| name | cron |
| description | Use this skill when the user wants to schedule a recurring reminder or task, list their scheduled jobs, or cancel an existing job. |
Cron Skill
Purpose
Create, inspect, and remove time-based automations using the cron tool.
There are two modes:
- Reminder mode — deliver a static message to the user on a schedule.
- Task mode — describe a task for the agent to execute each time the job fires (e.g. "Check the weather and report").
When to Use
- User says "remind me", "every X minutes", "schedule", "set up a recurring task"
- User asks to see their active reminders or jobs
- User wants to cancel or stop a scheduled job
Tool Reference
The cron tool accepts an action and scheduling parameters.
Add a job
cron(action="add", message="<text or task>", every_seconds=<N>)
cron(action="add", message="<text or task>", cron_expr="<5-field cron>")
Exactly one of every_seconds or cron_expr is required.
message should contain only the task/reminder content.
Do not include schedule/timezone or recipient/user details in message;
those are defined by cron parameters + channel context.
List active jobs
cron(action="list")
Returns all scheduled jobs with their ID and schedule.
Remove a job
cron(action="remove", job_id="<id>")
Use the job ID returned by list or add.
Natural Language → Schedule Mapping
| User says | Parameters |
|---|
| "every 20 minutes" | every_seconds=1200 |
| "every hour" | every_seconds=3600 |
| "every day at 9 AM" | cron_expr="0 9 * * *" |
| "weekdays at 5 PM" | cron_expr="0 17 * * 1-5" |
| "every Monday at 8 AM" | cron_expr="0 8 * * 1" |
| "twice a day" | cron_expr="0 9,21 * * *" |
Examples
Reminder every 20 minutes:
cron(action="add", message="Time to take a break!", every_seconds=1200)
Daily weather report task:
cron(action="add",
message="Check today's weather forecast and send a brief summary.",
cron_expr="0 8 * * *")
Daily quote task (task-only message):
cron(action="add",
message="Pick one movie/anime quote matching today's mood from local weather + weekday/weekend. Output: quote, 1-2 sentence why-it-fits, source URL. Add SPOILER WARNING only for major twists/final-act reveals. Avoid explicit NSFW.",
cron_expr="30 13 * * *")
List all jobs:
cron(action="list")
Remove a job:
cron(action="remove", job_id="3f2a1b...")
Notes
- Always confirm the schedule back to the user after creating a job (e.g. "I've set a reminder every 20 minutes").
- When the user says "cancel all reminders", call
list first to get IDs, then remove each one.
- Cron expressions use UTC by default unless the gateway is configured with a different timezone.
- Jobs are in-memory and do not survive a gateway restart.
