# Scheduled work

Schedule agent turns with cron triggers in agent definitions.

Source: https://docs.vampikez.fun/build/scheduled-work/

Recurring extension work is an agent turn. Contribute an agent definition with a
`cron` trigger and register tools that the agent calls. The owning WAMP process
must be running for the schedule to fire. A manually served engine needs
`wamp-engine serve --schedules`; Desktop enables schedules for its local engine.

## Schedule an agent

An agent file can declare a trigger independently of extension activation:

```markdown
---
name: Weekly Digest
description: Summarizes the previous week's activity.
model: balanced
tools: [file]
triggers:
  - kind: cron
    schedule: '0 9 * * 1'
    timezone: 'Europe/Amsterdam'
    jitter_sec: 60
    agent_mode: workspace
---

Summarize the previous week and append the result to `digest.md`.
Keep the summary under 200 words.
```

`agent_mode` is the permission mode each firing runs in: `ask`, `workspace`
(the default) or `full`. Nobody is there to approve anything, so whatever that
mode would ask about is refused. A schedule that fetches pages, browses or calls
MCP tools on destinations it has not been allowed needs `full`. The Library sets
the mode per schedule.

Set `jitter_sec: 0` when random delay is unwanted; it does not make a run a
hard real-time guarantee. A firing skips if the same trigger's previous Run is still running; slots missed while the engine is stopped are not replayed.
The new chat can receive replies and be continued or stopped like any other chat.
Agent-trigger cron expressions require one integer from 0 to 59 in the minute
field, so each trigger fires at most once per hour; the Library refuses to save
a faster schedule. In the Desktop sidebar, older firings of the same agent fold
beneath its newest firing and start collapsed.
Without an agent or approved-plan budget, its first turn has a $1 / 30-minute hard cap.
Invalid schedules and unrecognized trigger kinds
are warned about and skipped. Read the logs after changing frontmatter.
See [Agents and skills](/build/agents-and-skills/) for the full definition.