Create, manage, and run scheduled automated tasks (cron jobs) in Clacky. Use this skill whenever the user wants to create a new automated task or cron job, set up recurring automation, schedule something to run daily/weekly/hourly, view all scheduled tasks, edit an existing task prompt or cron schedule, enable or disable a task, delete a task, check task run history or logs, or run a task immediately via the WebUI. Trigger on phrases like cron, scheduled task, run every day, automate this; 定时任务, 每天自动, 定时执行.
Create, manage, and run scheduled automated tasks (cron jobs) in Clacky. Use this skill whenever the user wants to create a new automated task or cron job, set up recurring automation, schedule something to run daily/weekly/hourly, view all scheduled tasks, edit an existing task prompt or cron schedule, enable or disable a task, delete a task, check task run history or logs, or run a task immediately via the WebUI. Trigger on phrases like cron, scheduled task, run every day, automate this; 定时任务, 每天自动, 定时执行.
disable-model-invocation
false
user-invocable
true
Cron Task Creator
A skill for creating, managing, and running scheduled automated tasks in Clacky.
Architecture Overview
Storage:
~/.clacky/tasks/<name>.md # Task prompt file (self-contained AI instruction)
~/.clacky/schedules.yml # All scheduled plans (YAML list)
~/.clacky/logger/clacky-*.log # Execution logs (daily rotation)
API Base: http://${CLACKY_SERVER_HOST}:${CLACKY_SERVER_PORT}
Cron-Tasks API (unified — manages task file + schedule together):
GET /api/cron-tasks → list all cron tasks with schedule info
POST /api/cron-tasks → create task + schedule {name, content, cron, enabled?}
PATCH /api/cron-tasks/:name → update {content?, cron?, enabled?}
DELETE /api/cron-tasks/:name → delete task file + schedule
POST /api/cron-tasks/:name/run → execute immediately (creates a new session)
Cron Expression Quick Reference
Expression
Meaning
0 9 * * 1-5
Weekdays at 09:00
0 9 * * *
Every day at 09:00
0 */2 * * *
Every 2 hours
*/30 * * * *
Every 30 minutes
0 19 * * *
Every day at 19:00
0 8 * * 1
Every Monday at 08:00
0 0 1 * *
First day of every month
Field order: minute hour day-of-month month day-of-week
Self-contained: the agent running it has zero prior context — include everything needed
Written as direct instructions to an AI agent (imperative, not conversational)
Detailed: include URLs, file paths, output format, language, expected output location
Good task prompt example:
You are a price monitoring assistant. Complete the following task:
## Goal
Check the current BTC price on CoinGecko, compare with yesterday's price, and log an alert if the change exceeds 5%.
## Steps
1. Fetch https://api.coingecko.com/api/v3/simple/price?ids=bitcoin&vs_currencies=usd&include_24hr_change=true
2. Parse the JSON response to get current price and 24h change
3. If |change| > 5%, write an alert to ~/price_alerts/alert_YYYY-MM-DD.txt
4. Print the current price and change percentage
Execute immediately.
✅ Task created successfully!
📋 Task name: daily_standup
⏰ Schedule: Weekdays at 09:00 (cron: 0 9 * * 1-5)
View and manage this task in the Clacky WebUI → Tasks panel. Click ▶ Run to execute immediately.
3. EDIT — Modify an existing task
Step 1: Identify the task (if unclear, LIST first and ask)
Step 2: Show current state via LIST or ask user to confirm
📊 Run History: ai_news_x_daily
Mar 10 19:00 ❌ Failed — JSON::ParserError: unexpected end of input
Mar 09 19:00 ✅ Success — took 1m 42s
Mar 08 19:00 ✅ Success — took 2m 10s
7. RUN NOW — Execute immediately
curl -s -X POST http://${CLACKY_SERVER_HOST}:${CLACKY_SERVER_PORT}/api/cron-tasks/task_name/run
This creates a new session. Tell the user:
▶️ Task started in a new session.
View it in the Clacky WebUI → Sessions panel.
8. TEMPLATES — Browse common task templates
When user says "what templates are there" or "what can I automate":
📚 Common Task Templates — pick one to get started:
1. 📰 AI News Digest — Daily fetch of AI news from X/RSS, generate Markdown report
2. 💰 Price Monitor — Check crypto/stock prices on a schedule, log alerts on anomalies
3. 📊 Weekly Work Summary — Every Monday, summarize last week's work into a report
4. 🌤 Weather Reminder — Fetch weather every morning and save to file
5. 🔍 Competitor Monitor — Periodically scrape competitor sites for changes
6. 📝 Journal Prompt — Evening reminder to journal with daily reflection questions
7. 🔗 Link Health Check — Periodically verify specified URLs are accessible
8. 📂 File Backup — Regularly back up a specified directory to another location
Tell me which one interests you, or describe your own use case!
Important Notes
Task names: only [a-z0-9_-], no spaces, no uppercase
Task prompt files must be self-contained — the executing agent has no prior memory
Clacky server must be running for cron to trigger automatically (checked every minute)
The WebUI Task Panel is the preferred interface for managing tasks — always remind the user to check it after changes
