Cron Jobs

What are Cron Jobs?

Cron jobs are scheduled tasks that AIDA runs automatically at a set time — daily, weekly, monthly, or on a custom schedule. You define what you want AIDA to do, and it runs that task on autopilot without you having to ask.

Common uses include morning briefings, weekly reports, daily email summaries, reminders, and automated data pulls.

How Cron Jobs Work

At the scheduled time, AIDA runs your cron job's prompt as if you typed it in the chat. AIDA uses all its tools — email, calendar, web search, memory — to complete the task, then delivers the result to your chosen channel (Telegram or web).

Creating a Cron Job

Via Chat (easiest)

Just tell AIDA what you want scheduled:

• "Create a cron job called Morning Briefing that runs every day at 8am and sends a summary of my calendar, emails, and weather to Telegram"
• "Schedule a weekly report every Monday at 9am that checks my tasks and sends it to me"
• "Set up a daily reminder at 6pm to review my day and list any unfinished tasks"

Via the Automations Page

1. Click Automations in the sidebar
2. Click + New Cron Job
3. Fill in the details:
   • Name — a descriptive label (e.g. "Morning Briefing")
   • Schedule — choose from presets or enter a custom cron expression
   • Prompt — what you want AIDA to do
   • Channel — where to deliver the result (Telegram or web)
4. Toggle Enabled on
5. Click Save

Schedule Options

Common Presets

Custom Cron Expressions

For advanced schedules, use standard cron syntax:

* * * * *
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ └── Day of week (0=Sunday, 6=Saturday)
│ │ │ └──── Month (1-12)
│ │ └────── Day of month (1-31)
│ └──────── Hour (0-23)
└────────── Minute (0-59)

Examples:

• 0 8 * * * — every day at 8:00 AM
• 0 9 * * 1 — every Monday at 9:00 AM
• 0 8 * * 1-5 — every weekday at 8:00 AM
• 0 */4 * * * — every 4 hours
• 0 9 1 * * — first of every month at 9:00 AM

Writing Good Cron Prompts

Be specific about what you want AIDA to do and how to format the output.

Morning Briefing:

Give me my morning briefing. Check:
1. Today's weather in Edmonton
2. My Google Calendar events for today
3. My top 3 unread emails from inbox
4. Any pending tasks due today
Keep it concise — bullet points only.

Weekly Summary:

It's Monday morning. Give me a weekly overview:
- What's on my calendar this week
- Any emails I need to follow up on
- My open tasks and their priorities
Format as a clean summary I can read in 2 minutes.

Daily Email Digest:

Check my Gmail inbox for emails received in the last 24 hours.
Summarize each email in one sentence — sender, subject, and what action (if any) I need to take.
Skip newsletters and automated notifications.

End of Day Review:

It's end of day. Help me wrap up:
- List any tasks I marked as completed today
- List any tasks still open
- Check if I have any calendar events tomorrow morning
Keep it brief.

Managing Cron Jobs

Run a Cron Job Now

Click the Run (play) button on any cron job to run it immediately without waiting for the schedule. Useful for testing.

Enable / Disable

Toggle any cron job on or off without deleting it. Useful for pausing seasonal jobs.

Edit a Cron Job

Click the Edit icon to update the schedule, prompt, or channel.

Delete a Cron Job

Click the Delete icon to permanently remove a cron job.

Delivery Channels

Telegram — result is sent as a message to your Telegram bot. Best for mobile delivery and quick reads.

Web — result is stored and visible when you open AIDA. Good if you don't use Telegram.

Tips

Test before scheduling — use the Run Now button to test your cron job before relying on it. Make sure the output looks right.

Set the right timezone — AIDA uses your timezone from Settings → User Profile. Make sure it is set correctly so jobs run at the right local time.

Keep prompts focused — a cron job that tries to do too many things may time out or produce a cluttered output. Break complex tasks into multiple smaller cron jobs if needed.

Morning briefings work best with Telegram — you get the briefing on your phone before you start your day, without needing to open a browser.