> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.planasonix.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Schedules

> Run pipelines on a recurring schedule with cron-based scheduling.

Schedules run pipelines automatically using **cron** expressions. You define when a run should start, in which time zone legal and business cutoffs are evaluated, and how overlaps are handled when a previous run is still executing.

## Cron expressions

Planasonix accepts standard five-field cron strings (minute, hour, day of month, month, day of week) unless your deployment documents extended syntax. Examples:

```text theme={null}
0 * * * *        # Every hour at minute 0
15 6 * * 1-5     # 06:15 on weekdays
0 */4 * * *      # Every 4 hours on the hour
30 14 1 * *      # 14:30 on the 1st of each month
```

<Tabs>
  <Tab title="High frequency">
    Sub-hourly schedules suit streaming backfill or small incremental jobs. Watch warehouse spend and API quotas.
  </Tab>

  <Tab title="Daily and weekly">
    Align with business reporting calendars; use explicit minute offsets to avoid thundering herds across teams.
  </Tab>

  <Tab title="Month-end">
    Use explicit calendar day cron for closes; verify behavior on short months and leap years.
  </Tab>
</Tabs>

Use the schedule preview in the UI to confirm the next few firing times before saving.

## Timezone support

Attach a **time zone** (IANA name such as `America/New_York`) so daylight saving shifts match local business expectations. Without an explicit zone, schedules may interpret times in UTC and shift relative to local operators.

<Warning>
  The week surrounding DST changes can produce duplicate or skipped local times. For critical financial jobs, prefer UTC schedules or validate firing times around the transition.
</Warning>

## Schedule management

<Steps>
  <Step title="Open the pipeline">
    Navigate to **Orchestration** → **Schedules** on the pipeline (or workspace schedules list, depending on UI layout).
  </Step>

  <Step title="Create a schedule">
    Enter cron, time zone, and concurrency policy (skip, queue, or allow parallel when supported).
  </Step>

  <Step title="Set notifications">
    Choose who receives failure notices via [Notifications](/settings/notifications) defaults or pipeline-specific routes.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Enable">
    Toggle the schedule active only after a successful test run on representative data volumes.
  </Step>
</Steps>

## Overlaps and catch-up

If a run exceeds the interval before the next firing, decide whether the platform should **queue** another run, **coalesce** into one, or **skip** to avoid backlog storms. Document the policy for on-call engineers.

<Tip>
  Pair long-running batch jobs with duration alerts so you detect slowdown before the next cron slot collides.
</Tip>

## Related topics

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Triggers" icon="cloud-bolt" href="/orchestration/triggers">
    Event-based alternatives to fixed cron.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Pipeline chaining" icon="diagram-project" href="/orchestration/pipeline-chaining">
    Chain downstream work after scheduled loads.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>