Scheduled agents and workflows

Let an agent or a workflow run on its own at set times, understand what it costs and what to check so unattended runs do not stall.

A scheduled agent or scheduled workflow starts by itself, for example every weekday at 09:00, without anyone pressing Run now. Use it for jobs that come back on a clock: a morning inbox triage, a weekly pipeline summary, a nightly price check. Schedules are part of Business and Enterprise.

On Free you start agents and workflows yourself. Webhooks, forms and one app trigger do work on Free; see Triggers and schedules.

Schedule an agent

The agent must be deployed, switched on and fully set up.

  1. Open the Schedule tab

    On the agent's page, open Schedule and choose New schedule.

  2. Step 1: What to run

    AI agent is selected with this agent. Optionally give the schedule a name. If the agent has run fields, fill in what each scheduled run starts with: the same fields as Run now.

  3. Step 2: When

    Pick a preset such as Daily at 09:00 or Every Monday 09:00, or enter a Custom cron expression (minute, hour, day of month, month, weekday). Choose the Timezone. The dialog lists the next run times so you can check.

  4. Step 3: Options

    Set Retry on failure with Max retries and Delay between retries, and choose Notify on failure and Notify on success.

  5. Create

    Choose Create schedule.

Under When this fires you choose Runs directly, which starts the agent at once, or Creates a board task, which puts a card on the board for an agent to pick up.

Schedule a workflow

Open the workflow, select its start node and, in Triggers, choose Add schedule under Schedules. Give it a Name, pick when it runs and, if you like, an Input (optional, JSON) passed into every run. Choose Create trigger.

You can add a schedule before the workflow is deployed. It starts after the first deploy, and always runs the latest deployed version. See Triggers and schedules.

What it costs

Scheduled runs, and runs started by a webhook or app trigger, are paid from extra usage only: money you topped up. They never use the monthly balance included with your seats, or the starter balance. With no extra usage left, the run does not start.

  • Top up, or switch on Auto Top-up so a scheduled job never stops for lack of money. See Budgets and balance.
  • Every scheduled workflow run counts towards your monthly workflow runs: 1,000 per seat a month on Business, pooled, plus any run packs. When runs are used up, scheduled and app-triggered workflows are switched off; switch them on again once you have runs. Agent runs do not count.
  • Workspace guardrails apply to scheduled runs too: Ask before an expensive run, Monthly spend ceiling, Runs per agent per day and Models for automations.
  • A run that failed because of a problem on our side is marked as a platform issue and is not billed. A run that failed because of its setup is billed.

Before you rely on it

  • Use workspace connections. A scheduled run acts on behalf of someone. Actions that need another person's personal connection are skipped. Connect the apps the job needs for the Whole workspace. See Connect apps.
  • Approvals wait. If a step needs approval, the run pauses until someone decides. Decide which actions may Run automatically and which should Ask for approval before you schedule. See Approvals.
  • Memory. An unattended agent only stores what it learns if Remember without asking is on. See Knowledge and memory.

Manage schedules

The agent's Schedule tab, and the Triggers section of a workflow, list each schedule as Active or Paused with its next run. You can Pause it, use Run now for a one-off run, look at its recent runs, or delete it. Scheduled runs appear in the agent's Results marked scheduled.

Troubleshooting

  • A schedule never ran: check that the agent or workflow is deployed and switched on, and that the workspace has extra usage.
  • It ran but did nothing: open the run. Skipped actions usually point to a personal connection, or an approval that is still waiting.
  • Scheduled workflows stopped: your workflow runs for the month may be used up. Buy a run pack or wait for the new month. See Plans and billing.

Related