# Moda Automate > Recurring Moda work — scheduled posts, weekly reports, sync jobs: a host-side scheduler drives the Moda command line; the artifact itself still routes to its format skill. Use for: "every week/day…", "auto-post X", "keep this updated". - Skill: `moda-design/moda-automate` (Agent Skill) - Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add moda-design/moda-automate` - Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/moda-design/moda-automate/raw - Safety review: pending - Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex - Category: Coding & Dev Tools - Author: moda-design (https://skillmd.com/u/moda-design) - Updated: 2026-09-17 - Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/moda-design/moda-automate --- # moda-automate **PREREQUISITE — load `moda-core` once per session** (step-0, write contract, free/metered map). Already loaded? Skip ahead. If you cannot load it, the non-negotiables: run `moda doctor --json` before anything; `moda brand list` before creating; writes that pin a revision use your last read's — on `stale_revision`, re-read and retry once (it heals); send the canvas link the moment it exists; stuck or failed? `moda ask ""` — free and fast, never guess. ## Say the architecture plainly, once Moda hosts no scheduler. Recurring Moda work is a scheduler you already have — cron, launchd, a systemd timer, a CI schedule — running Moda on a cadence. - **Moda produces; your scheduler delivers.** Nothing in Moda posts to a platform or sends mail. Each tick leaves a canvas link and an export file; the publishing step belongs to the host, and you say so before promising it. - **The artifact still routes to its format skill.** This skill owns the schedule and the unattended-run discipline; moda-social, moda-document, moda-chart and the rest own what each tick actually builds. ## Make one run work unattended, then schedule it 1. Run it by hand end to end first. A schedule wrapped around a broken run fails quietly forever. 2. Auth with no browser: the user mints a key at moda.app/cli/auth, and the scheduler gets it as `MODA_API_KEY` in its environment. (`moda auth login --paste` needs an interactive prompt, so it is not the unattended lane.) Never print, echo, log, or commit a key. 3. Every command takes `--json --no-input`: it fails instead of prompting, and you decide from the JSON fields, not the human prose. 4. Pin the workspace so the script carries no flags — `.moda/context.json` (load moda-context) for org, brand, and canvas. 5. No browser verbs in a detached run: `moda canvas open` and its siblings are for a person at a keyboard. 6. Writes to one canvas stay serial. They serialize on the server anyway, so a parallel batch buys nothing and can come back `canvas_busy`. ``` # crontab — Mondays 08:00; the wrapper holds the steps, the environment holds the key 0 8 * * 1 cd /srv/reports && ./moda-weekly.sh >> /var/log/moda-weekly.log 2>&1 ``` ## Three shapes cover almost everything | Shape | Each tick | Why it wins | |---|---|---| | Refresh one canvas (weekly report) | read the pinned canvas → edit → export → deliver | the link never changes, so anyone watching it just sees the update | | New artifact per tick (weekly post set) | instantiate the team template → author → export | moda-templates keeps every week on the approved layout | | Sync job | pull the source data → author → export where the delivery step looks | Moda never reaches into your systems; the fetch is yours | Whichever shape it is, load the format skill for the authoring half — this skill does not teach how to build the artifact. ## Discipline for a run nobody is watching - A failed write commits nothing: retry once is safe. `stale_revision` heals on a re-read and retry. - Same typed error twice → stop this tick, record `moda last-error`, let the next tick try. Never spin. - An identical repeated metered call REPLAYS its result instead of charging twice — retrying with the same inputs is safe; a reworded prompt is a new charge, so never "retry" generation by nudging the wording. - Keep the log: what ran, the canvas link, the export path, and the failure if there was one. An unattended run that reports nothing is indistinguishable from one that never ran. ## Hand back the schedule itself Tell the user the literal schedule line you installed, where it lives, which skill builds the artifact, and how to turn it off. A schedule they cannot find is a schedule they cannot trust — and never install one they did not ask for. ## Examples - "post our metrics chart to Slack every Monday" → this skill installs the weekly run, moda-chart builds the chart, the Slack step is the host's. - "keep the launch one-pager up to date" → refresh-one-canvas shape; moda-document owns the page. - "a fresh set of posts every week" → new-artifact shape off a team template; the platform's moda-social child owns the creative. - "every night, turn yesterday's numbers into a chart" → sync-job shape; pin the repo first (moda-context) so the tick needs no flags. ## Errors Any typed error → load moda-core and read its recovery reference. Auth failures in an unattended run are almost always a missing or expired `MODA_API_KEY` in the scheduler's environment — check it there, not in the interactive shell where it works. See also: moda-core — the contract, recovery, everything Moda can do.