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Scheduled tasks: work that repeats on its own

Anything you’d otherwise ask for again and again (a morning summary, a weekly backup check, a reminder on the first of the month) can run on a schedule. In Lowkey, a schedule belongs to a task or a program (see Tasks and programs: work that lasts longer than a chat), so every repeating job has a home, a chat, and someone answerable for it.

Setting one up

Section titled “Setting one up”

Ask in plain language:

  • “Every weekday at 9am, check my calendar and tell me what needs attention.”
  • “Each Friday at 4, send me this summary.”
  • “Check the backups every night and only tell me if something’s wrong.”

The agent sets it up for you: it writes whatever script the job needs, attaches the schedule to a task (creating one if needed), and tells you when it will first run and how to stop it. You don’t need to know cron syntax or touch any settings.

Agents may also offer this on their own when they notice you’ve asked for the same thing a few times.

A task can have more than one schedule, each with its own time zone.

What happens when it runs

Section titled “What happens when it runs”

Each run is a pass, and it happens in the task’s own chat:

  • Quiet when all is well. A pass runs its script first. If the script succeeds and finds nothing that needs attention, the pass stays quiet and costs nothing: no agent wakes up, nothing pings you.
  • The agent wakes when there’s something to do. If the script fails, or reports items that need attention, the task’s agent wakes in that chat with the evidence, works out what happened, and writes back. If it truly needs you, the task’s move becomes yours, and anything urgent pages you (see Pages and notifications).
  • A heartbeat is a special schedule on a program: instead of a script, it has the agent review every task in the program, so drift gets noticed.

Runs never overlap: if one is still going when the next is due, the next is skipped.

Seeing and changing schedules

Section titled “Seeing and changing schedules”

Open the task (from the Tasks tab) to see its page in the focus pane, including its schedules. Past passes appear in the task’s chat.

To change one, ask: “Move the summary to 8am”, “pause the backup check while I’m away”, “stop the Friday report”. The agent edits, pauses or removes the schedule.

Staying in control

Section titled “Staying in control”
  • Keep scheduled jobs small and legible; ask the agent what one does at any time.
  • Each project has quiet hours and a daily wake budget that limit how much background work wakes up. Ask an agent to adjust them, or find them in the project’s settings under task wake limits.
  • A green run isn’t proof the job worked. Good agents check the first scheduled run actually produced the result; feel free to ask.
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