Schedule Task

Schedule Task

This skill enables you to schedule tasks to run at specific times. When a user requests something to happen at a future time, this skill parses the time expression, creates a scheduled task, and optionally saves the prompt for reuse.

When to Use This Skill

Use this skill when the user asks you to do something at a specific time, such as:

• "Today at 16:00 look up the stock prices for nvidia and write me an email"
• "Tomorrow at 9am remind me to check the server logs"
• "At 14:30 run the backup script"
• "In 2 hours send me a summary of today's news"
• "Every day at 8am give me a weather report"
• "Schedule a task to check API health at midnight"

Workflow

Step 1: Parse the User Request

Extract two components from the user's request:

1. Time expression: When should this run (e.g., "today at 16:00", "tomorrow at 9am", "every Monday at 10:00")
2. Task prompt: What should be done (e.g., "look up the stock prices for nvidia and write me an email")

Step 2: Convert Time to Cron Expression

Convert natural language time expressions to cron format (minute hour day month weekday):

Current date reference: Use the system date to calculate "today", "tomorrow", etc.

Cron format: minute hour day-of-month month day-of-week

• Minutes: 0-59
• Hours: 0-23 (24-hour format)
• Day of month: 1-31
• Month: 1-12
• Day of week: 0-6 (0=Sunday, 1=Monday, etc.)

Step 3: Create the Scheduled Task

Use the scheduler API to create the task:

POST /api/scheduler/{project}/task
Content-Type: application/json; charset=utf-8

{
  "id": "unique-task-id",
  "name": "Task name (short description)",
  "prompt": "The full prompt to execute",
  "cronExpression": "0 16 7 2 *",
  "timeZone": "Europe/Berlin",
  "type": "one-time"
}

Important fields:

• id: Generate a unique ID (e.g., task-{timestamp} or UUID)
• name: A short, descriptive name for the task
• prompt: The exact prompt that Claude should execute when the task runs
• cronExpression: The cron expression from Step 2
• timeZone: Use the user's timezone (default: "Europe/Berlin" or ask if unclear)
• type: Either "recurring" or "one-time". Use "one-time" for tasks that should run once (today, tomorrow, specific date). Use "recurring" for repeating schedules (every day, every Monday, etc.)

Step 4: Confirm to User

After creating the task, confirm with the user:

• When the task will run
• What prompt will be executed
• The task ID for reference

API Reference

Create Task

POST /api/scheduler/{project}/task
Body: { id, name, prompt, cronExpression, timeZone, type }
Response: { task: TaskDefinition }

List Tasks

GET /api/scheduler/{project}/tasks
Response: { tasks: TaskDefinition[] }

Delete Task

DELETE /api/scheduler/{project}/task/{taskId}
Response: { success: true }

View Task History

GET /api/scheduler/{project}/history
Response: { history: TaskHistoryEntry[] }

Example Interactions

Example 1: Single Run Today

User: "Today at 16:00 look up the stock prices for nvidia and write me an email"

Analysis:

• Time: Today at 16:00 -> 0 16 {today's day} {today's month} *
• Prompt: "look up the stock prices for nvidia and write me an email"

API Call:

POST /api/scheduler/current-project/task
{
  "id": "task-1707321600000",
  "name": "Stock prices email",
  "prompt": "look up the stock prices for nvidia and write me an email",
  "cronExpression": "0 16 7 2 *",
  "timeZone": "Europe/Berlin",
  "type": "one-time"
}

Response to user: "I've scheduled your task for today at 16:00. At that time, I'll look up Nvidia stock prices and send you an email. Task ID: task-1707321600000"

Example 2: Recurring Daily Task

User: "Every day at 9am give me a summary of overnight news"

Analysis:

• Time: Every day at 9am -> 0 9 * * *
• Prompt: "give me a summary of overnight news"

API Call:

POST /api/scheduler/current-project/task
{
  "id": "task-1707321600001",
  "name": "Daily news summary",
  "prompt": "give me a summary of overnight news",
  "cronExpression": "0 9 * * *",
  "timeZone": "Europe/Berlin",
  "type": "recurring"
}

Example 3: Tomorrow

User: "Tomorrow at 14:00 check if the backup completed successfully"

Analysis:

• Time: Tomorrow at 14:00 -> 0 14 {tomorrow's day} {tomorrow's month} *
• Prompt: "check if the backup completed successfully"

Time Parsing Guidelines

Common Patterns

Time Format Recognition

• 24-hour: 16:00, 14:30, 09:00
• 12-hour with am/pm: 4pm, 9am, 2:30pm
• Relative: "in 2 hours", "in 30 minutes"

Timezone Handling

Default to Europe/Berlin unless the user specifies otherwise. Common timezones:

• Europe/Berlin (CET/CEST)
• Europe/London (GMT/BST)
• America/New_York (EST/EDT)
• America/Los_Angeles (PST/PDT)
• UTC

Error Handling

If time parsing is ambiguous, ask the user for clarification:

• "Did you mean 4am or 4pm?"
• "Which timezone should I use for this task?"
• "Is this a one-time task or should it repeat?"

Notes

• For single-run tasks, the cron expression uses specific day/month values and type must be "one-time"
• One-time tasks are automatically deleted after execution. They will not remain in the task list.
• For recurring tasks, use type: "recurring" with wildcard day/month fields in the cron expression
• The scheduler will execute the task and store results in task history
• Users can view scheduled tasks and history through the UI or by asking
• Tasks can be deleted by ID if no longer needed
• Always use charset=utf-8 in the Content-Type header to ensure proper encoding of non-ASCII characters

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