Run a workflow on a schedule

Start a workflow automatically every few minutes, hourly, daily, weekly, monthly or on a cron schedule, in your time zone. Step by step with a narrated video and a real automatic run.

What you'll build: a workflow that runs by itself every morning at 9:00, where an AI writes a productivity tip of the day. Two blocks: Schedule → Agent. About 5 minutes.

What BeeGentic can do with Schedule

⚡ Every N minutes 🕐 Hourly, at a minute you pick 📅 Daily at a time 🗓️ Weekly on a day and time 📆 Monthly on a day and time 🧩 Custom cron expression ✨ Generate a cron from plain English 🌍 36 time zones 🔎 Next run shown in the block

Not supported: one-off runs on a single date, intervals shorter than 1 minute, skipping holidays or chosen dates, several different times in one block (use a cron expression or a second Schedule block), and time zones for Every N minutes and Hourly (they don't need one).

Narrated walkthrough (about 2½ min), with captions (CC button). Each step below also has a short silent clip. The orange numbers in each screenshot match the # column under it. Click a screenshot to enlarge it.

Before you start

You need	Why
A BeeGentic workspace	The schedule runs on BeeGentic's servers, so your computer can be off.
An AI key saved as a secret, e.g. `OPENAI_API_KEY`	The Agent writes the tip. See References and secrets.

A schedule only runs by itself when the workflow is deployed. You'll do that in Part 3.

Part 1: Add the Schedule trigger

Create the workflow

+ New workflow → name it Daily tip (Schedule). A timed workflow doesn't need the Start block: select it and press Delete (or click the bin icon above it).

New workflow

#	What you see
1	Your new workflow in the sidebar.
2	The Start block. Select it, then delete it.

Watch this step

Toolbar, Triggers, Schedule

#	What to do
1	Open the Toolbar tab.
2	Under Triggers, click Schedule. It lands on the canvas and its settings open on the right.

Watch this step

Choose how often it runs

Run frequency

#	What you see
1	Run frequency. New Schedule blocks start on Daily.
2	The options, explained below.

Run frequency	You also set	Example
Every X Minutes	Interval (minutes)	`15` runs every 15 minutes
Hourly	Minute (0–59)	`30` runs at 10:30, 11:30, 12:30 …
Daily	Time + Timezone	9:00 AM every day
Weekly	Day of week, Time + Timezone	Monday at 8:00 AM
Monthly	Day of month (1–31), Time + Timezone	the 1st at 9:00 AM
Custom (Cron)	Cron expression + Timezone	`0 9 * * 1-5` (weekdays at 9:00)

Watch this step

Optional: a custom cron schedule

Pick Custom (Cron) when the other options aren't enough, e.g. weekdays only.

Cron expression

#	What you see
1	Cron expression: `0 9 * * 1-5` means minute 0, hour 9, Monday to Friday. Not sure how to write one? Click Generate and describe it, e.g. every weekday at 9am.
2	The block sums up the schedule: `Run on cron 0 9 * * 1-5`.

Watch this step

Daily at 9:00 AM

Set Run frequency back to Daily, then open Time.

Time picker

#	Field	Value
1	Hour	`9`
2	Minute	`00`
3	AM / PM	AM

The block now reads Run daily at 09:00.

Watch this step

Pick your time zone

Timezone

#	What you see
1	Timezone starts on your browser's time zone. We kept US Eastern (UTC-5).
2	The list. Type in Search… to find yours, e.g. `London` or `India`.

Watch this step

Part 2: Add the Agent and test it

Add the Agent

With the Schedule block selected, click Toolbar → Agent. It connects to the Schedule automatically. In Messages:

Write one productivity tip of the day for a busy professional. Two short sentences, practical and friendly. Return only the tip.

Agent message

#	What you see
1	The message. A schedule has no input from a person, so everything the Agent needs is in this message.

Watch this step

Choose the model and key

Model and key

#	Field	Value
1	Model	`gpt-5-mini`
2	API Key	`{{OPENAI_API_KEY}}`. BeeGentic fills in the real value when it runs.

Press Shift + L to tidy the canvas:

Finished workflow

#	Block	What it does
1	Schedule	Starts the workflow daily at 9:00
2	Agent	Writes the tip

Watch this step

Test it now

You don't have to wait until 9:00 to check it works.

Test run

#	What you see
1	Click Run. The workflow runs once, right now.
2	Each block's run time: Schedule 1 ms, Agent about 4.7 s.
3	The output: `content` is the tip.

The real tip from our test run:

Start each morning by blocking the first 60 minutes for your single most important task and silence notifications. Protect that time—small uninterrupted wins build big momentum.

Watch the run

Part 3: Deploy, and watch it run by itself

Deploy

#	What to do
1	Click Deploy (top right).

Deployed

#	What you see
1	Version v1 (live): the version the schedule runs.
2	Live. Close the window. The top button now says Live.

Watch this step

Check the next run

Next run

#	What you see
1	Under the settings: At 9:00 AM (EDT) · Next: Oct 3, 9:00 AM.
2	Live: the deployed version is running the schedule.

After you change the schedule, the button turns into Update. Click it, then Update in the window, or the old schedule keeps running.

Prove it: run every minute

To see an automatic run without waiting until tomorrow, switch for a moment to a 1-minute schedule.

Every minute

#	What to do
1	Run frequency → Every X Minutes.
2	Interval (minutes): `1`.
3	Click Update …

Update deployment

#	What to do
1	… then Update in the window.

Watch this step

See the automatic run in Logs

Open Logs in the sidebar. Within a minute or two:

Logs

#	What you see
1	A new run of Daily tip (Schedule) at 5:48 PM. Nobody clicked anything.
2	Trigger: Schedule. Your test run from Part 2 shows Manual.

Watch this step

Open the run

Click the row.

Log details

#	What you see
1	Trigger: Schedule, the version that ran (v2) and how long it took (4.3 s).
2	Workflow Output: the tip the Agent wrote on its own, and the cost (1 credit).

The real tip from the automatic run:

Pick the single most important task and spend a focused 60-minute block on it. Silence notifications and close unrelated tabs to protect that time.

Watch this step

Set it back to daily at 9:00

Every run costs credits, so don't leave a 1-minute schedule running. Set Run frequency back to Daily, check Time is 9:00 AM, and click Update → Update.

Back to daily

#	What you see
1	Run frequency: Daily
2	Time: 9:00 AM
3	Next: Oct 3, 9:00 AM: tomorrow morning. It updates as soon as you deploy.
4	Live: the update is deployed.

We undeployed this demo workflow afterwards, so it no longer runs.

Watch this step

Example settings

Trigger:        Schedule
Run frequency:  Daily
Time:           9:00 AM
Timezone:       US Eastern (UTC-5)
Agent model:    gpt-5-mini
Agent message:  Write one productivity tip of the day for a busy professional.
                Two short sentences, practical and friendly. Return only the tip.

⚡ Make it useful

The Agent's tip only lives in Logs so far. Send it somewhere by adding a block after the Agent and using <agent.content>:

You want	Add after the Agent
The tip in your inbox every morning	Gmail → Send Email, body `<agent.content>`
A log of every tip	Google Sheets → Append Data: a row with the date and `<agent.content>`
A daily post on social	Bluesky, LinkedIn, Mastodon
A weekly report	Set Weekly, Monday 8:00 AM, and ask the Agent to summarize last week's form responses
React to new content instead of a clock	RSS Feed: start when a blog publishes something new

Ideas

Idea	Schedule
Morning motivation in Slack or email	Daily, 8:30 AM
Weekly team digest	Weekly, Friday 4:00 PM
Monthly invoice reminder	Monthly, day 1, 9:00 AM
Check a website every 15 minutes	Every X Minutes, `15`
Weekday stand-up prompt	Custom (Cron), `0 9 * * 1-5`

Troubleshooting

Problem	Fix
It never runs on its own	The workflow must be deployed: the top button should say Live. Run only tests once.
It still runs on the old schedule	You changed the block but didn't deploy the change. Click Update, then Update in the window.
It runs at the wrong hour	Check Timezone. For cron, the hours in the expression are in that time zone.
"Time is required for daily schedules"	Set Time in the block. Weekly and monthly also need a day: "Day and time are required for weekly schedules".
"Cron expression is required for custom schedules" or "Invalid cron expression: …"	Use five fields separated by spaces, e.g. `0 9 * * 1-5`, or click Generate.
A disabled badge and "Disabled after 100 consecutive failures"	The workflow failed 100 times in a row. Open Logs to see why, fix it, then click the disabled badge to redeploy the schedule.
Too many runs or credits	Use a longer interval, or Live → Undeploy to stop the schedule completely.

On this page