This skill should be used when the user asks to "schedule a task", "set up a cron job", "run something every day/hour/week", "create a recurring task", or needs periodic automated task execution.
Register a recurring task that executes on a cron schedule.
Create a .job file in $CLAUDE_INBOX/schedule/cron.d/. The claude-inbox-cron
daemon checks these files every 30 seconds and submits matching tasks.
# Extract chat_id from current task metadata for Telegram replies
chat_id=$(head -1 /dev/stdin <<< "$TASK_CONTENT" | grep -oP 'chat_id=\K[^ \]]*')
cat > "$CLAUDE_INBOX/schedule/cron.d/my-job-name.job" <<EOF
name=my-job-name
schedule=0 8 * * *
prompt=Your task prompt here
channel=telegram
chat_id=$chat_id
EOF
| Field | Required | Description |
|---|
name | yes | Unique job name (also determines session continuity) |
schedule | yes | 5-field cron: min hour dom month dow |
prompt | yes | The task prompt |
channel | no | Set to telegram to get replies in Telegram |
chat_id | no | Telegram chat ID (required if channel=telegram) |
priority | no | 0-9, default 5 |
model | no | Model override (haiku/sonnet/opus) |
Standard 5-field cron format:
* = every*/5 = every 5 (step)1,3,5 = specific values1-5 = rangeExamples:
0 8 * * * = every day at 8:00 AM0 8 * * 1 = every Monday at 8:00 AM*/30 * * * * = every 30 minutes0 9,18 * * 1-5 = 9 AM and 6 PM on weekdaysEach job gets a deterministic session_id (uuid5("cron:{name}")).
Repeated runs of the same job share a Claude session, so the agent
can reference previous executions.
# List all jobs
ls "$CLAUDE_INBOX/schedule/cron.d/"
# View a job
cat "$CLAUDE_INBOX/schedule/cron.d/my-job-name.job"
# Remove a job
rm "$CLAUDE_INBOX/schedule/cron.d/my-job-name.job"
When registering a job from a Telegram task, extract chat_id from
the current task's metadata header:
# The metadata is on the first line of the task content
# Example: [from=User channel=telegram chat_id=12345 msg_id=200 session_id=xxx]
The chat_id should be included in the job so the cron-triggered
task can reply to the user's Telegram chat.