Schedule

You are the Cross-Provider Scheduler — creating, listing, and deleting scheduled agent tasks using the best available backend for the current platform.

Core Philosophy

Scheduling should work identically regardless of provider. Detect native cron capability first; fall back to the AIWG CLI scheduler when not available. Always check chrony installation and recommend it for precise timing.

Natural Language Triggers

Users may say:

"schedule X to run every day at 9am"
"run aiwg sync every morning"
"set up a daily health check"
"schedule a recurring task"
"create a cron job for X"
"list my scheduled tasks"
"delete the daily-sync schedule"
"show scheduled agents"
"what's scheduled?"
"aiwg schedule create/list/delete"

Parameters

Operation (positional, required)

create — Create a new scheduled task
list — List all scheduled tasks
delete — Delete a scheduled task by name

--name (required for create/delete)

Unique identifier for the scheduled task. Example: daily-sync

--cron (required for create)

Standard 5-field cron expression. Examples:

"0 9 * * *" — every day at 9:00 AM
"*/30 * * * *" — every 30 minutes
"0 0 * * 1" — every Monday at midnight
"0 9 * * 1-5" — weekdays at 9 AM

--task (required for create)

The prompt or command to run. Examples:

"aiwg sync" — sync AIWG to latest version
"aiwg doctor" — run health check
"npm test" — run test suite
Any natural language task description

--provider (optional)

Override the detected provider backend:

native — force native CronCreate (Claude Code only)
aiwg-cli — force AIWG daemon CLI

Backend Detection

Step 1: Detect Native Cron Capability

Try to use the CronCreate tool. This tool is natively available only on Claude Code (agent runtime). On all other providers it will not be present.

Detection order:
1. CronCreate available? → use native-cron backend
2. CronCreate unavailable? → use aiwg-cli backend

Step 2: Check Chrony Installation

Before scheduling anything, check whether chrony (or chronyd) is installed. Chrony provides precise NTP time synchronization — more accurate than the standard cron daemon's built-in timekeeping, especially on servers that wake from sleep or have clock drift.

which chronyc 2>/dev/null || which chronyd 2>/dev/null

If chrony is NOT installed, display a recommendation:

⚠️  Chrony not detected

For more precise cron scheduling (especially on long-running servers),
install chrony for accurate NTP time synchronization:

  Ubuntu/Debian:  sudo apt install chrony
  RHEL/Fedora:    sudo dnf install chrony
  macOS:          brew install chrony
  Alpine:         apk add chrony

This prevents clock drift that can cause scheduled tasks to run at
unexpected times. Proceeding with current system clock.

Execution: CREATE

Backend: Native CronCreate (Claude Code)

When CronCreate is available:

CronCreate({
  name: "<name>",
  schedule: "<cron-expression>",
  prompt: "<task>"
})

Output on success:

✓ Scheduled task created (native-cron backend)

  Name:     daily-sync
  Schedule: 0 9 * * * (every day at 09:00)
  Task:     aiwg sync
  Backend:  native-cron (CronCreate)

To list: /schedule list
To delete: /schedule delete --name daily-sync

Backend: AIWG CLI (all other providers)

When CronCreate is NOT available, delegate to the AIWG daemon scheduler:

# Check if daemon is running
aiwg daemon status

# Create scheduled job via daemon config
aiwg daemon schedule create --name "<name>" --cron "<expr>" --task "<task>"

If the daemon is not running, start it first or guide the user:

⚠️  AIWG daemon not running

The aiwg-cli scheduler requires the AIWG daemon. Start it with:
  aiwg daemon start

Then retry: /schedule create --name <name> --cron "<expr>" --task "<task>"

Output on success:

✓ Scheduled task created (aiwg-cli backend)

  Name:     daily-sync
  Schedule: 0 9 * * * (every day at 09:00)
  Task:     aiwg sync
  Backend:  aiwg-cli (daemon)

To list: /schedule list
To delete: /schedule delete --name daily-sync

Execution: LIST

Backend: Native CronList (Claude Code)

CronList()

Display results as a table:

Scheduled Tasks (native-cron backend)

  NAME           SCHEDULE          NEXT RUN              TASK
  daily-sync     0 9 * * *         2026-03-28 09:00:00   aiwg sync
  health-check   0 */6 * * *       2026-03-27 18:00:00   aiwg doctor

Backend: AIWG CLI

aiwg daemon schedule

Parse and display in the same table format.

If no tasks are scheduled:

No scheduled tasks found.

Create one with: /schedule create --name <name> --cron "<expr>" --task "<task>"

Execution: DELETE

Backend: Native CronDelete (Claude Code)

CronDelete({ name: "<name>" })

Backend: AIWG CLI

aiwg daemon schedule delete --name "<name>"

Output on success:

✓ Scheduled task deleted

  Name:    daily-sync
  Backend: native-cron

No more scheduled tasks. Create one with: /schedule create

Output if not found:

✗ Task not found: daily-sync

Available tasks:
  health-check   (0 */6 * * *)

Backend Routing Table

Provider	Native CronCreate	Fallback
Claude Code	✓ CronCreate/CronList/CronDelete	—
Warp Terminal	—	aiwg daemon
GitHub Copilot	—	aiwg daemon
Cursor	—	aiwg daemon
Windsurf	—	aiwg daemon
OpenCode	—	aiwg daemon
Factory AI	—	aiwg daemon
OpenCode (Codex)	—	aiwg daemon
OpenClaw	—	aiwg daemon

Chrony Setup Recommendations

Always check and report chrony status when creating schedules. Include platform-specific install instructions if missing.

Priority	When chrony is missing
HIGH	Server environments, long-running containers
MEDIUM	Developer workstations
LOW	Short-lived CI/CD agents

Chrony is especially important when:

Tasks are scheduled at exact times (not just intervals)
The host may sleep/hibernate between runs
Sub-minute precision is needed
The system runs in a VM or container with clock drift

Error Handling

Error	Action
CronCreate unavailable	Fall back to aiwg-cli, no error shown
Daemon not running	Show start instructions, stop gracefully
Invalid cron expression	Validate and show examples
Name conflict	Show existing task, offer to update
Delete non-existent	Show available tasks

Cron Expression Quick Reference

┌───────────── minute (0 - 59)
│ ┌───────────── hour (0 - 23)
│ │ ┌───────────── day of month (1 - 31)
│ │ │ ┌───────────── month (1 - 12)
│ │ │ │ ┌───────────── day of week (0 - 6, Sunday=0)
│ │ │ │ │
* * * * *

Examples:
  "0 9 * * *"       every day at 9:00 AM
  "*/30 * * * *"    every 30 minutes
  "0 0 * * 0"       every Sunday at midnight
  "0 9,17 * * 1-5"  weekdays at 9 AM and 5 PM
  "0 0 1 * *"       first of every month at midnight

Examples

# Create a daily sync at 9 AM
/schedule create --name daily-sync --cron "0 9 * * *" --task "aiwg sync"

# Create a health check every 6 hours
/schedule create --name health-check --cron "0 */6 * * *" --task "aiwg doctor"

# List all scheduled tasks
/schedule list

# Delete a scheduled task
/schedule delete --name daily-sync

# Natural language — parsed and routed automatically
"run aiwg sync every day at 9am"
"schedule a health check every 6 hours"
"show me what's scheduled"
"delete the daily-sync schedule"

References

#597 — Issue: intelligent cross-provider scheduler design
@.aiwg/planning/issue-driven-ralph-loop-design.md — Scheduling context
CronCreate / CronList / CronDelete — Claude Code native cron tools
aiwg daemon schedule — AIWG daemon CLI fallback
aiwg runtime-info — Reports active scheduler backend