---
title: Scheduled Tasks
description: Run a prompt automatically on a schedule.
---

# Scheduled Tasks

A scheduled task runs a prompt for you on a schedule — for example, a daily "summarize yesterday's changes" or a weekly cleanup. When it runs, OpenChamber starts a new session and sends the prompt on its own. Open the scheduler from the button at the top of the session sidebar.

## Create a task

1. Open the scheduled tasks dialog from the session sidebar.
2. Add a task and give it a name.
3. Choose when it runs:
   - **daily** — at one or more times each day
   - **weekly** — on chosen weekdays and times
   - **once** — a single date and time
   - **cron** — an arbitrary cron expression
4. Set what it does: the prompt to send, and the provider, model, and agent to use. The prompt can be a slash command, like `/review`.
5. Save, and make sure the task is enabled.

You can run any task immediately with **run now** to check it does what you expect.

Check **Run as goal** to make the run pursue its prompt to completion instead of stopping after one reply — see [Session Goals](/session-goals/).

## Loops: scheduled tasks as markdown files

A **loop** is a scheduled task defined as a portable markdown file you can commit to your repo. Drop a file into `.agents/loops/` and open the Scheduled Tasks list to sync it — no server restart needed:

```markdown
---
name: daily-digest
schedule: "0 9 * * *"
enabled: true
model: anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-5
agent: plan
timezone: Europe/Kyiv
---
Summarize repository changes since yesterday and post the digest.
```

### Where files live

- **Project scope** — `.agents/loops/*.md` in the project directory or any ancestor directory up to the git worktree root.
- **User scope** — `~/.agents/loops/*.md` applies to every project you open.

If a project loop and a user loop share a name, the project loop wins.

### Fields

| Field | Meaning |
|---|---|
| `name` | Task name (required, max 80 characters). |
| `schedule` | Cron expression (required) — loop files are cron-only. |
| `enabled` | Set `true` to run. Loops are **off by default**, so committing a file never starts running a task on its own. |
| `model` | `provider/model` (required), e.g. `anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-5`. |
| `agent` | Agent to use (optional). |
| `timezone` | IANA timezone (optional, defaults to the server zone). |
| body | The execution prompt (required). Can be a slash command, like `/review src/`. |

### How loops behave

- The **file is authoritative** while it exists. **Edit** opens it in the built-in file editor, the enabled toggle updates its frontmatter, and deleting the task deletes the markdown file after confirmation. **Run now** remains available.
- Runtime state (last run, next run, status) lives in the project config and is never written back into the markdown file.
- Renaming the `name` field renames the task in place. If a loop file temporarily fails to parse (mid-edit, merge conflict), its task is kept with the last good definition until the file is fixed.
- `daily`/`weekly`/`once` schedules and goal settings remain UI-only; loop files are always cron.

## What success looks like

After a run, the task shows when it last ran, whether it succeeded, and a link to the session it created. If a run fails, the error is shown there too.

## Keep in mind

Tasks only fire while the OpenChamber server is running. If you close it, scheduled runs are paused until it's back up.

## Related

- [Commands & Snippets](/commands-snippets/) — reuse a slash command as the prompt