Scheduled Tasks

Last verified: 14 April 2026 | Applies to: Pro, Max, Team, Enterprise

In 30 seconds

Scheduled tasks let you define a job once and have Claude run it automatically on a recurring cadence. Instead of remembering to run the same prompt every morning or every Friday, you set a schedule and the results are waiting for you. There are two systems: Cowork’s /schedule command for file, plugin, and connector tasks, and Chrome scheduled tasks for browser-based automation.

Prerequisites

• A paid plan (Pro or above)
• Cowork tasks: Claude Desktop installed and open, computer awake
• Chrome tasks: Claude in Chrome extension installed, Chrome open

What it does

graph LR
    A[Define task + prompt] --> B[Set cadence]
    B --> C[Claude runs automatically]
    C --> D[Review results]
    D -->|Refine if needed| A

You write a prompt describing what you want done, choose how often it should run, and Claude handles the rest. When the scheduled time arrives, Claude executes the task as if you had typed the prompt yourself — with full access to your plugins, connectors, and files.

Two systems, different strengths:

	Cowork /schedule	Chrome scheduled tasks
What it automates	File processing, plugin tasks, connector queries, data work	Browser actions, form fills, dashboard screenshots, web scraping
Where it runs	Claude Desktop (Cowork tab)	Chrome browser
How to set up	/schedule command in Cowork	Record a workflow, then schedule it
Must be open	Claude Desktop	Chrome with the extension

Cadence options: hourly, daily, weekly, weekdays only, or on demand.

How to set it up

Cowork scheduled tasks

Step 1: Test your task manually first.

Before scheduling anything, run the prompt once in Cowork to make sure it works the way you want. This is the single most important step — a scheduled task that produces the wrong output every morning is worse than no automation at all.

Step 2: Schedule with /schedule.

In Cowork, type /schedule followed by the cadence and your prompt:

/schedule every weekday at 8am: Run my morning triage. Check Gmail for urgent messages, review my TASKS.md for anything due today, and save a briefing to my Morning folder.

Claude confirms the schedule and shows you when it will next run.

Step 3: Review and refine.

Check the first few results carefully. If the output needs adjustment, update the scheduled task — refine the prompt, change the cadence, or add more specific instructions.

Chrome scheduled tasks

Step 1: Record a workflow.

In Chrome, click the Claude extension icon → Start Recording. Perform the browser actions you want to automate (logging in, navigating, screenshotting). Click Stop Recording.

Step 2: Schedule the workflow.

Tell Claude when to run it:

Every Monday at 9am, run my dashboard workflow and save the results.

Claude replays the recorded actions at the scheduled time.

How operators actually use it

Morning triage brief

Cadence: Every weekday at 8am System: Cowork /schedule

/schedule every weekday at 8am: Run my morning triage. Check my Gmail for anything urgent from my top 5 clients or my CEO. Review TASKS.md for overdue or due-today items. Check Slack #general and #ops for overnight messages. Save a prioritised briefing to my Morning folder — keep it under 2 minutes of reading.

You open your laptop and the briefing is waiting. No manual prompt needed.

Weekly ops report

Cadence: Every Friday at 3pm System: Cowork /schedule

/schedule every Friday at 3pm: Create my weekly report. Pull metrics from our Google Sheet, check Slack #wins for highlights this week, review TASKS.md for completed items, and save the report to my Reports folder using the standard format.

Your team gets a consistent, formatted report every Friday without you compiling it manually.

Monday pipeline review

Cadence: Every Monday at 8am System: Cowork /schedule

/schedule every Monday at 8am: Run my pipeline review. Check HubSpot for deals closing this month, flag any that haven't been updated in 7+ days, and create a summary with recommended follow-up actions. Save to my Sales folder.

Start each week knowing exactly which deals need attention.

Dashboard screenshots

Cadence: Every Monday at 9am System: Chrome scheduled tasks

Record a Chrome workflow that logs into your analytics dashboards, screenshots the key metrics pages, and saves them to a folder. Schedule it to run weekly. The screenshots are ready for your Monday standup without manual effort.

Daily inbox triage

Cadence: Every weekday at 8am System: Cowork /schedule

/schedule every weekday at 8am: Triage my inbox. Read all unread Gmail messages since 5pm yesterday. Categorise as Urgent, Action Needed, FYI, or Low Priority using my triage rules. Draft responses for Action Needed items. Save the briefing to my Morning folder.

Pairs with your inbox triage workflow — the scheduled version means the briefing is ready before you even open Gmail.

Ad-hoc tasks from your phone with Dispatch

Not everything fits a schedule. Dispatch (Max plan, Pro expected soon) lets you send one-off tasks from your phone to your desktop Cowork session — useful when you think of something between meetings or while in transit:

Check if the Friday pipeline report ran correctly and send me a summary of the top 3 deals closing this week.

The task executes on your desktop using your full Cowork environment, and the results appear on your phone. Dispatch complements scheduled tasks: schedules handle the predictable cadence, Dispatch handles the ad-hoc “I just thought of something” moments. See Running Your Business From Your Phone for the full setup.

Scenario: Marcus, COO

Marcus runs operations for a 30-person services company and was spending the first 45 minutes of every day on the same routine — checking email, reviewing tasks, skimming Slack. He scheduled a morning triage to run at 7:30am on weekdays. Now his briefing is waiting when he opens his laptop at 8am. The setup took about 20 minutes (mostly refining the prompt after the first couple of runs produced summaries that were too long). He also scheduled a Friday pipeline review after noticing he kept forgetting to check deal status before the weekend. The two scheduled tasks together save him roughly four hours per week, and more importantly, he no longer starts the day reacting to whatever happened to arrive first.

What to watch out for

• Your computer must be awake and Claude Desktop must be open. Scheduled tasks do not run if your machine is asleep, shut down, or Desktop is closed. If you miss a scheduled run, it executes the next time you open Desktop.
• Chrome tasks need Chrome open. Browser automation tasks only run when Chrome is open with the extension active. They will not wake your browser.
• Usage accumulates. Each scheduled task run consumes plan usage just like a manual Cowork session. Five daily scheduled tasks across a work week adds up — factor this into your plan capacity, especially on Pro.
• Test manually first. A broken scheduled task runs broken every day. Always verify the prompt works correctly before scheduling it.
• Timezone handling. Scheduled times use your local system timezone. If you travel or work across timezones, check that your schedules still fire when you expect. Daylight saving transitions can shift scheduled task times by an hour or cause unexpected behaviour. Verify your schedules after any clock change.
• Start with one. It’s tempting to schedule everything at once. Start with your most repetitive daily task, get it working well, then add more. Operators who schedule five tasks on day one usually end up debugging five tasks on day two.
• Review results regularly. Scheduled tasks can drift — a connector stops working, a file path changes, a data source format updates. Check your outputs weekly to make sure they’re still accurate.

Related

• Cowork: the environment where /schedule runs
• Connecting Your Tools: scheduled tasks are most powerful with connectors
• Browser Automation: Chrome scheduled tasks and workflow recording
• Personal Productivity System: build scheduled tasks into a daily rhythm
• Weekly Reporting: automate your weekly report with /schedule
• Inbox Triage: schedule your morning email briefing
• Running Your Business From Your Phone: send ad-hoc tasks from your phone via Dispatch

---

Something wrong or outdated? Let us know →

Get weekly workflows. Subscribe to the newsletter.