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How to schedule an AI task

Short answer: Build a Workflow and set its trigger to “On a schedule”: every N minutes, hourly, daily, or weekly. Agents don’t schedule themselves; if the task already exists as a saved Agent, wrap it in a one-step workflow instead of rebuilding it.

Steps

  1. Open the Workers panel (Ctrl+4) and switch to the Workflows tab.
  2. Type a name into the “New workflow” field and press Enter, or click the + button, to open the workflow editor.
  3. On the Steps tab, click Add Step and pick what runs it: “Have AI do something” for an inline task, or “Run a saved agent” to delegate to an agent you’ve already saved. Write the instructions (or pick the agent).
  4. Switch to the Settings tab and open the Trigger dropdown. Choose On a schedule.
  5. Pick a cadence (every N minutes, every N hours, daily, or weekly) and a time, if the cadence needs one; quick-pick chips cover common times like 9 AM, noon, and 5 PM. All times use your local timezone.
  6. Save. The workflow now runs on its own; check its card in the Workflows tab, or the History tab, for what fired and when.

Notes & gotchas

  • Scheduling lives on Workflows only. An Agent’s own editor has no schedule field; to put an existing agent on a timer, wrap it in a one-step workflow (step kind “Run a saved agent”) rather than recreating the task.
  • The workflow editor’s schedule picker offers recurring cadences only: minutely, hourly, daily, and weekly. For a one-time run, ask the AI in chat to schedule it once.
  • A schedule needs Build Perch running. Closing the window with the X shows a “Keep Build Perch running?” prompt; choose Minimize to tray to keep it running in the background so scheduled workflows keep firing. Choosing Quit (from that prompt or the tray icon’s right-click menu) stops every schedule until you reopen the app.
  • A workflow runs on one trigger at a time: picking a new trigger replaces the old one rather than adding a second.
  • To stop a schedule, open the workflow, switch to the Settings tab, and set the Trigger back to Manual (or remove it). Alternatively, use Remove trigger in the menu on the workflow’s card in the Workflows tab. There’s no separate pause toggle on the trigger itself.
  • Sends inside a scheduled step (an email, a Discord post) still only go to destinations you pre-authorized when you set it up. Anything else parks the run for your review instead of sending while you’re away.