scheduling-tasks

name	scheduling-tasks
description	Schedules reminders and recurring tasks via the letta cron CLI. Use when the user asks to be reminded of something, wants periodic messages, or needs to manage scheduled tasks.

Scheduling Tasks

This skill lets you create, list, and manage scheduled tasks using the letta cron CLI. Scheduled tasks send a prompt to the agent on a timer — useful for reminders, periodic check-ins, and deferred follow-ups.

When to Use This Skill

• User asks to be reminded of something ("remind me to X at Y")
• User wants a recurring check-in ("every morning ask me about X")
• User wants a one-shot delayed message ("in 30 minutes, check on X")
• User wants to see or cancel existing scheduled tasks

CLI Usage

All commands go through letta cron via the Bash tool. Output is JSON.

Creating a Task

letta cron add --name <short-name> --description <text> --prompt <text> <schedule>

Required flags:

Flag	Description
--name <text>	Short identifier for the task (e.g. "dog-walk-reminder")
--description <text>	Human-readable description of what the task does
--prompt <text>	The message that will be sent to the agent when the task fires

Schedule (pick one):

Flag	Type	Example
--every <interval>	Recurring	5m, 2h, 1d
--at <time>	One-shot	"3:00pm", "in 45m"
--cron <expr>	Raw cron (recurring)	"0 9 * * 1-5"

Optional flags:

Flag	Description
--agent <id>	Agent ID (defaults to LETTA_AGENT_ID from the current shell/session)
--conversation <id>	Conversation ID (defaults to LETTA_CONVERSATION_ID from the current shell/session, otherwise "default")

Listing Tasks

letta cron list

Optional filters: --agent <id>, --conversation <id>

Getting a Single Task

letta cron get <task-id>

Binding a Task to the Right Conversation

If exact routing matters, pass both --agent and --conversation explicitly.

letta cron add will otherwise fall back to LETTA_AGENT_ID and LETTA_CONVERSATION_ID from the current shell/session. Those values may be correct for the current chat, but they can also be inherited from surrounding tooling, another conversation, or an older shell.

Safest pattern:

letta cron add \
  --name "email-check" \
  --description "Daily email summary in this conversation" \
  --prompt "Check the user's email and post a summary here." \
  --cron "0 10 * * *" \
  --agent "$AGENT_ID" \
  --conversation "$CONVERSATION_ID"

Then verify the binding explicitly:

letta cron list --agent "$AGENT_ID" --conversation "$CONVERSATION_ID"

Deleting Tasks

# Delete a specific task
letta cron delete <task-id>

# Delete all tasks for the current agent
letta cron delete --all

Examples

"Remind me every morning at 9am to walk the dog"

letta cron add \
  --name "dog-walk-reminder" \
  --description "Daily morning reminder to walk the dog" \
  --prompt "Hey! It's 9am — time to walk the dog." \
  --every 1d

Note: --every 1d fires once daily at midnight. For a specific time like 9am, use a raw cron expression:

letta cron add \
  --name "dog-walk-reminder" \
  --description "Daily 9am reminder to walk the dog" \
  --prompt "Hey! It's 9am — time to walk the dog." \
  --cron "0 9 * * *"

"Check on the deploy in 30 minutes"

letta cron add \
  --name "deploy-check" \
  --description "One-time check on deployment status" \
  --prompt "The user asked you to check on the deploy — ask them how it went." \
  --at "in 30m"

"Every weekday at 5pm, remind me to submit my timesheet"

letta cron add \
  --name "timesheet-reminder" \
  --description "Weekday 5pm timesheet reminder" \
  --prompt "Friendly reminder: don't forget to submit your timesheet before EOD!" \
  --cron "0 17 * * 1-5"

"What reminders do I have?"

letta cron list

If you need to confirm the exact conversation a task is bound to, list with explicit filters instead:

letta cron list --agent "$AGENT_ID" --conversation "$CONVERSATION_ID"

"Cancel the dog walk reminder"

First list to find the task ID, then delete:

letta cron list
# Find the task ID from the output, then:
letta cron delete <task-id>

Writing Good Prompts

The --prompt value is what gets sent to you (the agent) when the task fires. Write it as a message that will make sense when you receive it later, with enough context to act on:

• Good: "The user asked to be reminded to review the PR for the auth refactor. Check if it's still open and nudge them."
• Bad: "reminder"

Include context about what the user originally asked for, so you can give a helpful response when the prompt arrives.

Important Notes

• Minimum granularity: 1 minute. Intervals under 60 seconds are rounded up.
• Recurring tasks: No longer auto-expire. They remain active until explicitly cancelled.
• One-shot cleanup: One-shot tasks are garbage-collected 24 hours after firing.
• Timezone: Tasks use the user's local timezone by default.
• Default binding precedence: letta cron add uses --agent / --conversation first, then falls back to LETTA_AGENT_ID / LETTA_CONVERSATION_ID, then finally uses "default" for the conversation if no env var is present.
• Scheduler requirement: Tasks only fire while a Letta session is running (a WS listener must be active). If no session is running, tasks will be marked as missed.
• --at for specific times: --at "3:00pm" schedules a one-shot. If the time has already passed today, it schedules for tomorrow.
• --every for daily: --every 1d fires daily at midnight. For a specific time of day, use --cron instead (e.g. --cron "0 9 * * *" for 9am daily).

Cron Expression Reference

For --cron, use standard 5-field cron syntax:

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

Common patterns:

• */5 * * * * — every 5 minutes
• 0 */2 * * * — every 2 hours
• 0 9 * * * — daily at 9am
• 0 9 * * 1-5 — weekdays at 9am
• 30 8 1 * * — 8:30am on the 1st of each month