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Cron Scheduling ​

Pitchfork supports cron-based scheduling for daemons, allowing you to run commands on a schedule with flexible retrigger behaviors.

Configuration ​

Add a cron section to your daemon configuration in pitchfork.toml:

toml
[daemons.my-task]
run = "./scripts/my-script.sh"
cron = { schedule = "0 0 2 * * *", retrigger = "finish" } # Run at 2 AM every day

Retrigger Behavior ​

The retrigger field controls what happens when the scheduled time arrives:

finish (Default) ​

Retrigger the command only if the previous execution has finished (whether it succeeded or failed). If the previous command is still running, do nothing.

Use case: Long-running tasks that should not overlap, like backups or data processing jobs.

toml
[daemons.backup]
run = "./backup.sh"
cron = { schedule = "0 0 2 * * *", retrigger = "finish" }

always ​

Always retrigger the command at the scheduled time. If the previous command is still running, stop it first, then start a new execution.

Use case: Health checks or monitoring tasks where you always want the latest execution.

toml
[daemons.health-check]
run = "curl -f http://localhost:8080/health"
cron = { schedule = "0 */5 * * * *", retrigger = "always" }

success ​

Retrigger the command only if the previous execution finished successfully (exit code 0). If the previous command failed or is still running, do nothing.

Use case: Chained tasks where the next execution should only run if the previous one succeeded.

toml
[daemons.process-data]
run = "./process.sh"
cron = { schedule = "0 0 * * * *", retrigger = "success" }

fail ​

Retrigger the command only if the previous execution failed (non-zero exit code). If the previous command succeeded or is still running, do nothing.

Use case: Retry logic for tasks that may fail temporarily.

toml
[daemons.retry-task]
run = "./flaky-task.sh"
cron = { schedule = "0 */10 * * * *", retrigger = "fail" }

Starting Cron Daemons ​

Cron daemons are started like regular daemons:

bash
# Start a specific cron daemon
pitchfork start my-cron-task

# Start all daemons (including cron ones)
pitchfork start --all

Once started, the supervisor will automatically trigger the daemon according to its cron schedule and retrigger policy.

Monitoring ​

You can monitor cron daemons like any other daemon:

bash
# View status of all daemons
pitchfork status

# View logs
pitchfork logs my-cron-task