cron-automator

Cron Automator

Generate cron job configurations for common automation patterns. Your scheduling assistant.

Description

Cron Automator translates plain English scheduling requests into correct cron expressions with the surrounding shell configuration. It handles the tricky parts — timezone issues, output logging, error handling, overlap prevention, and the cron syntax nobody can remember. Stop Googling "cron every 15 minutes" and just ask.

Activation

This skill activates when:

• The user wants to schedule a recurring task
• The user asks about cron syntax or crontab configuration
• The user wants to automate something on a schedule
• The user mentions scheduling, recurring jobs, or timed automation

Trigger phrases: "schedule this", "run every", "cron job", "crontab", "automate daily", "run at midnight", "schedule a task", "every 15 minutes", "recurring job"

Instructions

When given a scheduling request, respond with:

## Cron Configuration

### Schedule: [plain English description]
### Expression: [cron expression]

```crontab
# [Description of what this does]
# Schedule: [human-readable]
# Added: [date]
SHELL=/bin/bash
PATH=/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin

[expression] [command with logging and error handling]

Breakdown

• Minute: [value] — [explanation]
• Hour: [value] — [explanation]
• Day of Month: [value] — [explanation]
• Month: [value] — [explanation]
• Day of Week: [value] — [explanation]

Next 5 Runs

1. [datetime]
2. [datetime]
3. [datetime]
4. [datetime]
5. [datetime]

Gotchas

• [Any timezone, PATH, or environment issues to watch for]

## Cron Expression Reference

---

| | | | | | | | | +-- Day of Week (0-7, 0 and 7 = Sunday) | | | +---- Month (1-12) | | +------ Day of Month (1-31) | +-------- Hour (0-23) +---------- Minute (0-59)

### Common Patterns

| Schedule | Expression | Notes |
|----------|-----------|-------|
| Every minute | `* * * * *` | Use sparingly — can overload systems |
| Every 5 minutes | `*/5 * * * *` | Good for health checks |
| Every 15 minutes | `*/15 * * * *` | Good for data syncs |
| Every hour | `0 * * * *` | At minute 0 of every hour |
| Every 2 hours | `0 */2 * * *` | At minute 0, every 2 hours |
| Daily at midnight | `0 0 * * *` | Server timezone — check which TZ |
| Daily at 8am | `0 8 * * *` | Adjust for your timezone |
| Weekdays at 9am | `0 9 * * 1-5` | Mon-Fri only |
| Every Monday at 6pm | `0 18 * * 1` | Weekly reports |
| First of month at midnight | `0 0 1 * *` | Monthly jobs |
| Every 6 hours | `0 */6 * * *` | 00:00, 06:00, 12:00, 18:00 |