Agent Self-Scheduling

When to Use

• Use when the user asks for recurring, scheduled, heartbeat, or looped agent work.
• Use when you need to choose between cron, external schedulers, hooks, or built-in agent scheduling.

Scheduling requires a direct user request; a guide or task-list entry is not permission to create background work. Preserve timezone, cadence, notification preferences and stop conditions; update an existing matching job instead of duplicating it. External messages and posting require explicit authorization.

First inspect the actual host: prefer its supported scheduler/heartbeat when available (including Codex automations); otherwise use an explicitly authorized external clock. Host capabilities are not determined solely by the runtime name.

Traditional five-field cron has one-minute granularity; other schedulers differ. Prefer event-driven checks and an appropriate cadence. Avoid tight LLM timers and indefinite loops.

Camp A — one-shot agents, you own the clock

These run once and exit (amnesiac unless resumed). Schedule them externally.