Library / AI & automation / Cron job
No. 067·noun·also called scheduled job, scheduled task, recurring job

Cron job

A task the app runs automatically on a schedule, like every morning at 9 or every Monday.

SPECIMEN · DIAGRAM · SEQUENCE
Clock
App
Users
1Mon 8:00 AM2gather this week's tasks3email summaries
Definition

What it is

A cron job is work that runs on a timer with nobody clicking anything: send a daily digest, clean up old files, sync prices every hour, generate a weekly report.

The name comes from an old scheduling tool called cron. You'll see schedules written in a compact code like "0 9 1" (9:00 every Monday), but plain language works fine in a prompt.

Always say the time zone, and what should happen if a run fails.

Say it like a builder

How to ask for it

Vague

“Send everyone a summary regularly.”

Precise

“Add a cron job that runs every Monday at 8:00 AM New York time, compiles each user's tasks due this week, and emails them a summary. Skip users with nothing due, and log any failures.”

Why it works

"Regularly" has no schedule; a cron job with the exact time, time zone, and skip rule is unambiguous.

In the wild

You've seen this in

  • MMonday morning summary emails
  • NNightly backups
  • HHourly currency rate updates
Usage note

Often confused with

WebhookA webhook runs when an outside event happens; a cron job runs on a clock.Background jobA background job runs out of sight when triggered; a cron job is triggered by a schedule.