Cron Trigger

Paid Feature - Cron triggers are available on the Hobby and Pro plans. View pricing

The cron trigger enables scheduled flow execution using cron expressions. Flows with cron triggers run automatically at the times you specify, powered by Upstash QStash schedules.

Configuration

{
  "trigger": {
    "type": "cron",
    "config": {
      "schedule": "0 9 * * *",
      "timezone": "America/New_York"
    }
  }
}

Config Fields

Field	Type	Required	Default	Description
`schedule`	string	Yes	-	Cron expression (e.g., `0 9 * * *` for 9 AM daily)
`timezone`	string	No	`"UTC"`	IANA timezone (e.g., `America/New_York`, `Europe/London`)

Cron Expression Format

Cron expressions define when your flow runs using five fields:

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

Special Characters

Character	Description	Example
`*`	Any value	`* * * * *` (every minute)
`,`	List of values	`0,30 * * * *` (at minute 0 and 30)
`-`	Range of values	`0-5 * * * *` (minutes 0 through 5)
`/`	Step values	`/15 * * *` (every 15 minutes)

Use crontab.guru to build and validate your cron expressions interactively.

Common Schedule Examples

Expression	Description
`0 9 * * *`	Every day at 9:00 AM
`0 /2 * *`	Every 2 hours
`30 8 * * 1-5`	Weekdays at 8:30 AM
`0 0 1 * *`	First day of each month at midnight
`/15 * * *`	Every 15 minutes
`0 0 * * 0`	Every Sunday at midnight
`0 6,18 * * *`	At 6:00 AM and 6:00 PM
`0 0 * * 1`	Every Monday at midnight

Timezones

By default, schedules run in UTC. Specify a timezone to run at local time:

{
  "trigger": {
    "type": "cron",
    "config": {
      "schedule": "0 9 * * *",
      "timezone": "America/New_York"
    }
  }
}

Common Timezones

Timezone	Region
`UTC`	Coordinated Universal Time
`America/New_York`	US Eastern
`America/Los_Angeles`	US Pacific
`America/Chicago`	US Central
`Europe/London`	UK
`Europe/Paris`	Central Europe
`Asia/Tokyo`	Japan
`Asia/Shanghai`	China
`Australia/Sydney`	Australia Eastern
`Africa/Lagos`	West Africa

Use IANA timezone names for accurate scheduling.

Runtime Context

When your scheduled flow executes, the context includes schedule information:

{
  "trigger": {
    "type": "cron",
    "flow_id": "flow-uuid",
    "schedule": "0 9 * * *",
    "timezone": "America/New_York"
  }
}

Context References

Reference	Description
`{{trigger.type}}`	Trigger type (`"cron"`)
`{{trigger.flow_id}}`	Flow ID
`{{trigger.schedule}}`	Cron expression
`{{trigger.timezone}}`	Configured timezone

Example: Log Cron Execution

Use a log node to track cron job executions:

{
  "id": "log_execution",
  "type": "log",
  "config": {
    "level": "info",
    "message": "Cron job executed successfully",
    "data": {
      "timestamp": "{{now:YYYY-MM-DDTHH:mm:ssZ}}",
      "random_number": "{{random:1:1000}}",
      "job_id": "{{uuid}}",
      "environment": "production"
    }
  }
}

Schedule Management

Action	Effect
Deploy flow	Creates or updates the schedule
Disable flow	Pauses the schedule
Enable flow	Resumes the schedule
Delete flow	Removes the schedule

Complete Example

A daily report generator that runs every weekday at 9 AM Eastern:

{
  "name": "Daily Stats Report",
  "trigger": {
    "type": "cron",
    "config": {
      "schedule": "0 9 * * 1-5",
      "timezone": "America/New_York"
    }
  },
  "nodes": [
    {
      "id": "fetch_stats",
      "type": "http",
      "config": {
        "method": "GET",
        "url": "https://api.example.com/daily-stats",
        "headers": {
          "Authorization": "Bearer {{env.API_KEY}}"
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "id": "format_report",
      "type": "transform",
      "config": {
        "output": {
          "subject": "Daily Stats Report",
          "content": "Today's metrics:\n- Users: {{fetch_stats.output.body.users}}\n- Revenue: {{fetch_stats.output.body.revenue | currency:USD}}\n- Orders: {{fetch_stats.output.body.orders}}"
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "id": "send_email",
      "type": "http",
      "config": {
        "method": "POST",
        "url": "https://api.sendgrid.com/v3/mail/send",
        "headers": {
          "Authorization": "Bearer {{env.SENDGRID_KEY}}",
          "Content-Type": "application/json"
        },
        "body": {
          "personalizations": [{ "to": [{ "email": "team@example.com" }] }],
          "from": { "email": "reports@example.com" },
          "subject": "{{format_report.output.subject}}",
          "content": [{ "type": "text/plain", "value": "{{format_report.output.content}}" }]
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "id": "respond",
      "type": "response",
      "config": {
        "status": 200,
        "body": {
          "success": true,
          "sent_to": "team@example.com"
        }
      }
    }
  ]
}

Use Cases

Daily Reports

Generate and send reports at a specific time each day:

Sales summaries
User activity reports
System health dashboards

Data Synchronization

Periodically sync data between services:

Import data from external APIs
Update cached aggregations
Sync inventory levels

Cleanup Jobs

Remove stale data on a schedule:

Delete expired sessions
Archive old records
Clear temporary files

Health Checks

Monitor external services at regular intervals:

Check API availability
Validate SSL certificates
Test database connections

Billing Cycles

Process recurring operations:

Generate invoices
Process subscription renewals
Send payment reminders

Notifications

Send scheduled notifications:

Weekly newsletters
Reminder emails
Digest summaries

Plan Availability

Cron triggers are available on Hobby and Pro plans.

HTTP Trigger - Create REST endpoints
Queue Trigger - Process messages asynchronously
Flow Structure - Understanding flow definitions

Getting Started

Triggers

Nodes

Reference

Configuration

Config Fields

Cron Expression Format

Special Characters

Common Schedule Examples

Timezones

Common Timezones

Runtime Context

Context References

Example: Log Cron Execution

Schedule Management

Complete Example

Use Cases

Daily Reports

Data Synchronization

Cleanup Jobs

Health Checks

Billing Cycles

Notifications

Plan Availability

​Configuration

​Config Fields

​Cron Expression Format

​Special Characters

​Common Schedule Examples

​Timezones

​Common Timezones

​Runtime Context

​Context References

​Example: Log Cron Execution

​Schedule Management

​Complete Example

​Use Cases

​Daily Reports

​Data Synchronization

​Cleanup Jobs

​Health Checks

​Billing Cycles

​Notifications

​Plan Availability

​Related

Configuration

Config Fields

Cron Expression Format

Special Characters

Common Schedule Examples

Timezones

Common Timezones

Runtime Context

Context References

Example: Log Cron Execution

Schedule Management

Complete Example

Use Cases

Daily Reports

Data Synchronization

Cleanup Jobs

Health Checks

Billing Cycles

Notifications

Plan Availability

Related