bishwashere/skills/cron

Cron

Manage reminders and scheduled messages: one-shot (at a specific time) or recurring (every morning, every 5 minutes, etc.). Call run_skill with skill: "cron". The command name is the operation: use command or arguments.action set to exactly one of: list, add, remove.

Reply channel: By default the reminder reply is sent to the same channel (WhatsApp chat or Telegram chat) where the user set it up. This is stored with the job and used even when a separate cron process runs the task-no need to specify a channel; it stays attached to where it was created.

Commands (name is command)

• list - Use when the user asks to list, see, count, or check for reminders ("how many crons?", "list my reminders", "what's scheduled?", "do I have any reminders?"). Call once only. Do not also call add. No other fields needed. Always reply with the full list of reminders (one-time and recurring), even if the user only asked "do I have any?" or "are there any?" - never reply with only a count like "you have 7 reminders". If there are none, say so explicitly. Never include raw cron expressions (e.g. 0 8 * * 1) in the reply - always convert to human-readable form (e.g. "Every Monday at 8:00 AM"). Use the stored human-readable message and the schedule kind (at/cron) to produce a natural description.
• add - When the user's intent is to CREATE or SET a reminder, or to have something checked repeatedly or get notified when something happens (e.g. status change, arrival, result). Treat that intent as a request to create a job; do not ask for confirmation before adding. Set arguments.job with message (what to check or remind) and schedule:
  • One-shot: { "kind": "at", "at": "<future ISO 8601>" }. Always use an exact full ISO 8601 timestamp (e.g. 2026-02-19T08:00:00.000Z). Schedules are saved and run at that exact time. For "in 1 hour" or "tomorrow 8am" compute the exact datetime and pass it as ISO 8601.
  • Recurring (cron): { "kind": "cron", "expr": "<cron expression>", "tz": "optional IANA timezone" }. Use the expr values below for common setups. Never invent message text. If the user does not specify how often to check, use a sensible default (e.g. every 10 minutes: */10 * * * *), create the job, then say they can change the interval or remove it later.
• remove - When the user asks to cancel a reminder. Set arguments.jobId (from a previous list result). When the user refers to a reminder by position (e.g. "remove reminder number 3", "delete the third one"): call list first to get the numbered list (1-indexed from top), find the job at that exact position across the full combined list (one-time + recurring in the order shown), then call remove with that job's id. Confirm what was removed by name and position.

You can pass the command at the top level (command: "list") or inside arguments (arguments.action: "list"). Never omit the command/action.

Recurring (cron) - every morning, every 5 minutes, etc.

Cron expr is 5 fields: minute hour day-of-month month day-of-week (space-separated). Use these for natural-language requests:

| User says | expr | Meaning | |-----------|----------|---------| | every 5 minutes | */5 * * * * | Every 5 minutes | | every minute | * * * * * | Every minute | | every hour | 0 * * * * | At minute 0 of every hour | | every morning / every day at 8am | 0 8 * * * | 8:00 daily | | every day at 9am | 0 9 * * * | 9:00 daily | | every Monday at 8am | 0 8 * * 1 | 8:00 on Mondays (1 = Monday, 0 = Sunday) | | every weekday at 8am | 0 8 * * 1-5 | 8:00 Mon–Fri |

Optional tz for timezone (e.g. "America/New_York"). Example job for "every morning at 8": { "message": "Good morning reminder", "schedule": { "kind": "cron", "expr": "0 8 * * *", "tz": "America/New_York" } }.

Notes

• Intent over wording: Recognize the intent to have something checked repeatedly or to be notified when something happens; create the recurring job with a default interval if the user did not specify one. Prefer acting (add with sensible defaults) over asking for interval or cutoff first.
• Confirmation reply for recurring jobs: When confirming a recurring reminder was added, write a natural confirmation in plain English (e.g. "I'll remind you every 5 minutes", "Daily reminder set for 9 AM", "Every Monday at 8 AM reminder created"). Do not expose raw cron expressions, tool-call JSON, or internal arguments in the user-facing reply.
• For multiple new reminders in one message, call run_skill(cron, add) once per reminder with different job.message and job.schedule.
• For "every one minute for the next three minutes" use three one-shot at times. For "every 5 minutes" or "every morning" use cron with the expr above.

Tool schema

cron_list
  description: List all scheduled jobs/reminders. No parameters.

cron_add
  description: Create a reminder. Set job with message and schedule (kind at|cron, at or expr, tz).
  parameters:
    job: object

cron_remove
  description: Remove a scheduled job by id (from list result).
  parameters:
    jobId: string