Cron & Scheduled Tasks in Garudust Agent — Autonomous Agents That Run Without You

The Garudust Agent can be configured to run autonomously using standard cron syntax, executing full AI agent loops with all its tools without requiring human input. Cron jobs are defined in the `config.yaml` file, via CLI flags, or environment variables, and can also be created dynamically by asking the agent at runtime, though runtime jobs are not persisted across server restarts. The system supports additional scheduled maintenance tasks like memory consolidation and expiry, and the agent can use its tools (such as file operations or messaging) to deliver results.

Most AI agents wait. They sit idle until a human types something, respond, then go back to waiting. Garudust Agent can be different. With garudust-cron , you schedule tasks using standard cron syntax — the agent wakes up, runs a full LLM loop with all its tools, and goes back to sleep. No human required. This post shows you exactly how to configure it, with the correct syntax pulled straight from the source. How It Works garudust-cron is a crate within the Garudust workspace. When a scheduled trigger fires, it calls agent.run task — the same code path as a user typing a message. The agent has access to all its configured tools: file read/write, terminal, RAG, web search, and anything else you've enabled. Cron runs as part of garudust-server . There is no separate daemon. Three Ways to Set Up Cron Jobs 1. config.yaml — Permanent, survives restarts ~/.garudust/config.yaml cron: jobs: - schedule: "0 0 9 1-5" weekdays at 09:00 server timezone task: "Write a morning briefing and append it to ~/briefing.md" - schedule: "0 0 18 5" Fridays at 18:00 task: "Summarise this week's git commits and save to ~/weekly.md" CronJob has exactly two fields: schedule and task . Nothing else. schedule uses 6-field cron syntax seconds first : ┌───────── second 0–59 │ ┌─────── minute 0–59 │ │ ┌───── hour 0–23 │ │ │ ┌─── day of month 1–31 │ │ │ │ ┌─ month 1–12 │ │ │ │ │ ┌ day of week 0–6, Sun=0 │ │ │ │ │ │ 0 0 9 1-5 Timezone follows the server process — set your system timezone before starting garudust-server if needed. 2. CLI flag or environment variable — One-off / Docker CLI flag — comma-separated "cron expr=task" pairs garudust-server --cron-jobs "0 0 9 =Write morning briefing,0 0 18 5=Weekly summary" Or via environment variable in ~/.garudust/.env GARUDUST CRON JOBS="0 0 9 =Write morning briefing" These take precedence over config.yaml when both are set. 3. Runtime via chat — No restart needed Once the server is running, you or any admin can create jobs live by asking the agent: You: Create a cron job that runs every day at 7am to check disk usage and send me an alert if any partition is above 80%. Agent: uses cron create tool Created cron job 'disk check' with schedule: 0 0 7 Note: cron create uses6-fieldcron syntax seconds first : sec min hour dom month dow Same format as config.yaml . | Format | Where used | Example | |---|---|---| | 6-field | everywhere config.yaml , --cron-jobs , env var, cron create | 0 0 9 1-5 | Runtime jobs are not persisted — they disappear on server restart. Add them to config.yaml for permanent schedules. Manage runtime jobs: You: List all active cron jobs. Agent: - disk check schedule: 0 0 7 task: Check disk usage... created: 2025-05-21 07:00 UTC You: Delete the disk check job. Agent: Cron job 'disk check' removed. Memory Maintenance Bonus CronConfig has two extra fields specifically for automatic memory housekeeping: cron: jobs: - schedule: "0 0 9 " task: "Morning briefing" Consolidate and deduplicate memory entries memory consolidation: "0 0 3 " daily at 03:00 Expire stale memory entries based on memory expiry settings memory expiry: "0 0 4 0" weekly on Sunday at 04:00 These run lightweight maintenance tasks — no LLM call required. Practical Examples Morning Briefing cron: jobs: - schedule: "0 0 8 1-5" task: Write a morning briefing covering: 1 any new files in ~/inbox/, 2 a summary of yesterday's ~/logs/app.log errors, 3 today's date and day of week. Save the result to ~/briefing/$ date +%Y-%m-%d .md. Log Monitoring cron: jobs: - schedule: "0 /15 " every 15 minutes task: Check /var/log/app/error.log for entries in the last 15 minutes. If there are more than 10 errors, append a summary to ~/alerts/errors.log. Weekly Git Summary cron: jobs: - schedule: "0 0 17 5" Fridays at 17:00 task: Run git log --since="1 week ago" --oneline in ~/project/, summarise what changed by area, and save to ~/reports/weekly.md. Sending Results to Telegram Cron jobs have no built-in delivery mechanism — the agent writes to files or uses tools. To send to Telegram, write it into the task prompt: cron: jobs: - schedule: "0 0 9 " task: Write a morning briefing top 3 priorities for today, weather summary . Then send it to Telegram chat ID 123456789 using the send message tool. The agent calls send message itself. The chat ID must be hardcoded in the task or retrievable from a file the agent can read. Disabling Cron Tools If you want to prevent the agent from creating or deleting jobs at runtime, disable the toolset: disabled toolsets: cron Config-file jobs still run — only the cron create / cron list / cron delete runtime tools are disabled. Summary config.yaml | --cron-jobs / env var | Runtime cron create | | |---|---|---|---| | Cron syntax | 6-field | 6-field | 6-field | | Persists across restarts | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | | Requires restart to activate | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | cron list shows it | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ | Start with config.yaml for anything you want running reliably. Use runtime jobs for experiments or tasks you only need for the current server session.