codeman/state.json via StateStore:

• AppState.cronJobs — map of id → CronJob.
• AppState.cronJobRuns — map of id → CronJobRun.

Jobs and their schedules survive restarts; init() recomputes nextRunAt on boot. Sessions the jobs create persist through the normal session-recovery path.

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13. Limits & constants

Constant	Value	Source
Due-tick interval	30s	CRON_TICK_INTERVAL (config/server-timing.ts)
Readiness poll	60 × 500ms	CRON_READY_MAX_ATTEMPTS
Readiness settle	2000ms	CRON_READY_SETTLE_MS
Run-history cap (global)	500	MAX_CRON_RUN_HISTORY (config/map-limits.ts)
Saved-jobs cap	100	MAX_CRON_JOBS (config/map-limits.ts)
Concurrent-session cap	50	MAX_CONCURRENT_SESSIONS (env CODEMAN_MAX_SESSIONS)
Prompt-file size cap	1 MiB	MAX_PROMPT_FILE_BYTES (cron-service.ts)
name length	1–200	CronJobSchema
promptText length	≤ 100000	CronJobSchema
intervalMinutes	1–525600	CronJobSchema
weeklyDays	1–7 entries, each 0–6	CronJobSchema

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14. Known limitations

• Server-local timezone only — daily/weekly times are interpreted in the host's local time; there is no per-job timezone.
• Interval drift — interval re-anchors to the actual fire time; long-running intervals slowly shift.
• Single-line prompts — multi-line prompts are rejected (schema, form, and at fire time for prompt files); tell the agent to read a file itself for multi-line instructions.
• runNow / tick race — a manual Run Now firing at the same instant as a scheduled tick is theoretically possible; benign (you may get two sessions).
• {enabled:true} on a dead once job — re-enabling a fired one-time job without changing its schedule leaves it enabled-but-dead (won't fire); change the schedule to re-arm.

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15. Troubleshooting

Symptom	Likely cause	Fix
Job never fires	Disabled, or nextRunAt: null	Check Enabled; verify the schedule fields are complete.
Run shows failed immediately	Bad workingDir, prompt-file rejected, or session cap hit	Read errorMessage on the run; confirm the dir exists and the prompt file is inside it and < 1 MiB.
Run shows skipped	skip_if_same_agent_running + another live same-type session (this job's own sessions and dead tabs don't count)	Switch to warn_only, or wait for the other session to end.
Run fails with "single line"	Multi-line prompt text / prompt file	Keep the prompt to one line; point the agent at a file to read for long instructions.
Sessions pile up between runs	autoClosePreviousSession: false	Re-enable auto-close, or delete old tabs before the 50-session cap bites (see §8).
Wrong fire time	Timezone assumption	Times are server-local — check the host clock/TZ.
One-time job won't re-fire	completedOnce set	Edit the schedule (any real schedule change re-arms it).

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16. Related docs

• docs/cron-discovery.md — architecture / integration-point analysis (why the feature reuses the session layer and stays distinct from ScheduledRun).
• docs/cron-build-brief.md — the original build brief / requirements.
• CLAUDE.md → Key Patterns → Cron — the one-paragraph engineering summary.
• Tests: test/cron-time.test.ts (schedule math), test/cron-service.test.ts (CRUD, tick, concurrency, security).