> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.xpander.ai/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
# Scheduled Tasks
> Run your agents automatically on a cron schedule
Scheduled tasks let you run an agent at recurring intervals (every few minutes, daily, weekly, or on any custom cadence) without anyone needing to trigger it manually. Useful for automated reports, periodic data syncs, monitoring jobs, or any recurring agent workflow.
Once set up, you can:
* Run an agent on a quick preset (every N minutes/hours, daily, weekly) or a custom cron expression
* Pass fixed instructions to the agent at each run, like a stored prompt
* Run the task as a specific user so per-user memory, permissions, and credentials apply
* Monitor every scheduled execution from the Tasks view alongside manual runs
Pre-requisites:
* a [**Custom Agent**](/guides/agents/agent-configuration)
Scheduled tasks are not available for Personal Agents. Personal Agents only expose API, Slack, Telegram, and Webhook channels. Create a [Custom Agent](/guides/agents/agent-configuration) to schedule recurring runs.
## Create a Scheduled Task
In the Agent Studio, click the **gear** icon and go to the **Channels** tab. Find the **Task** section.
Click Add Task to open the task configuration panel.
In the **Instructions** field, describe what the agent should do on each run. For example: "Check for open P0 incidents and post a summary to #ops-alerts."
Choose a **Quick Preset** (every 5 minutes, hourly, daily, etc.) or configure a **Custom Schedule** with a specific interval, time, and active days. The current cron expression is shown at the bottom of the scheduler.
Click Publish. The agent will run automatically at the configured times.
All schedule times are in UTC. Convert from your local timezone accordingly. For example, 9:00 AM US Eastern is 13:00 or 14:00 UTC depending on daylight saving time.
## Configure the Schedule
### Use Quick Presets
Select a preset from the dropdown for common intervals like every 5 minutes, every hour, or once daily.
### Build a Custom Schedule
Switch to **Custom Schedule** for more control:
* **Interval** vs **Specific Time** - run every N minutes/hours, or at a fixed time each day
* **On days** - select which days of the week the task should run (all days are selected by default)
The panel shows the resolved cron expression so you can verify the schedule.
### Write Cron Expressions
Under the hood, schedules use standard five-field cron syntax:
```
┌───────── minute (0–59)
│ ┌─────── hour (0–23)
│ │ ┌───── day of month (1–31)
│ │ │ ┌─── month (1–12)
│ │ │ │ ┌─ day of week (0–6, Sunday = 0)
│ │ │ │ │
* * * * *
```
| Schedule | Expression |
| ------------------------ | -------------- |
| Every hour | `0 * * * *` |
| Every day at 9 AM UTC | `0 9 * * *` |
| Every Monday at 8 AM UTC | `0 8 * * 1` |
| Every 15 minutes | `*/15 * * * *` |
| First of every month | `0 0 1 * *` |
### Try It: Cron Builder
Edit each field, see the expression update, and get a plain-English description of when your schedule will fire.