Setup & Installation
openclaw skills install @gitgoodordietrying/cron-scheduling
Or with the ClawHub CLI, for registry-managed skill folders outside a full OpenClaw workspace:
npx clawhub install cron-scheduling
What This Skill Does
Covers cron syntax, crontab management, systemd timer units, one-off scheduling with `at`, timezone handling, and job failure debugging. Works on Linux and macOS systems with `crontab`, `systemctl`, or `at` available.
Systemd timers provide journald logging, missed-run catchup, and resource limits that cron lacks, and this skill covers both so you can choose the right tool for the context.
When to use it
- Scheduling nightly database backups
- Setting up a weekly log cleanup job
- Debugging why a cron job silently stopped running
- Migrating cron jobs to systemd timers
- Running a deploy script once at a specific future time
Example Workflow
Here's how your AI assistant might use this skill in practice.
INPUT
User asks: set up a daily backup job at 2 AM using systemd timers
AGENT
- 1Creates /etc/systemd/system/backup.service with Type=oneshot and ExecStart pointing to the backup script
- 2Creates /etc/systemd/system/backup.timer with OnCalendar=*-*-* 02:00:00 and Persistent=true
- 3Runs systemctl daemon-reload and systemctl enable --now backup.timer
- 4Verifies the timer appears in systemctl list-timers output
- 5Confirms next trigger time with systemd-analyze calendar "*-*-* 02:00:00"
OUTPUT
Timer is active and scheduled; next run shown with exact trigger timestamp