How to Schedule AI Coding Agents to Run Automatically (2026)

Run your AI engineering team on autopilot — morning code reviews, overnight test generation, weekly dependency updates — triggered by a schedule, not a human. Updated July 2026.

What the amux scheduler does

amux has a first-class scheduler at /api/schedules with a UI in the dashboard's Scheduler tab. A schedule has four fields:

• session — the name of the registered amux session to send the prompt to
• command — the prompt text to send (same as typing it in the steering bar)
• schedule_expr — when to run (natural language or cron expression)
• enabled — toggle on/off without deleting the schedule

When a schedule fires, it sends the prompt to the session's steering queue — exactly as if you had typed it manually. The session must be running; if it's stopped, the run is logged as a skip.

Setting up a recurring schedule

Step 1: Register and start a session in detached mode

amux register myproject --dir ~/Dev/myproject --yolo
amux start myproject --detach   # returns immediately, session runs in background

Step 2: Create a schedule via the REST API

curl -sk -X POST -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{
    "title": "Daily morning review",
    "session": "myproject",
    "command": "Review all TODO comments added in the last 24 hours, create board issues for each one, and give me a priority-sorted list.",
    "schedule_expr": "daily at 8am"
  }' \
  https://localhost:8822/api/schedules

Step 3: Or use the dashboard UI

Open the amux dashboard → Scheduler tab → New Schedule. Fill in the title, session name, prompt text, and schedule expression. The UI validates the expression and shows the next run time before you save.

Step 4: Verify your schedules

curl -sk https://localhost:8822/api/schedules | python3 -m json.tool

Step 5: Skip a single occurrence (without disabling the schedule)

# Dashboard: click "Skip next" on the schedule card
# API:
curl -sk -X POST https://localhost:8822/api/schedules/SCHED-ID/skip-next

The skip auto-clears after that run — the schedule resumes normally. Useful for weekends, holidays, or PR freeze windows.

Supported schedule expressions

amux accepts both natural-language expressions and standard 5-field cron syntax:

Common scheduled workflows

End scheduled prompts with "report results to the board" to create a board issue for every run — makes morning review fast from any device.

Monitoring scheduled runs

The Scheduler tab in the dashboard shows every schedule's last run time, next run time, and status (delivered / skipped / failed). On mobile:

• iOS app (App Store: amux – Agent Multiplexer): open the Scheduler tab for the full run history and next-run countdown
• Google Calendar integration: subscribe to the amux iCal feed — scheduled runs appear alongside your human team's calendar so you can see what your agents are doing at a glance
• Board integration: prompts that end with "report to the board" create board issues automatically, visible in the Board tab and on the iOS app home screen

Skip next occurrence (July 2026)

Shipped in July 2026: every schedule card has a Skip next button that marks the next occurrence to be skipped. The marker auto-clears after the skipped run; the schedule continues normally. This is different from disabling the schedule entirely — you don't have to remember to re-enable it after the weekend.

API: POST /api/schedules/SCHED-ID/skip-next

Scheduled AI agents: approach comparison

Frequently Asked Questions

git clone https://github.com/mixpeek/amux && cd amux && ./install.sh
amux register myproject --dir ~/Dev/myproject --yolo
amux start myproject --detach
amux serve  # → https://localhost:8822 — open Scheduler tab

Related guides

• Run Claude Code in background with amux start --detach
• AI coding agents overnight unattended
• AI agent Google Calendar integration
• Kanban board for AI agents
• Self-healing AI agent configuration
• Monitor Claude Code agent plans
• Mobile PWA & iOS app