Cron Scheduling

Run daemons on a schedule using cron expressions.

Basic Configuration

Add a cron section to your daemon:

[daemons.backup]
run = "./scripts/backup.sh"
cron = { schedule = "0 0 2 * * *", retrigger = "finish" }  # Run at 2 AM daily

Cron Expression Format

Uses standard 6-field cron format:

┌──────────── second (0-59)
│ ┌────────── minute (0-59)
│ │ ┌──────── hour (0-23)
│ │ │ ┌────── day of month (1-31)
│ │ │ │ ┌──── month (1-12)
│ │ │ │ │ ┌── day of week (0-6, Sunday = 0)
│ │ │ │ │ │
* * * * * *

Examples:

• 0 0 * * * * - Every hour
• 0 */5 * * * * - Every 5 minutes
• 0 0 2 * * * - Daily at 2 AM
• 0 0 0 * * 0 - Weekly on Sunday at midnight
• 0 30 9 * * 1-5 - Weekdays at 9:30 AM

Retrigger Modes

Control what happens when the schedule triggers while the previous run is still active:

finish (Default)

Only retrigger if the previous execution has finished.

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

Use case: Long-running tasks that should not overlap.

always

Always retrigger. Stops the previous run if still active.

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

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

success

Only retrigger if the previous execution succeeded (exit code 0).

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

Use case: Chained tasks that depend on prior success.

fail

Only retrigger if the previous execution failed.

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

Use case: Automatic retry logic for failing tasks.

Starting Cron Daemons

Start cron daemons like any other:

pitchfork start backup
pitchfork start --all

The supervisor triggers the daemon according to its schedule.

Monitoring

# View all daemons including cron jobs
pitchfork list

# View logs
pitchfork logs backup