cron

name	cron
description	Manage scheduled cron jobs — add, list, edit, enable/disable, remove jobs and view run history.
user-invocable	false
allowed-tools	Bash

Cron Jobs Skill

Manage scheduled tasks using the merlin cron command. All operations use this command for validation and consistent formatting. It works from any directory.

IMPORTANT: Never read or write cron-jobs/*.json files directly. Always use the merlin cron commands below. The command handles path resolution, validation, and formatting. Reading files directly wastes cycles on path guessing; writing directly bypasses validation and can create broken jobs.

Commands

List Jobs

merlin cron list

Get Job Details

merlin cron get <job-id>

Add Job

Conversational flow:

1. Ask what the job should do
2. Ask how often (translate to cron expression)
3. Ask if it should always report or only when there's news (report_mode)

Preview with dry-run:

merlin cron add \
  --schedule "0 9 * * *" \
  --prompt "Check for new Python releases" \
  --description "Daily Python check" \
  --report-mode silent \
  --dry-run

Show the user a summary and ask for confirmation. After confirmation, run without --dry-run:

merlin cron add \
  --schedule "0 9 * * *" \
  --prompt "Check for new Python releases" \
  --description "Daily Python check" \
  --report-mode silent

Important: The prompt should describe the task, not how to deliver results. The engine returns text output and the notification system handles delivery. Never include "send to Discord" or similar in prompts.

Options:

• --schedule — Cron expression (required)
• --prompt — Task for the engine to execute (required)

For all other flags (report mode, max turns, description, explicit id, channel routing) run merlin cron add --help; never restate them from memory.

Enable/Disable Job

merlin cron enable <job-id>
merlin cron disable <job-id>

Confirm the action to the user after running.

Remove Job

Always confirm before removing:

1. Ask: "Delete job-id? This cannot be undone."
2. Only after confirmation:

merlin cron remove <job-id>

Run Job Now

Run a job immediately, bypassing the schedule:

merlin cron trigger <job-id>

This executes the job exactly like the scheduler would — same logging, history tracking, and session handling. Useful for:

• Testing a new job
• Retrying a failed job
• Running on demand

Run History

merlin cron history <job-id>

Or for all jobs:

merlin cron history

Cron Expression Cheat Sheet

Schedule	Expression
Every minute	* * * * *
Every hour	0 * * * *
Daily at 9:00	0 9 * * *
Monday at 9:00	0 9 * * 1
Weekdays at 8:00	0 8 * * 1-5
Twice daily (9:00, 18:00)	0 9,18 * * *
Every 2 hours	0 */2 * * *
First of month	0 0 1 * *
Sunday at midnight	0 0 * * 0

Format: minute hour day-of-month month day-of-week

Translations:

• "every morning" → 0 9 * * *
• "every hour" → 0 * * * *
• "twice a day" → 0 9,18 * * *
• "every Monday" → 0 9 * * 1
• "weekdays at 8am" → 0 8 * * 1-5

Tips

• Use --dry-run to preview job creation before confirming
• Report modes: always (digests, reports), silent (errors only, good for monitoring jobs), off (no notifications); see merlin cron add --help
• The command validates cron expressions — invalid ones will error