automation

name	automation
description	Use this when setting up event-driven automation in SLICC — webhooks, cron tasks, or filesystem watchers that route events to scoops. Covers `webhook`, `crontask`, and `fswatch` shell commands. Read this BEFORE wiring up anything that should fire on a schedule, an HTTP call, or a VFS change.
allowed-tools	bash

Automation: webhooks, cron, filesystem watchers

SLICC's automation primitives turn external or VFS-internal events into licks — messages routed to a scoop (or to the cone if no scoop is named). Three shell commands set them up:

Command	Trigger	Use case
webhook	Inbound HTTP request	Receive callbacks from external services
crontask	Cron schedule	Recurring background work
fswatch	VFS file create / modify / delete	React to authored content changes

All three deliver events as licks. If --scoop <name> is set, the lick goes to that scoop; otherwise it goes to the cone.

webhook

Receive HTTP callbacks. The event lick carries the request method, path, headers, and body. Each webhook create allocates a path; the URL is printed on creation.

webhook create --scoop pr-watcher --name gh-prs
webhook create --scoop bot --name slack --filter 'event.body.includes("deploy")'
webhook list
webhook delete wh-1

Flags:

• --scoop <name> — route the event to a specific scoop. Omit to route to the cone.
• --name <label> — human-friendly label shown in webhook list.
• --filter <js> — JavaScript expression evaluated per request; falsy result drops the event before it reaches the agent.

crontask

Run a scoop on a cron schedule. Standard 5-field cron (minute hour day month weekday).

crontask create --cron "0 * * * *" --scoop hourly-summary --name hourly
crontask list
crontask delete ct-1   # `kill` is an alias for `delete`

Flags:

• --cron <expr> — required; 5-field cron expression.
• --scoop <name> — target scoop. Omit to route to the cone.
• --name <label> — human-friendly label.
• --filter <js> — JavaScript expression evaluated each tick; falsy result skips that fire.

fswatch

Watch a VFS path; deliver events as licks when files matching the pattern are created, modified, or deleted.

# Route .md changes under /workspace to a scoop.
fswatch create --path /workspace --pattern "*.md" --scoop doc-watcher --name md-changes

# Untargeted: route to the cone.
fswatch create --path /workspace/src --pattern "*.ts"

fswatch list
fswatch delete fsw-1

Events include the change type (create, modify, delete) and the file path.

Don't

• Don't poll on a crontask to do work the cone could do reactively. Cron is for genuinely recurring jobs (digests, refreshes); reactive work belongs on fswatch or webhook.
• Don't leave watchers/webhooks/crons orphaned. If the owning scoop is gone, the lick has nowhere to go — ... list and ... delete to clean up.
• Don't fan a single trigger out to multiple scoops by registering N near-identical entries. Register once, let the receiving scoop dispatch.