Cronctl

Core workflows

Create or update a job

1. Put helper scripts under ~/.cronctl/scripts/ when that convention is useful.
2. Create jobs with descriptive kebab-case ids.
3. Add or edit the job with cronctl add or cronctl edit.
4. Run cronctl exec <job_id> before trusting the schedule.
5. Inspect cronctl --json logs <job_id> --last=1 after changes.

Diagnose a failure

1. Check cronctl --json status.
2. Read cronctl --json logs <job_id> --last=5.
3. Look for status, exit_code, stderr, and timeout patterns.
4. Fix the script or job config, then run cronctl exec <job_id> again.

Backup or migrate jobs

• Export with cronctl export.
• Import with cronctl import jobs.yaml.
• Use cronctl sync after manual cleanup if the crontab fence needs regeneration.

Guardrails

• Do not edit the managed crontab block directly; use add, edit, enable, disable, remove, or sync.
• Use absolute paths inside cron-managed commands and scripts.
• Quote --set key=value assignments when values contain spaces.
• Use cronctl exec instead of manually re-running the raw command when you need the same timeout, retry, logging, and notification path cron uses.