grip cron - Grip AI

Overview

The grip cron command manages scheduled tasks that run automatically on a cron schedule. Each job sends a prompt to the AI agent at specified intervals.

Subcommands

grip cron list - Show all scheduled cron jobs
grip cron add - Add a new cron job
grip cron remove - Remove a cron job by ID
grip cron enable - Enable a disabled job
grip cron disable - Disable a job without removing it

grip cron list

Display all configured cron jobs:

grip cron list

Example output:

╭─ Cron Jobs ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╮
│ ┌────────────┬──────────────┬───────────┬─────────┬───────────────────┐ │
│ │ ID         │ Name         │ Schedule  │ Enabled │ Last Run          │ │
│ ├────────────┼──────────────┼───────────┼─────────┼───────────────────┤ │
│ │ task_a1b2  │ Daily Report │ 0 9 * * * │ Yes     │ 2026-02-28 09:00  │ │
│ │ task_c3d4  │ DB Backup    │ 0 2 * * * │ Yes     │ 2026-02-28 02:00  │ │
│ │ task_e5f6  │ Check Alerts │ */15 * *  │ No      │ Never             │ │
│ └────────────┴──────────────┴───────────┴─────────┴───────────────────┘ │
╰──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╯

Columns

ID - Unique job identifier
Name - Human-readable job name
Schedule - Cron expression
Enabled - Whether the job runs
Last Run - Timestamp of last execution
Prompt - First 40 characters of the prompt

grip cron add

Create a new scheduled job:

grip cron add <name> <schedule> <prompt> [--reply-to SESSION_KEY]

Arguments

name - Descriptive name for the job
schedule - Cron expression (see Cron Syntax)
prompt - Message to send to the agent

Options

—reply-to / -r - Session key to route results (e.g., telegram:123456)

Examples

Daily Report at 9 AM

grip cron add "Daily Report" "0 9 * * *" "Generate daily metrics report"

Output:

Job added: task_a1b2 (Daily Report)
  Schedule: 0 9 * * *
  Prompt: Generate daily metrics report

Hourly Health Check

grip cron add "Health Check" "0 * * * *" "Check system health and alert if issues found"

Every 15 Minutes

grip cron add "Monitor Queue" "*/15 * * * *" "Check task queue length"

With Reply Destination

grip cron add "Server Status" "0 */6 * * *" \
  "Check server load and disk usage" \
  --reply-to telegram:123456

Output:

Job added: task_c3d4 (Server Status)
  Schedule: 0 */6 * * *
  Reply to: telegram:123456
  Prompt: Check server load and disk usage

Weekly Summary

grip cron add "Weekly Summary" "0 17 * * 5" \
  "Summarize this week's activity and send to the team"

Multi-line Prompts

grip cron add "Comprehensive Report" "0 8 * * 1" \
  "Generate a comprehensive weekly report including:
  - Active user count
  - Revenue metrics
  - System uptime
  - Open tickets"

grip cron remove

Delete a cron job permanently:

grip cron remove <job_id>

Example

grip cron remove task_a1b2

Output:

Removed: task_a1b2

If job not found:

Job not found: task_xyz

Removing a job is permanent. Use grip cron disable if you want to temporarily stop a job.

grip cron enable

Enable a disabled job:

grip cron enable <job_id>

Example

grip cron enable task_e5f6

Output:

Enabled: task_e5f6

grip cron disable

Disable a job without removing it:

grip cron disable <job_id>

Example

grip cron disable task_c3d4

Output:

Disabled: task_c3d4

Use Cases

Temporarily stop a job during maintenance
Pause jobs that are failing
Disable jobs during off-hours
Test configuration changes

Cron Syntax

Cron expressions use 5 fields:

* * * * *
│ │ │ │ └─ Day of week (0-7, Sunday=0 or 7)
│ │ │ └─── Month (1-12)
│ │ └───── Day of month (1-31)
│ └─────── Hour (0-23)
└───────── Minute (0-59)

Special Characters

* - Any value
*/n - Every n units (e.g., */15 = every 15 minutes)
n-m - Range (e.g., 9-17 = 9 AM to 5 PM)
n,m - List (e.g., 1,15 = 1st and 15th)
n/step - Starting at n, every step (e.g., 5/10 = 5, 15, 25, …)

Common Patterns

Schedule	Description	Example
`* * * * *`	Every minute	System monitoring
`/5 * * *`	Every 5 minutes	Quick checks
`0 * * * *`	Every hour	Hourly reports
`0 0 * * *`	Daily at midnight	Nightly jobs
`0 9 * * *`	Daily at 9 AM	Morning reports
`0 9 * * 1-5`	Weekdays at 9 AM	Business day tasks
`0 0 * * 0`	Weekly on Sunday	Weekly summaries
`0 0 1 * *`	Monthly on 1st	Monthly reports
`0 0 1 1 *`	Yearly on Jan 1st	Annual tasks
`0 9,17 * * *`	9 AM and 5 PM	Twice daily
`/15 9-17 * *`	Every 15 min, 9-5	Business hours

Examples

# Every 30 minutes
grip cron add "Half Hour Check" "*/30 * * * *" "Check status"

# Every day at 6 AM and 6 PM
grip cron add "Twice Daily" "0 6,18 * * *" "Generate report"

# Every weekday at 9 AM
grip cron add "Weekday Morning" "0 9 * * 1-5" "Morning briefing"

# Every Monday at 9 AM
grip cron add "Weekly Meeting" "0 9 * * 1" "Prepare weekly agenda"

# First day of every month at midnight
grip cron add "Monthly Report" "0 0 1 * *" "Generate monthly metrics"

# Every 15 minutes during business hours (9 AM - 5 PM)
grip cron add "Business Hours" "*/15 9-17 * * *" "Monitor queue"

Job Storage

Cron jobs are stored in:

~/grip/workspace/cron/jobs.json

Format

[
  {
    "id": "task_a1b2",
    "name": "Daily Report",
    "schedule": "0 9 * * *",
    "prompt": "Generate daily metrics report",
    "enabled": true,
    "reply_to": "telegram:123456",
    "last_run": "2026-02-28T09:00:00",
    "created_at": "2026-02-01T10:30:00"
  }
]

Execution

Cron jobs execute when:

The gateway is running (grip gateway)
The job is enabled
The schedule matches the current time

Process

Cron service checks schedules every minute
Matching jobs trigger agent runs
Agent processes the prompt
Result is sent to reply_to session (if specified)
last_run timestamp is updated

Example Flow

09:00:00 → Cron service checks schedules
         → Finds "Daily Report" (0 9 * * *)
         → Triggers agent run with prompt
         → Agent executes: "Generate daily metrics report"
         → Result sent to telegram:123456
         → Updates last_run to 2026-02-28T09:00:00

Reply Destinations

The --reply-to option routes results to a specific session:

Format

{channel}:{chat_id}

Examples

# Send to Telegram chat
grip cron add "Alert" "*/5 * * * *" "Check alerts" \
  --reply-to telegram:123456789

# Send to Discord channel
grip cron add "Status" "0 * * * *" "System status" \
  --reply-to discord:987654321

# Send to Slack channel
grip cron add "Report" "0 9 * * *" "Daily report" \
  --reply-to slack:C01ABC123

Without —reply-to

If --reply-to is not specified, the result is logged but not sent to any channel.

Monitoring

Check Last Run Times

grip cron list | grep "Last Run"

View Gateway Logs

grip gateway --verbose 2>&1 | grep -i cron

Check Job File

cat ~/grip/workspace/cron/jobs.json | jq '.'

Timezone Configuration

Cron schedules use the timezone from config:

grip config show | grep timezone

Set timezone:

grip config set cron.timezone "America/New_York"
grip config set cron.timezone "Europe/London"
grip config set cron.timezone "UTC"

Restart the gateway after changing timezone: grip gateway

Use Cases

Daily Reports

grip cron add "Sales Report" "0 8 * * *" \
  "Generate yesterday's sales report with revenue breakdown"

System Monitoring

grip cron add "Disk Space" "0 */6 * * *" \
  "Check disk space on all servers and alert if usage > 80%" \
  --reply-to telegram:123456

Automated Backups

grip cron add "DB Backup" "0 2 * * *" \
  "Run database backup and verify completion"

Periodic Summaries

grip cron add "Weekly Summary" "0 17 * * 5" \
  "Summarize this week's GitHub activity and PR reviews" \
  --reply-to discord:987654321

Health Checks

grip cron add "API Health" "*/5 * * * *" \
  "Check API endpoint health and response times"

Troubleshooting

Job not running

# Check if enabled
grip cron list | grep task_id

# Enable if disabled
grip cron enable task_id

# Verify gateway is running
ps aux | grep "grip gateway"

# Check gateway logs
grip gateway --verbose 2>&1 | grep cron

Invalid schedule

# Test cron expression online: https://crontab.guru/

# Common mistakes:
grip cron add "Bad" "0 25 * * *" "..."  # Hour must be 0-23
grip cron add "Bad" "60 * * * *" "..."  # Minute must be 0-59

Job runs but no output

# Add --reply-to destination
grip cron remove task_id
grip cron add "Name" "schedule" "prompt" --reply-to telegram:123456

# Check gateway logs for errors
grip gateway --verbose 2>&1 | grep task_id

grip gateway - Required for cron execution
grip agent - Test prompts before scheduling
grip config - Configure cron timezone
Interactive /tasks - View tasks from agent interactive mode

REST API

CLI Commands

Built-in Tools

​Overview

​Subcommands

​grip cron list

​Columns

​grip cron add

​Arguments

​Options

​Examples

​Daily Report at 9 AM

​Hourly Health Check

​Every 15 Minutes

​With Reply Destination

​Weekly Summary

​Multi-line Prompts

​grip cron remove

​Example

​grip cron enable

​Example

​grip cron disable

​Example

​Use Cases

​Cron Syntax

​Special Characters

​Common Patterns

​Examples

​Job Storage

​Format

​Execution

​Process

​Example Flow

​Reply Destinations

​Format

​Examples

​Without —reply-to

​Monitoring

​Check Last Run Times

​View Gateway Logs

​Check Job File

​Timezone Configuration

​Use Cases

​Daily Reports

​System Monitoring

​Automated Backups

​Periodic Summaries

​Health Checks

​Troubleshooting

​Job not running

​Invalid schedule

​Job runs but no output

​Related Commands

Build docs developers (and LLMs) love

Overview

Subcommands

grip cron list

Columns

grip cron add

Arguments

Options

Examples

Daily Report at 9 AM

Hourly Health Check

Every 15 Minutes

With Reply Destination

Weekly Summary

Multi-line Prompts

grip cron remove

Example

grip cron enable

Example

grip cron disable

Example

Use Cases

Cron Syntax

Special Characters

Common Patterns

Examples

Job Storage

Format

Execution

Process

Example Flow

Reply Destinations

Format

Examples

Without —reply-to

Monitoring

Check Last Run Times

View Gateway Logs

Check Job File

Timezone Configuration

Use Cases

Daily Reports

System Monitoring

Automated Backups

Periodic Summaries

Health Checks

Troubleshooting

Job not running

Invalid schedule

Job runs but no output

Related Commands