---
id: scheduling-and-automation
lang: en
title: "Scheduling and automation"
seoTitle: "Claude scheduled tasks: automate your work"
description: "Set up Claude Cowork scheduled tasks that run on their own: a morning brief, a weekly report, a daily watch. Describe it once, get finished output back."
part: advanced
partTitle: "Advanced and specialised"
partOrder: 5
order: 3
level: Advanced
durationMinutes: 10
outcome: "Set up a Cowork task that runs on a schedule and reports back without you starting it, and know which jobs are worth automating."
summary: "Cowork scheduled tasks run on their own: describe a morning brief or weekly report once, and finished output comes back without you starting it."
draft: false
updated: "2026-07-26"
keywords:
- Claude scheduled tasks
- Claude Cowork automation
- AI automation
- morning brief AI
- recurring AI task
- schedule Claude task
- weekly report automation
furtherReading:
- title: "Schedule recurring tasks in Claude Cowork (Help)"
url: "https://support.claude.com/en/articles/13854387-schedule-recurring-tasks-in-claude-cowork"
note: "The official how-to: create, run, manage, and the cloud-vs-local rule."
- title: "Get started with Claude Cowork (Help)"
url: "https://support.claude.com/en/articles/13345190-get-started-with-claude-cowork"
note: "What Cowork is, the powers a scheduled task inherits."
- title: "Delegating and scheduling tasks in Claude Cowork (tutorial)"
url: "https://claude.com/resources/tutorials/delegating-and-scheduling-tasks-in-claude-cowork"
note: "A worked walk-through from Anthropic, start to finish."
- title: "Use Claude Cowork safely (Help)"
url: "https://support.claude.com/en/articles/13364135-use-claude-cowork-safely"
note: "Approvals and access, worth a read before you automate."
quiz:
intro: "Five questions on scheduled tasks and how to use them well. Ace them and you are one lesson from finishing the course."
passScore: 5
questions:
- q: "What is a scheduled task, in one line?"
options:
- "A reminder that pings you to do the work yourself"
- "A task you describe once that Claude then runs on its own, on a cadence or on demand, and reports back"
- "A faster model you switch on for hard questions"
answer: 1
explain: "You describe the job once. Claude saves it and runs it on the schedule you pick, delivering finished output each time. No reminder, no you-do-it."
- q: "A scheduled task set to run in the cloud fires even when..."
options:
- "You are signed in and watching it"
- "Your computer is asleep or the desktop app is closed"
- "You click 'run' each morning"
answer: 1
explain: "Cloud runs happen remotely, so the task keeps its cadence even with your machine asleep or the app shut. A task that needs local files runs on your computer instead, and that one needs the machine awake."
- q: "Before you schedule a task to repeat, the smartest first move is to..."
options:
- "Schedule it straight away and check the first few runs"
- "Run it once by hand and confirm the output is what you want"
- "Write the longest prompt you can"
answer: 1
explain: "Run it once, read the output, fix the prompt. Then schedule. A bad prompt on a daily cadence just gives you a bad report every morning."
- q: "Why does a scheduled-task prompt need to be more self-contained than a normal chat prompt?"
options:
- "Because Claude forgets everything overnight"
- "Because no one is there to answer a follow-up question mid-run"
- "Because the cloud uses a weaker model"
answer: 1
explain: "A live chat lets you clarify as you go. A scheduled run happens while you are away, so the prompt must name the source, the output, and what to skip up front."
- q: "Which of these is a strong first automation to try?"
options:
- "A daily briefing that pulls your calendar and unread email into one short summary"
- "A task that files your taxes and signs the forms"
- "A one-off question you will only ever ask once"
answer: 0
explain: "A daily briefing repeats, has a clear source and output, and is low-risk. One-off questions do not need a schedule, and high-stakes actions want a human in the loop."
pass:
badge: "Perfect score"
title: "You can put work on autopilot now."
body: "Full marks. You know what a scheduled task is, where it runs, how to write one that holds up, and which jobs are worth handing over."
retry: "Check the marked answers and try again. This one clicks on the second read."
---
> **Level:** Advanced ยท **Reading time:** ~10 min
>
> **What you'll be able to do:** set up a task that runs on a schedule and reports back without you starting it, write a prompt that holds up when you are not watching, and pick the jobs worth automating.
Every lesson so far has had you at the keyboard: you open a chat, you ask, Claude answers. Useful, but it only happens when you show up. This lesson is about the opposite. **A scheduled task is work you describe once and then never start again.** It runs on its own, on the cadence you set, and hands you the finished thing: a brief in your inbox each morning, a report every Monday, a watch that pings you when something changes.
If you have done any of Part 5, you have met [Cowork](/glossary#cowork), the mode where Claude does multi-step jobs with your files and connected tools. **Scheduled tasks are Cowork with a clock on it.** Same powers, minus the part where you have to be there.
> **Last checked: July 2026.** Scheduled tasks are in beta and rolling out across plans. Cadences, buttons, and limits may shift, so treat the specifics here as a snapshot and check the linked docs for the current detail.
## What a scheduled task actually is
**You describe the job once. Claude saves your prompt as the task's instructions and runs them on your schedule**, or on demand when you press the button. Each run happens in its own Cowork session, so you can open it later and read exactly what it did.
The key word is *finished*. A scheduled task does not remind you to write the report. It writes the report. You come back to output, not to a nudge.
A scheduled task has **the same reach as any Cowork task**. It can search your Slack, read your files, run web research, pull from a connected tool, and build a report, using whatever connectors, skills, and plugins you have set up. Scheduling does not give Claude less to work with. It just decides *when*.
## Where it lives, and what it costs
Scheduled tasks are part of Cowork, so they live on **paid plans only**: Pro, Max, Team, and Enterprise. You will not find them on Free. On Team and Enterprise an admin controls Cowork access, so if you do not see it, that is the first thing to check.
You manage everything from one place: the **"Scheduled"** item in the left sidebar. That page lists every task you have made, shows upcoming and past runs, and lets you open any single run to see what happened. There is nothing extra to install and no separate bill; a scheduled task draws on the same usage as the rest of your Claude account.
## Cloud or local: where the task runs
This is the one detail people trip on, so it is worth getting straight. **Most scheduled tasks run in the cloud.** They use your connectors and the files saved to your Claude account, and because they run remotely, **they fire on their cadence even when your computer is asleep or the desktop app is closed.** That is the whole appeal: the morning brief lands before you open your laptop.
There is a catch, and it is a fair one. **If a task needs files or apps on your own computer, it has to run locally**, which means your machine must be awake and the app open when the clock strikes. Cloud runs cannot reach into a folder on your hard drive; they work with what is in your Claude account and your connectors.
**The rule:** connected tools and account files, it runs in the cloud, any time. Local files or local apps, it runs on your machine, so keep it awake.
## Two ways to make one
You can build a scheduled task by talking, or by filling in a form. Both start from the **"Scheduled"** sidebar and the **"New task"** button.
**Create with Claude** is the conversational route, and the easy one. Pick it and Claude opens a task pre-loaded to help you set the schedule up. It may ask a few multiple-choice questions to pin down the detail, then it shows you the plan: the task's name, the cadence it will follow, and what it will actually do. You confirm by clicking **"Schedule"**, and it is live. If you are already inside a Cowork task, you can trigger the same flow by typing **`/schedule`**.
**Set up manually** is the form. You fill in the fields yourself:
```
Task name: a name you'll recognise later
Prompt: exactly what the task should do (the important one)
Approval mode: whether Claude pauses for your sign-off on risky steps
Cadence: hourly, daily, weekly, weekdays, or manually
Model: optional; leave the default unless you have a reason
Folder: optional; only if it needs a specific place to work
```
Manual is quicker once you know what you want. Conversational is better when you do not, because Claude helps you shape the job. Use whichever fits.
## The one habit that saves you: run it once first
Here is the mistake to avoid. You dream up a clever automation, schedule it daily, and a week later you have seven mediocre reports and no idea which instruction went wrong.
**Do this instead: run the job once as a normal Cowork task, by hand.** Read the output. Is it the right length? The right source? Does it skip the noise and keep the signal? Fix the prompt until one run is genuinely good. *Then* schedule it. A scheduled task is only ever as good as the prompt behind it, and a schedule just multiplies whatever that prompt produces, warts and all.
## Writing a prompt that holds up alone
A chat prompt can be loose, because you are right there to steer. **A scheduled prompt cannot, because no one is there to answer a follow-up.** When the task runs at 6am while you sleep, Claude cannot ask *"which report did you mean?"* So say it all up front. A good scheduled prompt names four things:
- **The source.** Where the material comes from. *"My Google Calendar and unread Gmail from the last 24 hours."* Vague source, vague result.
- **The output.** The exact shape you want back. *"A summary under 200 words, with a bullet list of today's meetings and a short 'needs a reply' section."*
- **What to skip.** The noise to leave out. *"Ignore newsletters and automated receipts."* This is what turns a wall of text into something you actually read.
- **The edge cases.** What to do when there is nothing. *"If there is no urgent email, just say so in one line."*
Here is the difference in practice:
```
Weak: Send me a summary of my emails.
Strong: Each weekday at 7am, read my unread Gmail from the last 24 hours. Write a summary under 150 words. List anything that needs a reply as bullets, newest first. Ignore newsletters, receipts, and calendar invites. If nothing needs a reply, say "Inbox is clear" and stop.
```
The strong version runs unattended for months without you touching it. The weak one needs a conversation every morning, which defeats the point.
## Good first automations
Do not start with the moon landing. Start with something small, repetitive, and low-risk, and build trust from there. Strong opening jobs:
- **A daily briefing.** Your calendar, unread email, and overnight Slack, boiled down to one short read before the day starts.
- **A weekly report.** Numbers from a connected sheet or tool, pulled into the same format every Monday, so you stop rebuilding it by hand.
- **A recurring watch.** Track a competitor, a topic, or a bit of industry news, and get a short digest on a set cadence.
- **A tidy-up.** Sort, rename, or process files in one folder on a schedule so it never becomes a swamp.
- **A standup summary.** Turn yesterday's activity in your project tool into a plain "here's where things stand" note for the team.
Notice the shared shape: **a clear source, a clear output, and no risky action.** Those three make a job safe to hand over. The best automations are the boring, repeating chores you would never miss doing, which is exactly why they are worth giving away.
## Managing your tasks
Once a task is live, the **"Scheduled"** page is mission control. From there you can review upcoming and past runs, open any run to read what it did, edit the instructions or the cadence when your needs change, **pause** a task and **resume** it later, **run it on demand** without waiting for the clock, and **delete** it when it has served its purpose.
Two habits keep a stack of automations healthy. **Check the early runs.** For the first week, actually read the output and make sure it is doing what you meant, then trust it. And **prune.** A task you set up for a project that ended is just noise now. If you are not reading a report, pause it or bin it.
## Staying in control
Automation is leverage, and leverage cuts both ways, so a few guardrails.
- **Keep a human on anything that acts.** A task that *reads and reports* is safe to leave alone. A task that *sends, deletes, or spends* deserves the **approval mode**, so Claude pauses for your sign-off before the risky step. Reporting on autopilot is great; irreversible actions on autopilot are how you get a nasty surprise.
- **Mind what it can reach.** A scheduled task inherits your connectors, which means it can touch whatever they touch, on its own, while you are away. Grant it the access the job needs and no more, and glance at the safety guidance before you wire it into anything sensitive.
- **Automate the chore, not the judgement.** These tasks are brilliant at the repetitive gathering and shaping that eats your time. The decision about what the output *means*, and what to do next, is still yours. Let the task lay the table; you still choose the meal.
## Try it
Ten minutes, if you are on a paid plan. If not, read it as a walkthrough so the shape sticks.
1. First, run it by hand. In a normal Cowork task, paste a real job: *"Read my unread email from the last 24 hours and write a summary under 150 words, with a 'needs a reply' bullet list. Ignore newsletters and receipts."* Read what comes back.
2. Fix the prompt. Too long? Missing the source you meant? Sharpen it until one run is genuinely useful.
3. Now schedule it. Type **`/schedule`** in that task, or go to **"Scheduled"** in the sidebar, click **"New task"**, and choose **"Create with Claude."** Set it to run each weekday morning.
4. Confirm the plan Claude shows you (name, cadence, what it does) and click **"Schedule."**
5. Tomorrow, open the run from the **"Scheduled"** page and read the output. Tweak the prompt if it needs it, then leave it be.
The goal is not the email summary. It is the feeling of coming back to finished work you did not have to start. Once one task earns your trust, the next five are easy.
*(General exercise. Role and industry versions come once accounts are in.)*
## Key terms
[Scheduled task](/glossary#scheduled-task), [Automation](/glossary#automation), [Cowork](/glossary#cowork), [Connector](/glossary#connector), [Skill](/glossary#skill)