Cronlytic

Use Cronlytic via direct curl calls to schedule and manage cron jobs that trigger HTTP requests/webhooks.

Official docs: https://www.cronlytic.com/api-documentation

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When to Use

Use this skill when you need to:

• Schedule recurring HTTP requests (webhooks, API calls)
• Automate background tasks without managing servers
• Create cron jobs with standard 5-field expressions
• Pause/resume jobs dynamically
• Monitor job execution via logs

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Prerequisites

1. Sign up at Cronlytic
2. Go to Dashboard → API Keys → Generate New API Key
3. Copy your API Key and User ID

export CRONLYTIC_API_KEY="your-api-key"
export CRONLYTIC_USER_ID="your-user-id"

Base URL

https://api.cronlytic.com/prog/

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Important: When using $VAR in a command that pipes to another command, wrap the command containing $VAR in bash -c '...'. Due to a Claude Code bug, environment variables are silently cleared when pipes are used directly.

bash -c 'curl -s "https://api.example.com" -H "Authorization: Bearer $API_KEY"' | jq .

How to Use

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1. Health Check (Ping)

Check if API is available (no auth required):

bash -c 'curl -s -X GET "https://api.cronlytic.com/prog/ping"' | jq .

Response: {"message": "pong"}

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2. Create a Cron Job

Create a scheduled job to call a webhook.

Write to /tmp/cronlytic_request.json:

{
  "name": "daily-backup",
  "url": "https://api.example.com/backup",
  "method": "POST",
  "headers": {"Authorization": "Bearer token123"},
  "body": "{\"type\": \"full\"}",
  "cron_expression": "0 2 * * *"
}

Then run:

bash -c 'curl -s -X POST "https://api.cronlytic.com/prog/jobs" -H "X-API-Key: ${CRONLYTIC_API_KEY}" -H "X-User-ID: ${CRONLYTIC_USER_ID}" -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d @/tmp/cronlytic_request.json' | jq '{job_id, name, status, next_run_at}'

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3. Create GET Request Job

Simple health check every 5 minutes.

Write to /tmp/cronlytic_request.json:

{
  "name": "health-check",
  "url": "https://api.example.com/health",
  "method": "GET",
  "headers": {},
  "body": "",
  "cron_expression": "*/5 * * * *"
}

Then run:

bash -c 'curl -s -X POST "https://api.cronlytic.com/prog/jobs" -H "X-API-Key: ${CRONLYTIC_API_KEY}" -H "X-User-ID: ${CRONLYTIC_USER_ID}" -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d @/tmp/cronlytic_request.json' | jq .

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4. List All Jobs

Get all your scheduled jobs:

bash -c 'curl -s -X GET "https://api.cronlytic.com/prog/jobs" -H "X-API-Key: ${CRONLYTIC_API_KEY}" -H "X-User-ID: ${CRONLYTIC_USER_ID}"' | jq '.[] | {job_id, name, status, cron_expression, next_run_at}'

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5. Update a Job

Update an existing job (all fields required).

Write to /tmp/cronlytic_request.json:

{
  "name": "daily-backup-v2",
  "url": "https://api.example.com/backup/v2",
  "method": "POST",
  "headers": {"Authorization": "Bearer newtoken"},
  "body": "{\"type\": \"incremental\"}",
  "cron_expression": "0 3 * * *"
}

Then run:

JOB_ID="your-job-id"

bash -c 'curl -s -X PUT "https://api.cronlytic.com/prog/jobs/${JOB_ID}" -H "X-API-Key: ${CRONLYTIC_API_KEY}" -H "X-User-ID: ${CRONLYTIC_USER_ID}" -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d @/tmp/cronlytic_request.json' | jq .

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6. Pause a Job

Stop a job from executing:

JOB_ID="your-job-id"

bash -c 'curl -s -X POST "https://api.cronlytic.com/prog/jobs/${JOB_ID}/pause" -H "X-API-Key: ${CRONLYTIC_API_KEY}" -H "X-User-ID: ${CRONLYTIC_USER_ID}"' | jq '{job_id, status}'

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7. Resume a Job

Resume a paused job:

JOB_ID="your-job-id"

bash -c 'curl -s -X POST "https://api.cronlytic.com/prog/jobs/${JOB_ID}/resume" -H "X-API-Key: ${CRONLYTIC_API_KEY}" -H "X-User-ID: ${CRONLYTIC_USER_ID}"' | jq '{job_id, status, next_run_at}'

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8. Get Job Logs

View execution history (last 50 entries):

JOB_ID="your-job-id"

bash -c 'curl -s -X GET "https://api.cronlytic.com/prog/jobs/${JOB_ID}/logs" -H "X-API-Key: ${CRONLYTIC_API_KEY}" -H "X-User-ID: ${CRONLYTIC_USER_ID}"' | jq '.logs[] | {timestamp, status, response_code, response_time}'

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9. Delete a Job

Permanently delete a job and its logs:

JOB_ID="your-job-id"

bash -c 'curl -s -X DELETE "https://api.cronlytic.com/prog/jobs/${JOB_ID}" -H "X-API-Key: ${CRONLYTIC_API_KEY}" -H "X-User-ID: ${CRONLYTIC_USER_ID}"' | jq .

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Cron Expression Format

Standard 5-field cron: minute hour day month day-of-week

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

Common Examples

Expression	Description
*/5 * * * *	Every 5 minutes
0 * * * *	Every hour at minute 0
0 9 * * *	Daily at 9:00 AM
0 9 * * 1-5	Weekdays at 9:00 AM
0 0 1 * *	First day of month at midnight
30 14 * * 0	Sunday at 2:30 PM
0 */6 * * *	Every 6 hours

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Job Status Values

Status	Description
pending	Scheduled, waiting for next_run_at
paused	Paused, won't execute
success	Last execution succeeded
failed	Last execution failed
quota_reached	Skipped due to plan quota

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Create Job Parameters

Field	Type	Required	Description
name	string	Yes	Job name (1-50 chars, alphanumeric/-/_)
url	string	Yes	Target URL (HTTP/HTTPS)
method	string	Yes	HTTP method (GET, POST, PUT, DELETE)
headers	object	Yes	Request headers (can be {})
body	string	Yes	Request body (can be "")
cron_expression	string	Yes	5-field cron expression

Job Name Rules

• Only letters, numbers, hyphens (-), underscores (_)
• Length: 1-50 characters
• Regex: ^[a-zA-Z0-9_-]+$

Valid: my-job, test_job_1, API-Health-Check Invalid: my job (space), test@job (@), api.health (.)

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Response Fields

Field	Description
job_id	Unique job identifier
name	Job name
url	Target URL
method	HTTP method
status	Current job status
cron_expression	Schedule expression
next_run_at	Next scheduled execution (ISO timestamp)
created_at	Creation timestamp

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Guidelines

1. Ping first: Call /ping to warm up the API (Lambda cold start)
2. All fields required: When creating/updating, provide all fields
3. Valid cron only: Use standard 5-field cron format
4. Job names: Use alphanumeric with hyphens/underscores only
5. Check logs: Use the logs endpoint to debug failed jobs
6. Dashboard: Use https://www.cronlytic.com/dashboard for visual management
7. Plan limits: Free tier has job limits - upgrade if needed