Can you go out and read about Anthropic has these new, like, scheduled jobs? I think it's a cron or something for Claude, and explain how they work to me in detail.

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Accepted Answer

# Anthropic's Scheduled Tasks for Claude Code

Great question! Anthropic rolled out **scheduled tasks** as a native feature in **Claude Code** (starting around February–March 2026). It essentially turns Claude Code from a reactive tool you chat with into a **proactive, always-working AI agent** that can run jobs on a recurring schedule — like a cron job, but powered by Claude. Here's the full breakdown.

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## Three Flavors of Scheduling

Anthropic actually offers **three different ways** to schedule recurring work, each suited to different needs:

| Feature | **Cloud** | **Desktop** | **/loop** |
|---|---|---|---|
| **Runs on** | Anthropic's cloud | Your local machine | Your local machine |
| **Machine needs to be on?** | No | Yes | Yes |
| **Open session required?** | No | No | Yes |
| **Survives restarts?** | Yes | Yes | No (dies with session) |
| **Minimum interval** | 1 hour | 1 minute | 1 minute |
| **Permission prompts** | No (fully autonomous) | Configurable per task | Inherits from session |

Let's walk through each one.

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## 1. Cloud Scheduled Tasks (Most Powerful)

This is the **most durable and hands-off** option. Tasks run on **Anthropic's own infrastructure**, meaning:

- Your computer can be **completely off** — it still runs
- Tasks **persist across restarts** — set it and forget it
- It works by cloning your repo fresh each time, so it doesn't need access to your local files

### How to create one:
- **Web:** Go to **claude.ai/code/scheduled** and click "New scheduled task"
- **CLI:** Use the **/schedule** command
- **Desktop app:** Through the scheduling interface

You give it a **name**, a **prompt** (the instructions), pick the **model and mode**, choose the **repository**, and set the **schedule** (hourly, daily, etc., with a minimum interval of 1 hour).

### Great for:
- Reviewing open pull requests every morning
- Analyzing CI failures overnight and surfacing summaries
- Running dependency audits on a weekly basis

---

## 2. Desktop Scheduled Tasks (Persistent + Local Access)

These run **locally on your machine** via the Claude Code Desktop app. The key advantage over Cloud tasks is that they have **full access to your local files and tools**.

### Key characteristics:
- **Persistent** — they survive app restarts and keep running as long as the Desktop app is open
- You can configure them through the **Schedule tab** in the Desktop app
- You can set the schedule down to **every 1 minute**
- Permission prompts are **configurable per task** (you can let it run fully autonomously or require approval)

### Great for:
- Monitoring local log files for errors
- Running local test suites on a schedule
- Automating tasks that need access to your local dev environment

---

## 3. /loop — The Quick-and-Dirty In-Session Scheduler

This is the **lightest-weight** option. Think of it as **"watch on steroids."** You type a command directly in your CLI session and Claude repeats it on an interval.

### Syntax:
Just type something like:

- **/loop 5m check if the deployment finished and tell me what happened**
- **/loop 20m /review-pr 1234**
- **/loop 1h make test**

Claude parses the interval, converts it to a cron expression internally, and starts running.

### Important limitations:
- **Session-scoped** — it **dies when you close the terminal**. No persistence at all.
- **Auto-expires after 3 days** — a safety guardrail to prevent runaway tasks
- **Max 50 concurrent scheduled tasks** per session
- Supported intervals: seconds, minutes, hours, or days (seconds get rounded up to the nearest minute)

### Great for:
- Polling a deployment to see when it finishes
- Babysitting a long-running build
- Monitoring a PR for review comments during your work session
- Setting a one-time reminder later in the session

---

## Practical Use Cases People Are Excited About

1. **Overnight PR Reviews** — Schedule Claude to review all open pull requests every morning before you wake up, with summaries ready in your inbox
2. **Error Log Monitoring** — Have Claude scan error logs every few hours and automatically file pull requests with fixes
3. **CI Triage** — Automatically analyze CI failures and surface actionable summaries
4. **Dependency Audits** — Weekly scans for outdated or vulnerable dependencies
5. **Daily Briefings** — Get a summary of what changed in your codebase overnight

---

## The Big Picture

The shift here is significant. As one commenter put it, Claude Code went from being a **reactive chat tool** to a **proactive 24/7 AI employee**. You're no longer repeating the same instructions day after day — you set up the task once, and Claude handles it on autopilot.

The **Cloud option** is especially powerful because it requires zero infrastructure on your end. Anthropic manages the compute, the scheduling, and the execution. You just define what you want done and when.

To get started, you need **Claude Code v2.1.72 or later** — you can check your version with **claude --version**.