Scheduled Workflow with Cron

Scheduled Workflows with Cron

GitHub Actions supports schedule triggers using POSIX cron syntax. Scheduled workflows run on the default branch and are useful for recurring tasks like nightly builds, dependency updates, and periodic health checks.

Workflow YAML

name: Scheduled Tasks

on:
  schedule:
    - cron: '0 6 * * 1-5'  # Weekdays at 6:00 AM UTC
    - cron: '0 0 * * 0'     # Sundays at midnight UTC

jobs:
  nightly-tests:
    if: github.event.schedule == '0 6 * * 1-5'
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - run: npm ci
      - run: npm run test:e2e

  weekly-audit:
    if: github.event.schedule == '0 0 * * 0'
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - run: npm ci
      - run: npm audit --production
      - run: npx depcheck

Cron Syntax

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

Common Schedules

Expression	Description
0 0 * * *	Daily at midnight UTC
0 */6 * * *	Every 6 hours
0 6 * * 1-5	Weekdays at 6 AM UTC
0 0 1 * *	First day of every month
0 0 * * 0	Every Sunday at midnight

Important Notes

• All cron times are in UTC. Adjust accordingly for your timezone.
• Scheduled workflows run on the default branch only.
• GitHub may delay scheduled workflows during periods of high load.
• The minimum interval is every 5 minutes, but GitHub discourages intervals shorter than 15 minutes.
• Use github.event.schedule to differentiate between multiple cron triggers in the same workflow.