cron-management

name	cron-management
description	Skill for reading and writing cron.md in the correct format for scheduled LLM or command tasks. Use when: editing cron.md, adding or changing cron schedules, or removing periodic jobs.

cron.md Structure

Overall Structure

# Cron: {your_name}

## Task Name 1
schedule: 0 9 * * *
type: llm
Task description...

## Task Name 2
schedule: */5 * * * *
type: command
command: /path/to/script.sh

Rules You MUST Follow

1. Each task must start with ## Task Name (H2 header. Do not use H3 or H1)
2. schedule: line is required (must start with schedule: keyword. Not a ### header)
3. Schedule must be standard 5-field cron expression only (09:00 or every Friday 17:00 are invalid)
4. type: line is required (llm or command)
5. Insert blank lines between tasks (for readability)

Invalid Formats

❌ ### */5 * * * *           ← Do NOT write cron expression as H3 header
❌ ### 09:00                 ← Natural language time is invalid
❌ ### Every Friday 17:00    ← Natural language schedule is invalid
❌ cron: 0 9 * * *           ← Key name must be "schedule:" (not "cron:")
❌ interval: 5m              ← Interval format is invalid
❌ schedule: 0 9 * * * *     ← 6 fields are invalid (5 fields only)

Valid Format

✅ schedule: 0 9 * * *       ← "schedule:" + space + 5-field cron expression
✅ schedule: */5 * * * *
✅ schedule: 30 21 * * *
✅ schedule: 0 17 * * 5

---

5-Field Cron Expression Reference

Field Structure

schedule: minute hour day month weekday

Field	Position	Range	Description
minute	1	0-59	Minute to execute
hour	2	0-23	Hour to execute (24-hour)
day	3	1-31	Day of month
month	4	1-12	Month
weekday	5	0-6	Day of week (0=Mon, 6=Sun)

Note: Weekday is 0=Monday, 6=Sunday (APScheduler spec. Differs from standard cron where 0=Sunday)

Special Characters

Char	Meaning	Example
*	All values	* * * * * = every minute
*/n	Every n	*/5 * * * * = every 5 minutes
n-m	Range	0 9-17 * * * = every hour 9am–5pm
n,m	List	0 9,12,18 * * * = 9am, noon, 6pm
n-m/s	Range + step	0 9-17/2 * * * = every 2 hours 9am–5pm

Common Schedule Examples

Daily

Intent	Cron Expression	Notes
Every day 9:00 AM	0 9 * * *	minute=0, hour=9
Every day 9:30 AM	30 9 * * *	minute=30, hour=9
Every day noon	0 12 * * *	minute=0, hour=12
Every day 6:00 PM	0 18 * * *	minute=0, hour=18
Every day 9:30 PM	30 21 * * *	minute=30, hour=21
Every day 2:00 AM	0 2 * * *	minute=0, hour=2

Intervals

Intent	Cron Expression	Notes
Every 5 minutes	*/5 * * * *	minute=*/5 (0,5,10,...,55)
Every 10 minutes	*/10 * * * *	minute=*/10
Every 15 minutes	*/15 * * * *	minute=*/15
Every 30 minutes	*/30 * * * *	minute=*/30
Every hour	0 * * * *	Every hour at :00
Every 2 hours	0 */2 * * *	0:00, 2:00, ..., 22:00
Every 5 min during business hours	*/5 9-17 * * *	9:00–17:55
Every hour during business hours	0 9-17 * * *	9:00–17:00

Weekday

Intent	Cron Expression	Notes
Weekdays 9:00 AM	0 9 * * 0-4	weekday=0-4 (Mon–Fri)
Every Monday 9:00 AM	0 9 * * 0	weekday=0 (Mon)
Every Friday 5:00 PM	0 17 * * 4	weekday=4 (Fri)
Every Friday 6:00 PM	0 18 * * 4	weekday=4 (Fri)
Weekdays every 30 min during business hours	*/30 9-17 * * 0-4	Mon–Fri 9:00–17:30
Weekend 10:00 AM	0 10 * * 5,6	weekday=5,6 (Sat–Sun)

Monthly

Intent	Cron Expression	Notes
1st of month 9:00 AM	0 9 1 * *	day=1
15th of month noon	0 12 15 * *	day=15
28th of month 5:00 PM (approx. month-end)	0 17 28 * *	day=28
Quarter start 9:00 AM (Jan, Apr, Jul, Oct)	0 9 1 1,4,7,10 *	month=1,4,7,10

---

Task Type Details

type: llm — LLM Judgment Task

Tasks that require thinking and judgment. After schedule: and type: llm, write the task content in free form.

## Morning Planning
schedule: 0 9 * * *
type: llm
Check yesterday's progress from long-term memory and plan today's tasks.
Determine priorities based on vision and goals.
Write the result to state/current_state.md.

• The description is passed directly as the LLM prompt
• Stating the concrete output (what to write) is effective
• Multiple lines are allowed

type: command — Command Execution Task

Deterministic execution of bash commands or tool calls.

Pattern A: bash command

## Backup Execution
schedule: 0 2 * * *
type: command
command: /usr/local/bin/backup.sh

• Write the command in one line under command:
• Shell redirection (>, >>, |) is allowed
• Multi-line commands are discouraged (combine into one line or use a script file)

Pattern B: Tool invocation

## Slack Morning Greeting
schedule: 0 9 * * 0-4
type: command
tool: slack_send
args:
  channel: "#general"
  message: "Good morning!"

• tool: contains the tool name (schema name from get_tool_schemas())
• args: and below are YAML block format with 2-space indent
• Executed via dispatch(tool_name, args)

Option: skip_pattern

Skip LLM analysis session when command stdout matches a pattern.

## Chatwork Unreplied Check
schedule: */5 * * * *
type: command
command: chatwork_cli.py unreplied --json
skip_pattern: ^\[\]$

• skip_pattern: contains a regex
• In the example above, skips when unreplied count is 0 ([])

Option: trigger_heartbeat

Per-task control of whether to trigger LLM analysis session on command output.

## Chatwork Unreplied Check
schedule: */15 * * * *
type: command
command: animaworks-tool chatwork unreplied
skip_pattern: ^\[\]$
trigger_heartbeat: false

• trigger_heartbeat: false — Skip LLM analysis even when output exists
• trigger_heartbeat: true (default) — Analyze and respond in cron LLM session when output exists
• false, no, 0 suppress LLM analysis. Anything else is treated as true
• Can be used with skip_pattern. trigger_heartbeat: false is evaluated before skip_pattern
• LLM analysis session has Heartbeat-equivalent context (memory, Knowledge, org info)

---

Choosing Task Type

Use type: command when

• The command to execute is fully determined
• Parameters are fixed (region, cluster name, profile, etc.)
• Let the cron LLM session handle result interpretation

Use type: llm when

• Execution content must vary by situation
• Multiple tools need to be combined for investigation
• Human-like judgment or analysis is needed at execution time

Forbidden Patterns

• Including fixed commands in type: llm → That command should be type: command
• Writing "execute exactly this" but using type: llm → LLM cannot reliably reproduce commands. Use type: command

Anima is Not a "Command Memorizer"

type: command is like a human saving a script. Anima's value lies in judging and analyzing results. Let the framework handle deterministic execution, and let Anima focus on judgment, analysis, and reporting.

---

cron.md Operations

Add New Task

1. Read your cron.md
2. Add a new section at the end of the file
3. Verify format before writing (see checklist below)
4. Write the file

## New Task Name
schedule: <5-field cron expression>
type: llm|command
<description or command/tool lines>

Update Existing Task

1. Read cron.md
2. Locate the section (## Task Name to before next ##)
3. Edit the lines (schedule:, type:, description, etc.)
4. Write the file

Remove Task

1. Read cron.md
2. Delete the entire section (## Task Name to before next ##)
3. Write the file

Temporarily Disable Task

Wrap in HTML comment so the parser skips it:

<!--
## Paused Task
schedule: 0 9 * * *
type: llm
This task is temporarily paused.
-->

---

Pre-Write Checklist

Always verify the following before updating cron.md:

• Each task starts with ## Task Name (not ### or #)
• schedule: line exists (not ### header or natural language)
• Schedule is 5-field cron (minute hour day month weekday)
• Each field value is in valid range (min: 0-59, hour: 0-23, day: 1-31, month: 1-12, weekday: 0-6)
• type: line exists (llm or command)
• For command type, command: or tool: exists
• For tool type, args: indent is correct (2 spaces)
• Blank lines between tasks

Validation

After writing, you can verify parsing with:

python -c "
from core.schedule_parser import parse_cron_md, parse_schedule
import pathlib

content = pathlib.Path('$ANIMAWORKS_ANIMA_DIR/cron.md').read_text()
tasks = parse_cron_md(content)
for t in tasks:
    trigger = parse_schedule(t.schedule)
    status = '✅' if trigger else '❌ parse failed'
    print(f'{status} {t.name}: schedule=\"{t.schedule}\" type={t.type}')
")

If all tasks show ✅, it is valid. Fix schedule expressions for any ❌.

---

Full Example

# Cron: example_anima

## Morning Planning
schedule: 0 9 * * *
type: llm
Check yesterday's progress from long-term memory and plan today's tasks.
Determine priorities based on vision and goals.
Write the result to state/current_state.md.

## Chatwork Unreplied Check
schedule: */5 9-18 * * 0-4
type: command
command: chatwork-cli unreplied --json > $ANIMAWORKS_ANIMA_DIR/state/chatwork_unreplied.json
skip_pattern: ^\[\]$
trigger_heartbeat: false

## Slack Morning Greeting
schedule: 0 9 * * 0-4
type: command
tool: slack_send
args:
  channel: "#general"
  message: "Good morning! Looking forward to working with you today."

## Weekly Reflection
schedule: 0 17 * * 4
type: llm
Re-read episodes/ from this week, extract patterns, and integrate into knowledge/.
Add procedures to procedures/ if improvements exist.

## Monthly Report
schedule: 0 10 1 * *
type: llm
Analyze episodes/ and knowledge/ from last month and create a monthly summary report.
Save the report as knowledge/monthly_report_YYYY-MM.md.

---

Common Mistakes and Fixes

Mistake	Correct	Reason
### */5 * * * *	schedule: */5 * * * *	H3 header cannot be used for task separation
### 09:00	schedule: 0 9 * * *	Natural language time cannot be parsed
### Every Friday 17:00	schedule: 0 17 * * 4	Natural language cannot be parsed
schedule: 9:00	schedule: 0 9 * * *	HH:MM format is not 5-field cron
schedule: every 5 minutes	schedule: */5 * * * *	Natural language cannot be parsed
schedule: 0 9 * * 7	schedule: 0 9 * * 6	Weekday 7 is out of range (0-6)
schedule: 0 9 * * SUN	schedule: 0 9 * * 6	Weekday names are invalid (numbers only)
schedule: 0 25 * * *	schedule: 0 23 * * *	Hour range is 0-23
schedule: 60 * * * *	schedule: 0 * * * *	Minute range is 0-59

---

Notes

• cron.md changes take effect on server restart or next Heartbeat (not immediate)
• Timezone is configurable via config.json system.timezone. Default: auto-detected from system
• Multiple tasks at the same time run in parallel
• Command-type task failures do not stop the server (logged)
• LLM-type tasks use the current model config from status.json
• When accessing other Anima's tools/ directory, verify permissions first