Overview
Scheduled Tasks let you run any agent automatically on a recurring schedule. Create a task in Control Hub, pick an agent, write a prompt, set a schedule, and let it run on its own. Every execution starts a new conversation with the agent, just like sending a message manually.
How It Works
- You create a scheduled task with an agent, a prompt (the message to send), and a schedule
- Aster runs a job every minute that checks which tasks are due
- When a task is due, it sends the prompt to the agent as a new conversation
- The agent runs with all its tools, knowledge bases, and capabilities — just like an interactive chat
- The resulting conversation appears in the dashboard with source
scheduled-task
Creating a Scheduled Task
From Control Hub
- Navigate to Control Hub → Scheduled Tasks
- Click “Create Task”
- Fill in the form:
- Task Name: A descriptive name (e.g., “Daily VP Candidate Digest”)
- Agent: Select which agent should run
- Description: Optional notes about what this task does
- Schedule: Use a preset or write a custom cron expression
- Prompt: The message the agent will receive when the task runs
- Click Create Task
The task starts enabled by default and will run on its next scheduled time.
Agents with the schedule_task tool enabled can create scheduled tasks during conversations. Just ask:
- “Check stock prices every morning at 9 AM”
- “Send me a weekly summary of new candidates every Monday”
- “Run a daily report and email it to the team”
The agent will create the scheduled task for you. Enable the schedule_task tool in your agent’s configuration under Tools.
Schedule Options
Presets
Click any preset button in the task form for common schedules:
| Preset | Cron Expression | When It Runs |
|---|
| Hourly | 0 * * * * | Every hour on the hour |
| Daily | 0 9 * * * | Every day at 9:00 AM |
| Weekly | 0 9 * * 1 | Every Monday at 9:00 AM |
| Monthly | 0 9 1 * * | 1st of every month at 9:00 AM |
| Every 15 Minutes | */15 * * * * | Every 15 minutes |
| Every 30 Minutes | */30 * * * * | Every 30 minutes |
| Twice Daily | 0 9,21 * * * | 9:00 AM and 9:00 PM |
| Weekdays | 0 9 * * 1-5 | Monday through Friday at 9:00 AM |
| Weekends | 0 10 * * 0,6 | Saturday and Sunday at 10:00 AM |
Custom Cron Expressions
For more control, enter a standard 5-part cron expression:
┌───────────── minute (0–59)
│ ┌───────────── hour (0–23)
│ │ ┌───────────── day of month (1–31)
│ │ │ ┌───────────── month (1–12)
│ │ │ │ ┌───────────── day of week (0–7, where 0 and 7 = Sunday)
│ │ │ │ │
* * * * *
| Expression | Meaning |
|---|
0 18 * * * | Every day at 6:00 PM |
0 8 * * 1-5 | Weekdays at 8:00 AM |
0 9 15 * * | 15th of every month at 9:00 AM |
*/10 * * * * | Every 10 minutes |
0 9,12,17 * * * | 9:00 AM, 12:00 PM, and 5:00 PM daily |
Schedule times are in UTC. If you create tasks via the schedule_task agent tool with a timezone provided, the time is automatically converted to UTC.
Managing Tasks
Enable / Disable
Toggle any task on or off with the switch in the task list. Disabled tasks won’t run but keep their configuration and history.
Run Now
Trigger any enabled task immediately from the actions menu (three dots → Run Now). This creates a new execution just like a scheduled run.
Edit
Update the name, agent, prompt, or schedule of any task. Changes take effect on the next scheduled run.
Delete
Remove a task permanently. Execution history is preserved for reference.
Admin View
Organization admins can toggle Admin View to see all scheduled tasks across the organization, not just their own.
Execution History
Click View History in the task’s actions menu to see past executions:
- Status: Whether each run completed successfully or failed
- Timestamps: When each execution started
- Conversation Links: Click through to the conversation created by each run
- Stats: Total runs, completed, failed, and success rate
Use Cases
Daily Digest Emails
Create a task that runs daily and emails a summary to your team:
Task prompt example:
Search the "2026 VP Resumes" knowledge base for any resumes uploaded today.
For each new candidate, provide the standard summary (name, firm, education, fit assessment).
Flag any Strong Fit candidates at the top.
Email the digest to kwalker@plexuscap.com, iwooley@plexuscap.com, and ldisilva@plexuscap.com.
Subject: "VP Search Daily Digest"
If no new candidates were uploaded today, send a brief email confirming that.
Recurring Reports
Have an agent query your database and generate a report on a schedule:
Task prompt example:
Pull this week's sales data from the Snowflake database.
Compare to last week and highlight any significant changes.
Generate a PowerPoint with the key charts and email it to the sales team.
Monitoring & Alerts
Schedule an agent to check for issues and notify your team:
Task prompt example:
Check the support knowledge base for any new tickets tagged "urgent" in the last hour.
If there are any, summarize them and email the on-call team at oncall@company.com.
If none, do nothing.
Combining with Other Features
Scheduled tasks work with all agent capabilities:
| Combine With | What You Can Do |
|---|
| Knowledge Bases | Search for new documents, analyze content, generate reports |
| Email Tool | Send digest emails, alerts, or reports to your team |
| Database Queries | Pull fresh data from Postgres or Snowflake on a schedule |
| Multi-Agent Workflows | Kick off a chain of agents that collaborate on a task |
| Web Search | Monitor news, competitors, or market changes |
| Python Execution | Run data analysis scripts and generate visualizations |
Best Practices
- Write clear, specific prompts. The agent receives only the prompt text — it doesn’t have context from previous runs. Include all the instructions it needs in the prompt itself.
- Use the right schedule frequency. Don’t run tasks more often than needed. A daily digest doesn’t need to run every 15 minutes.
- Test with Run Now first. Before relying on the schedule, use Run Now to verify the agent produces the output you expect.
- Check execution history. Review past runs periodically to catch failures or unexpected behavior.
- Include error handling in prompts. Tell the agent what to do when there’s nothing to report (e.g., “If no new data, send a brief confirmation email instead”).
