Scheduled tasks and reminders

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Goal and preparation

Lessons and resources mentioned here: Task management

Step 1: Choose the execution location

Local files need a desktop host that can access them, with the computer on, app running and folder available. On Windows, macOS and Linux, check whether the installed desktop version offers Scheduled; record missing preview support as unavailable. CLI and IDE have no Scheduled management UI, though they can prepare scripts/prompts before management on a supported desktop or web surface.

A web schedule does not acquire access to a computer folder; this exercise uses a desktop schedule returning to the same task.

Step 2: Run an ordinary task first

Create daily-check.md with the content below in an empty practice-schedule folder, save UTF-8 plain text and open that folder as a desktop project. The filename daily does not cause daily execution; the schedule controls whether and when it runs. This fixture contains no client data, credentials or production paths.

# Practice check
Revision: 1
- [x] Read the task instructions
- [ ] Review the practice report

Read daily-check.md from this practice project once now.
Report its Revision, completed count and open count, using the current file contents.
If the file is missing or unreadable, report that exact limitation and stop.
Do not edit files, create a schedule, send messages elsewhere or call external services.

Expect Revision 1, completed 1 and open 1, with actual file-read activity. Record the source path/result and verify no file change. Resolve path or permission failures in the ordinary task before scheduling. This tests the action only, not scheduling, the unattended environment or notifications.

Step 3: Create a traceable natural-language schedule

Create one recurring check named 'Practice list review' in this existing task.
Run every Monday at 09:00 in the Asia/Taipei time zone.
On each run, reread daily-check.md from this local practice project.
Report the current Revision, completed and open counts. Do not rely on an earlier report.
If the file or required access is unavailable, stop the run and report the limitation.
Keep the source file unchanged and do not contact external services.
Notify me on the first result, meaningful changes or failures; stay quiet when nothing changes.
Show the saved schedule and next run time so I can verify them.

Open Scheduled and locate Practice list review. Confirm a saved Active entry, correct time/time zone and the intended practice project/task. A conversational promise is not creation evidence; inspect the stored entry and next run. If created after Monday 09:00, the next occurrence may be next week, so use the displayed calculation instead of assuming it runs today.

Use a Run now action when offered, or save a near-future time you can observe and wait for the actual trigger. Avoid creating another same-name schedule for testing. Record its identity, next occurrence and recent run, distinguishing saved, started, finished and produced-a-result states.

Step 4: Verify a fresh source read each run

The first scheduled result should match 1/1. Manually change Revision to 2 and check the second item, yielding completed 2/open 0. Do not place the new counts in the saved prompt. Trigger or await the next run and verify it reads the new values from the file, detecting reuse of old summaries rather than repetition of an answer you supplied.

# Practice check
Revision: 2
- [x] Read the task instructions
- [x] Review the practice report

Run the unchanged state again and verify quiet-on-no-change behavior while checking run status in Scheduled. No push notification does not necessarily mean no execution; inspect OS notifications, app notifications and schedule reporting separately. If you want every weekly report even when unchanged, request that explicitly rather than asking both always-notify and silence-on-no-change.

Step 5: Edit, pause and understand stopping

Update the existing 'Practice list review' schedule to Wednesday at 10:00 Asia/Taipei.
Keep its task, project, read-only prompt and notification preference unchanged.
Show the updated next run time. Do not create a second schedule.

Verify the same entry now has the new time and no duplicate Active task was created. Disambiguate duplicate names by project, prompt and identity. For changes to source/action, manually test the revised prompt before updating. A day/time-only change does not require unrelated functional retesting.

Pause the existing 'Practice list review' schedule after this practice.
Confirm it is Paused and show whether any run is already in progress.
If a run is in progress, report its state before stopping anything else.

Confirm Paused in Scheduled. Pausing future triggers may not cancel an already started run, so inspect it separately. If the schedule is no longer needed, use its delete/remove action and verify it disappears. Existing reports, external changes and other schedules are not automatically reversed. Resume the same entry and inspect its next occurrence instead of creating a replacement under another name.

Common failures and a negative case

For a missing run, check Active/Paused, time zone and next occurrence, then host power, app and project availability. Do not assume missed runs during sleep are caught up; inspect actual history. For file access failures, verify path and Permissions. Unattended actions requiring fresh authorization can fail and should report the step rather than treating background execution as blanket permission.

Pause the schedule and confirm no run is still reading the file. Check that daily-check.saved.md is unused; choose another name if needed, without overwriting a backup. Rename your daily-check.md, confirm the original name is absent and test the same read manually. Expect a missing-file report, not reused 2/0 counts or an empty list. Restore the filename and require Revision 2. This tests the prompt's missing-file branch, not background notifications.

Record source, time zone, saved entry, one real scheduled result, fresh reading after change, edited time and Paused state. Mark partial completion if unsupported or no trigger has occurred. Event triggers have separate plan/surface limits; desktop timing is not Gmail/Slack event monitoring. The flow is documented from official sources without creating reader schedules or claiming all-platform tests. Continue to codex exec.

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Schedule to Run to Notification

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