cron-task-creator

Cron Task Creator

A skill for creating, managing, and running scheduled automated tasks in Clacky.

Architecture Overview

Storage:
  ~/.clacky/tasks/<name>.md      # Task prompt file (self-contained AI instruction)
  ~/.clacky/schedules.yml        # All scheduled plans (YAML list)
  ~/.clacky/logger/clacky-*.log  # Execution logs (daily rotation)

API Base: http://${CLACKY_SERVER_HOST}:${CLACKY_SERVER_PORT}

Cron-Tasks API (unified — manages task file + schedule together):
  GET    /api/cron-tasks              → list all cron tasks with schedule info
  POST   /api/cron-tasks              → create task + schedule {name, content, cron, enabled?}
  PATCH  /api/cron-tasks/:name        → update {content?, cron?, enabled?}
  DELETE /api/cron-tasks/:name        → delete task file + schedule
  POST   /api/cron-tasks/:name/run    → execute immediately (creates a new session)

Cron Expression Quick Reference

Field order: minute hour day-of-month month day-of-week

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Operations

1. LIST — Show all tasks

curl -s http://${CLACKY_SERVER_HOST}:${CLACKY_SERVER_PORT}/api/cron-tasks

Display each task: name, cron schedule, enabled status, content preview.

If no tasks exist, inform the user and offer to create one or show templates.

Key tip: Remind the user that the Clacky WebUI Task Panel (sidebar → Tasks) also shows all tasks and supports direct management.

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2. CREATE — New task

Step 1: Gather required info (only ask for what's missing)

• What should the task DO? (goal, behavior, output format)
• How often should it run? (or is it manual-only without a schedule?)
• Any specific parameters? (URLs, file paths, output location, language)

Step 2: Generate task name

• Rule: only [a-z0-9_-], lowercase, no spaces
• Examples: daily_report, price_monitor, weekly_summary

Step 3: Write the task prompt

The prompt must be:

• Self-contained: the agent running it has zero prior context — include everything needed
• Written as direct instructions to an AI agent (imperative, not conversational)
• Detailed: include URLs, file paths, output format, language, expected output location

Good task prompt example:

You are a price monitoring assistant. Complete the following task:

## Goal
Check the current BTC price on CoinGecko, compare with yesterday's price, and log an alert if the change exceeds 5%.

## Steps
1. Fetch https://api.coingecko.com/api/v3/simple/price?ids=bitcoin&vs_currencies=usd&include_24hr_change=true
2. Parse the JSON response to get current price and 24h change
3. If |change| > 5%, write an alert to ~/price_alerts/alert_YYYY-MM-DD.txt
4. Print the current price and change percentage

Execute immediately.

Step 4: Create via API

curl -s -X POST http://${CLACKY_SERVER_HOST}:${CLACKY_SERVER_PORT}/api/cron-tasks \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "name": "task_name",
    "content": "task prompt content...",
    "cron": "0 9 * * *",
    "enabled": true
  }'

Step 5: Confirm creation

✅ Task created successfully!

📋 Task name: daily_standup
⏰ Schedule: Weekdays at 09:00 (cron: 0 9 * * 1-5)

View and manage this task in the Clacky WebUI → Tasks panel. Click ▶ Run to execute immediately.

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3. EDIT — Modify an existing task

Step 1: Identify the task (if unclear, LIST first and ask)

Step 2: Show current state via LIST or ask user to confirm

Step 3: Update via API

# Update content only
curl -s -X PATCH http://${CLACKY_SERVER_HOST}:${CLACKY_SERVER_PORT}/api/cron-tasks/task_name \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"content": "new prompt content..."}'

# Update cron schedule only
curl -s -X PATCH http://${CLACKY_SERVER_HOST}:${CLACKY_SERVER_PORT}/api/cron-tasks/task_name \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"cron": "0 8 * * 1-5"}'

# Update both
curl -s -X PATCH http://${CLACKY_SERVER_HOST}:${CLACKY_SERVER_PORT}/api/cron-tasks/task_name \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"content": "...", "cron": "0 8 * * 1-5"}'

Step 4: Confirm changes

✅ Task updated!
📋 daily_standup
  Schedule: 0 9 * * 1-5 → 0 8 * * 1-5 (now weekdays at 08:00)

---

4. ENABLE / DISABLE — Toggle a task

# Disable
curl -s -X PATCH http://${CLACKY_SERVER_HOST}:${CLACKY_SERVER_PORT}/api/cron-tasks/task_name \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"enabled": false}'

# Enable
curl -s -X PATCH http://${CLACKY_SERVER_HOST}:${CLACKY_SERVER_PORT}/api/cron-tasks/task_name \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"enabled": true}'

Confirm:

✅ daily_standup has been disabled.
   To re-enable: say "enable daily_standup"

---

5. DELETE — Remove a task

Always confirm before deleting (unless the user has explicitly said to delete):

⚠️ Are you sure you want to delete daily_standup? This cannot be undone.

curl -s -X DELETE http://${CLACKY_SERVER_HOST}:${CLACKY_SERVER_PORT}/api/cron-tasks/task_name

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6. HISTORY — View run history

Read the daily log files directly:

grep "task_name" ~/.clacky/logger/clacky-$(date +%Y-%m-%d).log | tail -20

Or search across recent days:

grep -h "task_name" ~/.clacky/logger/clacky-*.log | tail -30

Display format:

📊 Run History: ai_news_x_daily

Mar 10  19:00  ❌ Failed  — JSON::ParserError: unexpected end of input
Mar 09  19:00  ✅ Success — took 1m 42s
Mar 08  19:00  ✅ Success — took 2m 10s

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7. RUN NOW — Execute immediately

curl -s -X POST http://${CLACKY_SERVER_HOST}:${CLACKY_SERVER_PORT}/api/cron-tasks/task_name/run

This creates a new session. Tell the user:

▶️ Task started in a new session.
   View it in the Clacky WebUI → Sessions panel.

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8. TEMPLATES — Browse common task templates

When user says "what templates are there" or "what can I automate":

📚 Common Task Templates — pick one to get started:

1. 📰 AI News Digest       — Daily fetch of AI news from X/RSS, generate Markdown report
2. 💰 Price Monitor        — Check crypto/stock prices on a schedule, log alerts on anomalies
3. 📊 Weekly Work Summary  — Every Monday, summarize last week's work into a report
4. 🌤 Weather Reminder     — Fetch weather every morning and save to file
5. 🔍 Competitor Monitor   — Periodically scrape competitor sites for changes
6. 📝 Journal Prompt       — Evening reminder to journal with daily reflection questions
7. 🔗 Link Health Check    — Periodically verify specified URLs are accessible
8. 📂 File Backup          — Regularly back up a specified directory to another location

Tell me which one interests you, or describe your own use case!

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Important Notes

• Task names: only [a-z0-9_-], no spaces, no uppercase
• Task prompt files must be self-contained — the executing agent has no prior memory
• Clacky server must be running for cron to trigger automatically (checked every minute)
• The WebUI Task Panel is the preferred interface for managing tasks — always remind the user to check it after changes