cron

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.