Schedules
A schedule fires an agent on a cron expression — at a set time, on a set cadence, with a fixed prompt. The agent runs unattended: no chat interface, no human in the loop. Useful for recurring tasks like daily reports, overnight processing, or periodic data syncs.
Creating a schedule
Navigate to Schedules in the Agent Builder sidebar. Click New schedule to open the schedule editor.
Required fields
Agent — the flow to run. Only flows in your active project are listed.
Name — a label for this schedule, shown in the schedule list.
Prompt — the task the agent performs on each fire. Write it as a clear instruction, the same way you'd type a message in the Playground. The agent receives this prompt at the start of every scheduled run.
Cron expression — a standard five-field cron expression defining when the schedule fires. Examples:
| Expression | Fires |
|---|---|
0 9 * * 1-5 | 9:00 AM every weekday |
0 0 * * * | Midnight every day |
0 */6 * * * | Every six hours |
0 9 1 * * | 9:00 AM on the first of every month |
Timezone — the timezone the cron expression is evaluated in. Defaults to your browser's local timezone.
Execution behavior
Unattended permissions — controls how the agent handles tool approval during a scheduled run.
| Option | Behavior |
|---|---|
| Inherit | Tools that would normally pause for approval are denied automatically. The agent is notified and must work around the limitation |
| Autonomous | All tools run without pausing. Use this when you've verified the agent's behavior and want it to operate fully hands-free |
Set this to Autonomous only for flows you've already tested thoroughly in the Playground.
If a run overlaps — what happens if the previous fire hasn't finished by the time the next one is due.
| Option | Behavior |
|---|---|
| Skip this run | The overlapping fire is skipped. The schedule resumes normally at the next interval |
| Run anyway | Both runs execute concurrently |
If a run was missed — what happens if the server was down or the schedule was paused during a scheduled fire time.
| Option | Behavior |
|---|---|
| Skip to next | The missed fire is ignored. The schedule picks up at the next upcoming interval |
| Run once now | One catch-up run fires immediately when the schedule resumes |
Optional fields
Start at / End at — bound the schedule to a date range. Outside these bounds the schedule is inactive.
Max runs — automatically archive the schedule after it has fired this many times. Leave blank for an indefinite schedule.
Managing schedules
The schedule list shows each schedule as a row with its name, prompt excerpt, cron expression, timezone, next run time, last run result, and current status.
The ⋮ menu on each row gives you:
- Run now — fires the agent immediately, outside the normal schedule cadence
- Pause / Resume — suspends or reactivates the schedule without deleting it
- Edit — opens the schedule editor with the current configuration
- Delete — permanently removes the schedule
Automatic pausing
If a schedule fires repeatedly and every recent run fails, Anter pauses it automatically to prevent runaway failures. The schedule's status changes to paused with a note indicating it was auto-paused. Review the recent run history in the edit view to understand what went wrong, then resume the schedule manually once the issue is resolved.
Scheduled runs in execution history
Every scheduled run appears in the flow's execution history with a schedule label, so you can distinguish automated runs from manual or chat-triggered ones. See Executions for details.