Run a recurring task
3 minute read · Local Tasks
Give a recurring task a regular place in your day. Scheduled work uses your connected coding agent and a normal project chat on this computer.
- Create the first schedule
- Understand timing and interruption
- Review and maintain scheduled work
- Choose work that can finish unattended
- Keep schedules separate from app processes
Create the first schedule
Open Scheduled → New task in the sidebar. Enter a recognizable name, a bounded prompt, the project and the provider/model to use. Choose a daily time, such as 08:00, with an IANA timezone, or an elapsed interval. Start with Supervised access; automatic commit is off unless you deliberately opt in.
A suitable first task is: “Inspect this project's open local work and summarize the next useful step. Do not change files or contact external services.” Use Run now to verify the selected account, provider and project before depending on a future occurrence. The schedule reuses one ordinary chat so you can follow its earlier work.
Understand timing and interruption
The desktop checks due work every 15 seconds and allows four automatic scheduled executions at a time, deferring others. Vortex must be open and the computer awake. Missed interval work produces one catch-up per task rather than replaying every missed occurrence. For daily schedules, a daylight-saving gap uses the next valid time and a repeated clock time runs once.
The occurrence is recorded durably before launch. Failed executions are not automatically retried. After a restart, a previously pending execution is marked interrupted and the schedule is paused for review. Review what the exact run already did before choosing Run now; some external actions may have completed before an interruption.
Review and maintain scheduled work
History points to the exact task/run and its result. Answer approvals in that run's conversation. Pause, edit or delete a schedule through its controls; those actions preserve the active chat. Configuration and the occurrence journal remain local and are not cloud-synchronized.
Signed-out, locked or mismatched-account states defer execution before launch. A synced chat does not create a hosted runner or cause a second device to execute the same schedule. Keep provider eligibility, resource access and explicit authorization current for any task that may write, send mail or publish.
Choose work that can finish unattended
Start with a read-only summary of the selected project's tests, recent changes or captured development errors. Include a clear stopping point and say which resources the task may use. A recurring prompt is an instruction to the connected agent, not an independent grant to modify a remote database, send a message or publish the app.
If a task needs approval, open the exact chat shown in its history and answer there. Leaving it unattended can leave the work waiting; a timer does not approve the action for you. Provider connection, account allowance and access to the selected local folder still need to be available at execution time.
Use Pause before changing a task you no longer want to run automatically. Inspect its latest run before resuming it. Deleting the schedule removes that recurring instruction while preserving the conversation and any work already performed.
Keep schedules separate from app processes
An application queue worker or development server is a process started with the project. A scheduled task starts an agent conversation occurrence. Keep the app's required services running through its project commands, then use the schedule for a bounded review or development task. Closing Vortex or letting the computer sleep prevents local scheduled work from running on time; there is no remote runner that takes over.
Related guides: approvals, project runtime and background processes, provider usage.