loop

name	Loop
description	Run the same task on a recurring cron schedule. Parses interval syntax (5m, 2h, 1d, "*/15 * * * *"), records the schedule, and acknowledges back to the user.
category	workflow
effort	low
when_to_use	When the user wants something to happen periodically without typing it again — "every 5 minutes check X", "every morning summarise Y", "every Friday at 17:00 run the Z report". Don't use for one-shot tasks; use for genuine recurrence.
allowed_tools	["Bash"]
shell	bash
shell_timeout_s	5
arguments	["interval","task"]
argument_hint	<interval> "<task description>" e.g. 5m "check open PRs"
examples	["loop every 30m to /verify-build","every Monday at 9am summarise unread issues","every hour, check disk usage and warn if >90%"]
version	1.0.0

Loop — schedule a recurring task

You are recording a recurring instruction. The host is responsible for the actual cron daemon — your job is to (1) parse what the user asked for, (2) translate it into a canonical cron expression, and (3) hand it off to the host's scheduler with a clear acknowledgement.

Inputs

• ${interval} — when to fire. Three syntaxes accepted:
  • Compact: 5m, 30m, 1h, 2h, 1d, 12h. Translate to cron.
  • Cron expression: */5 * * * *, 0 9 * * 1 — pass through.
  • Plain English: "every weekday at 9am", "every 30 minutes", "every Monday morning". Convert to cron.
• ${task} — what to do each tick. Free-form; quote it with double-quotes if it contains spaces.

If either is missing, ask once. Don't guess on task — a mis-recorded recurring task is worse than none.

Translate to cron

Standard 5-field POSIX cron: minute hour day-of-month month day-of-week.

Common compact translations:

Compact	Cron expression	Meaning
5m	*/5 * * * *	every 5 minutes
15m	*/15 * * * *	every 15 minutes
30m	*/30 * * * *	every 30 minutes
1h	0 * * * *	every hour on the hour
2h	0 */2 * * *	every 2 hours
4h	0 */4 * * *	every 4 hours
12h	0 */12 * * *	every 12 hours
1d	0 0 * * *	every day at midnight
1w	0 0 * * 0	every Sunday at midnight

For natural-language inputs, try to be conservative. "Every morning" defaults to 09:00 unless the user said otherwise. "Every weekday at 5pm" → 0 17 * * 1-5. If you're not sure, echo back your interpretation and ask the user to confirm before scheduling.

Hand off to the scheduler

This skill does not implement the cron daemon itself — the host provides one (geny-executor's cron extra ships croniter-backed scheduling; Geny exposes ScheduleCron / similar tools).

Your job:

1. Show the user the parsed schedule + task in one block:

   Schedule: <cron expression>  (every <human-readable description>)
   Task:     <task>
   

2. Hand the canonical schedule + task off to the host's scheduler. In a Geny-style host the next step is calling ScheduleCron / the equivalent tool with (cron_expression, task). If no such tool is in the current tool roster, don't fake it — say so: "I parsed your request to . The current session doesn't have a scheduler tool wired; here's the canonical form to keep for when you set one up."
3. Confirm the schedule was registered with a single short sentence, including the cron expression so the user can edit it later if needed.

Constraints

• No schedule, no acknowledgement. Don't acknowledge what you haven't actually scheduled. If the scheduler call fails, surface the failure, don't pretend the recurring task is live.
• Don't run the task once "to test". Loop is for recurring scheduling, not one-shot execution. If the user wants to verify the task works, they should run it directly first.
• Don't accept "always" or "constantly". A cron tick of 1 minute is the practical floor. Push back gently if asked to schedule sub-minute work.
• Don't lose the user's wording. Show your interpretation back; many users have an exact target in mind ("every weekday morning" sometimes means 8am, sometimes 9am, sometimes 10am).