Scheduled Trigger

Run workflows automatically on a recurring schedule with flexible timing options.

Overview

The Scheduled Trigger runs your workflow automatically at specified times or intervals. Whether you need daily reports, hourly data syncs, or monthly cleanup tasks, scheduled workflows handle recurring automations reliably.

Best for: Daily reports, periodic data syncs, recurring maintenance tasks, scheduled analysis, and time-based automations.

When to Use Scheduled Trigger

Perfect for:

• Daily, weekly, or monthly reports
• Periodic data synchronization between systems
• Scheduled data analysis and insights
• Recurring maintenance or cleanup tasks
• Time-based monitoring and alerts

Not ideal for:

• Event-driven workflows (use the Webhook Trigger)
• User-initiated processes (use Manual or Form Trigger)
• Real-time data processing

Configuration

Schedule Options

Quick Schedules (Visual Builder)

• Every few minutes
• Every hour
• Every day at specific time
• Every week on specific days
• Every month on specific date
• Prompt custom time interval

Cron Expression

Under the hood, all schedules are stored as cron expressions - a standard format for defining recurring schedules. The UI provides quick schedule options for convenience, but the underlying data is a 5-field cron string.

Cron format: minute hour day-of-month month day-of-week

Field	Allowed Values
Minute	0-59
Hour	0-23
Day of month	1-31
Month	1-12
Day of week	0-6 (Sunday = 0)

Example cron expressions:

Schedule	Cron Expression
Every day at 9 AM	0 9 * * *
Every hour	0 * * * *
Every Monday at 8 AM	0 8 * * 1
First of every month at midnight	0 0 1 * *
Every 15 minutes	*/15 * * * *

You don't need to write cron expressions manually - the visual builder handles this for you. But understanding the format can help when troubleshooting schedule issues.

Timezone

Set the timezone for your schedule:

• Defaults to your account timezone
• Supports all standard timezones
• Critical for globally distributed teams

Example Use Cases

Daily Sales Report

Scheduled Trigger (Daily at 9 AM)
→ Action: Fetch yesterday's sales data
→ Transform: Calculate metrics (total, growth, top products)
→ Agent: Generate executive summary
→ Action: Email report to sales team

Hourly Data Sync

Scheduled Trigger (Every hour)
→ Action: Fetch new records from API
→ Loop: For each record
  → Transform: Transform data format
  → Action: POST to destination system
→ Action: Summary of records synced

Weekly Cleanup Task

Scheduled Trigger (Weekly on sunday)
→ Action: Fetch records older than 90 days
→ Loop: For each old record
  → Action: Archive to cold storage
  → Action: Delete from active database
→ Action: Cleanup summary

Monthly Billing

Scheduled Trigger (1st of the month)
→ Action: Get all active subscriptions
→ Loop: For each subscription
  → Transform: Calculate billing amount
  → Action: Create invoice
  → Action: Send invoice email
→ Action: Billing run complete

Testing Scheduled Workflows

Manual Test Runs

1. Click on the Scheduled Trigger node
2. Click "Test" to trigger a one-time run
3. Review execution with current timestamp
4. Verify time-based logic works correctly

Best Practices

Schedule resource-intensive workflows during off-peak hours (nights,
weekends) to minimize impact on systems.



Since no one is watching when a scheduled workflow runs, review the Runs tab
periodically to confirm runs are succeeding and catch any failures.



If your system is down during a scheduled run, decide if you need to catch
up or skip the missed execution.



Test your workflow with different timestamps to ensure time-based logic
works correctly (e.g., end of month, leap years).



Don't schedule more frequently than needed. Every 5 minutes might be
excessive - consider if hourly would work.



Track how long your scheduled workflows take. If execution time is close to
the interval, you risk overlaps.

Troubleshooting

**Check:**

* Workflow is deployed (not draft)
* Workflow is active
* Schedule is correctly configured
* Timezone is set as expected



**Check:**

* Timezone setting matches expectation
* Cron expression is correct
* Daylight saving time changes (use UTC to avoid)



**Solutions:**

* Break into smaller workflows
* Increase schedule interval
* Optimize slow nodes (batch AI calls, parallel requests)

Next Steps

• Webhook Trigger — Trigger from external events

• Agent Node — Process scheduled tasks with AI

• Cost Management — Control and optimize workflow costs

• Getting Started — Build your first workflow