cron-task

Cron Task Extension

Schedule recurring tasks within your Copilot CLI session — periodic shell commands, automated checks, or agent prompts on a timer.

Use Cases

• Automated checks: Run lint/test/build periodically to catch issues early
• Background monitoring: Periodic git status, CI status, or server health checks
• Reminders: Send prompts to the agent on a schedule (e.g., "commit your work")
• Maintenance: Auto-pull from upstream every N minutes

Installation

Copy this directory to either location:

# Project-level
.github/extensions/cron-task/extension.mjs

# User-level (all projects)
~/.copilot/extensions/cron-task/extension.mjs

Tools

schedule_task

Schedule a new recurring task.

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
name	string	✅	Human-readable task name
type	"command" | "prompt"	✅	Shell command or agent prompt
command	string	✅	The command/prompt text to execute
interval	string	✅	Frequency: "30s", "5m", "1h"
persist	boolean	❌	Save for future sessions (default: false)

Minimum interval: 10 seconds.

remove_task

Stop and remove a task by ID or name.

list_tasks

Show all active tasks with status, run count, and last execution time.

pause_task / resume_task

Temporarily pause or resume a task without removing it.

Task Types

Command Tasks

Execute a shell command and log the output:

"Run npm run lint every 5 minutes"

The extension runs the command in a subprocess, logs ✅/❌ status and output (truncated to 500 chars) to the CLI timeline.

Prompt Tasks

Send a message to the agent on a schedule:

"Every 30 minutes, remind me to commit my work"

The extension calls session.send() to inject a prompt into the conversation.

Persistence

Tasks created with persist: true are saved to ~/.copilot/cron-tasks.json and auto-restored on the next session start.

Session-only tasks (default) are discarded when the session ends.

Examples

"Schedule a lint check every 5 minutes"
→ schedule_task(name: "lint", type: "command", command: "npm run lint", interval: "5m")

"Every 10 minutes, check git status"
→ schedule_task(name: "git-status", type: "command", command: "git status --short", interval: "10m")

"Remind me to commit every 30 minutes"
→ schedule_task(name: "commit-reminder", type: "prompt", command: "Reminder: consider committing your current work", interval: "30m")

"Stop the lint check"
→ remove_task(task: "lint")

"What tasks are running?"
→ list_tasks()

Lifecycle

• Tasks are started on session start (persisted) or when explicitly scheduled
• All timers are cleaned up on session shutdown
• Extension reloads on /clear — non-persisted tasks are lost
• Command tasks have a 30-second timeout per execution

Architecture

┌─────────────────┐         setInterval          ┌──────────────────┐
│  Copilot CLI     │ ◄──── tool results ──────── │  cron-task ext   │
│                  │                              │                  │
│  • Calls tools   │ ────► schedule_task ───────► │  • Manages timers│
│  • Shows logs    │       remove_task            │  • Runs commands │
│                  │       list_tasks             │  • Sends prompts │
│                  │       pause/resume           │  • Persists config│
└─────────────────┘                              └──────────────────┘