Schedules

Cron-based schedules run independently of WebSocket events, enabling time-based automation like daily summaries and periodic reviews.

Format

Schedules are defined in kardbrd.yml alongside rules:

board_id: 0gl5MlBZ
agent: MyBot

schedules:
  - name: Daily Summary          # required — also the card title
    card_id: XVxBO30E            # optional — bind to this active card exactly
    cron: "0 0 * * *"            # required — standard cron expression
    action: |                    # required — prompt or skill command
      Read the activity on the board for the previous day
      and write a summary of what happened.
    model: haiku                 # optional: opus | sonnet | haiku
    list: Reports                # optional: target list for new cards
    assignee: E21K9jmv           # optional: user ID to assign new cards
    publish_result: true         # optional: daemon posts its fallback result (default)

Fields

Field	Required	Description
name	Yes	Schedule name — doubles as the card title
card_id	No	Fixed active card ID on the configured board; disables title lookup and creation
cron	Yes	Standard five-field cron expression
action	Yes	Prompt text or skill command (e.g., /ke)
model	No	Model override: opus, sonnet, haiku
list	No	Target list for newly created cards
assignee	No	User ID to assign newly created cards
publish_result	No	Set false when the action script owns its final result publication; defaults to true

How it works

The ScheduleManager runs as a background task alongside the WebSocket listener:

1. At each matching cron time, it runs the schedule.
2. When a schedule with card_id fires, it runs only on that active card after verifying it belongs to the configured board. Missing, archived, or foreign IDs fail that firing and never create a replacement card.
3. A schedule without card_id finds or creates a card with the schedule's name as the title (case-insensitive match)
4. If creating a new legacy schedule card, it optionally places it in the specified list and assigns the assignee
5. The schedule's action runs in the card's context, just like a rule-triggered action

Card reuse

Schedules reuse existing cards by name. A "Daily Summary" schedule always runs in the same "Daily Summary" card, accumulating results over time.

Fixed control cards

Use card_id for an unattended control card whose title might change or have duplicates. A failed fixed-card firing is reported once to the agent log; it does not create a board comment or durable catch-up job.

Script-owned publication

publish_result: false disables the daemon's recent-comment check, resume-to-publish attempt, fallback result comment, and generic error comment for that schedule. The action script then owns one-attempt result publication and recovery. Executor and authentication failures still fail the scheduled firing and are reported to the agent log.

Cron syntax

Standard five-field cron expressions:

┌───────────── minute (0–59)
│ ┌───────────── hour (0–23)
│ │ ┌───────────── day of month (1–31)
│ │ │ ┌───────────── month (1–12)
│ │ │ │ ┌───────────── day of week (0–7, 0 and 7 = Sunday)
│ │ │ │ │
* * * * *

Common patterns

Expression	Description
0 9 * * 1-5	9:00 AM, Monday–Friday
0 0 * * *	Midnight daily
0 */6 * * *	Every 6 hours
30 14 * * 5	2:30 PM every Friday
0 0 1 * *	First day of each month

Examples

Daily standup summary

schedules:
  - name: Daily Summary
    cron: "0 9 * * 1-5"
    model: haiku
    list: Reports
    action: |
      Read the board activity from the last 24 hours.
      Write a standup-style summary: what was done, what's in progress,
      and any blockers.

Weekly backlog review

schedules:
  - name: Weekly Backlog Review
    cron: "0 10 * * 1"
    model: sonnet
    list: Reviews
    action: |
      Review all cards in the Backlog list. For each card:
      1. Check if it's still relevant
      2. Suggest priority and effort estimate
      3. Flag any cards that should be archived

Periodic health check

schedules:
  - name: Dependency Audit
    cron: "0 0 * * 0"
    model: haiku
    action: |
      Check for outdated dependencies and known vulnerabilities.
      Report findings as a summary.

Fixed watcher control card

schedules:
  - name: CBA Sentry watch       # display name only; title may change
    card_id: XVxBO30E            # exact active card on this board
    publish_result: false        # watcher journals and publishes its own result
    cron: "*/15 * * * *"
    model: haiku
    action: |
      Run the watcher checks and journal/publish the bounded result on this card.

Validation

Schedule cron expressions are validated by kardbrd agent validate:

kardbrd agent validate

Invalid cron expressions produce an error:

ERROR [schedule "Bad Schedule"]: Invalid cron expression '* * *'