Routines

A routine runs work without anyone typing a message. A schedule prompts a teammate with the same instructions at set times, every weekday at 9:00 or each Monday morning, and each run is a fresh thread. Schedules are on the Routines page in the sidebar. Playbooks, whole jobs ready to install, have a page of their own. To start work when something happens rather than at a time, use a trigger.

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Create a schedule

1. Open Routines and choose New schedule.
2. Fill in:
   • Title: a short name, such as “Weekly PR digest”. Each run’s thread is titled with it and the date.
   • Teammate: who does the work.
   • Project: the project its runs belong to, if any.
   • Instructions: the first message of each run.
   • When: Every hour, Every day, Weekdays, Every week, or Custom (cron).
   • Timezone: your browser’s by default.
3. Check the line under the form, which says when it runs in words and the next 3 runs, then choose Create schedule.

Write the instructions so they stand alone. Each run starts with no memory of earlier runs or of the conversation where you set it up: name the inputs, the steps, and where the result goes.

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Timing

• Times are in the schedule’s own time zone, daylight saving time included: “Every day at 09:00” in Europe/Paris runs at 9:00 in Paris all year.
• Custom (cron) takes a standard five-field cron expression: minute, hour, day of month, month, day of week.
• Runs must be at least 5 minutes apart.

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What a run is

A run is an ordinary thread with the teammate’s usual access, approval policy, limits and memory. Its first message is your instructions, after a line saying which schedule it is, when it was due, and that nobody is watching live. A teammate in a run opens a ticket when it needs a person.

• Whose accounts. Runs use the AI accounts of the member who created the schedule, its owner. The row says “on your accounts” or “on Ada’s accounts”.
• Which computer. The cloud computer, or else the owner’s own computer. A run that reports to a thread runs on that thread’s computer while it is online.
• No overlap. A run is skipped while the previous one is still going.
• Missed runs. If Brigade or the computer was down at the time, the schedule runs once when it’s back, not once per missed time.
• When a run can’t start, for example because the computer is offline or the owner has no AI account, the row shows couldn’t start with the reason, and the owner gets a ticket under Needs you. Only one is open per schedule at a time.

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Manage schedules

Each row shows when it runs, the teammate, whose accounts it uses, the next run, and a link to the last run’s thread. History is the threads themselves.

• The switch pauses or resumes it. Resuming counts the next run from now.
• Run now starts a run at once. The next scheduled run stays where it was.
• Edit changes it. Only the owner edits a schedule, since it runs on their accounts.
• Delete removes it. Its threads stay.

The owner, an owner or an admin can pause, run or delete any schedule. Use the project filter to see one project’s routines; a project’s page links here with its filter set, and shows its routines under Runs on its own. Today lists Today’s routines: those that ran today with what they did, the one running now, and those still to come later today, in the day’s order.

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Ask a teammate in a thread

You don’t need the form. Ask in a thread: “every Monday at 7:00, send me last week’s signups”. The teammate creates the schedule, tells you in one line when it runs and the next run, and the row shows “set up by” that teammate.

• The schedule is active at once, and you are its owner: runs use your accounts.
• It belongs to the thread’s project.
• By default each run is a sub-thread of the one you asked in. It wakes the teammate there only when it has something to report or fails, and the row links to it with Reports in. Deleting that thread deletes the schedule and its runs. Ask for runs that stand alone if you prefer separate threads.
• If you don’t give a time zone, it uses the one of your latest schedule, else UTC, and says so.
• A teammate can list and change the schedules it runs on your accounts, only from a thread you started. It never shows or changes another member’s. Deleting one is left to people, on the Routines page.

A schedule’s runs follow its instructions on its owner’s accounts, so in a thread several people write in, the teammate sets up, lists and changes no schedule: ask it in a thread of your own. Teammates create schedules only in threads a member started, never in a thread a trigger, a schedule or a playbook started. An event can’t set up recurring work, and a schedule can’t multiply itself.