DeckSpace docsAutomations: schedules and run history
Schedule a prompt, run reusable steps, and inspect what each execution actually did.
Open Automations from the dock or command palette. Its Schedules, Workflows and Run history views share one area. Existing Background Agents and Workflows links still open the corresponding view. Scheduled agent work requires an active subscription.
Start with one execution
- Open the project and choose Automations → Schedules.
- Give the job a name, a concrete prompt and the agent CLI you want to use.
- Choose Run once (now). Decide whether to enable this job's Sandbox option.
- Read the saved result and inspect its branch before creating a repeating schedule.
The CLI uses its existing account or provider configuration. A successful exit means the agent finished; review the changes and required checks before treating its result as ready to release.
Choose a schedule
| Schedule | Timing | Use it for |
|---|---|---|
| Run once (now) | Next available scheduler pass | A first test or manual task |
| Run at… | A required date and time from your local clock | A one-off future run |
| Every N minutes | At least one minute; measured from the previous run's finish | A repeating interval |
| Nightly | A fixed UTC time, every day | An existing UTC-based routine |
| On chosen days… | Selected weekdays and your local time | Weekdays at 9am or another weekly pattern |
For a local daily or weekday routine, use On chosen days…. Pick the days, the time and what to do after a missed slot. The form previews the schedule; an empty date, invalid time or empty weekday selection cannot create a new job. There is no general cron-expression or monthly-date editor.
Local schedules follow the computer's timezone. At a spring daylight-saving gap, a missing wall-clock time moves to the first valid instant. During a repeated autumn hour, the first occurrence wins, so the same slot does not run twice.
When the app is closed
Routines support local-time schedules and selected weekdays. DeckSpace must be running for a local routine to start. A sleeping or shut-down computer cannot perform the task at that moment.
Calendar schedules offer Skip or Run once after a missed slot. Run once catches up with one execution, then resumes the normal schedule; it does not launch one agent for every missed day. Slots within the 15-minute startup grace remain eligible. Legacy once, interval and nightly schedules retain their existing overdue behavior.
An interrupted execution is recorded as interrupted instead of silently presented as a success. Repeating schedules can continue at their next slot. Inspect the earlier attempt before choosing Run now, since it may already have written files or created a branch.
Where changes are made
For a Git project, each execution creates its own worktree and branch. If that worktree cannot be created or its identity cannot be saved, the agent does not start. For a folder that is not a Git repository, the job runs in the selected folder; the scheduling view explains this distinction.
The Sandbox choice belongs to each job and defaults to off. It is separate from the app-wide autonomy preference. Available OS confinement is shown beside the control. A worktree separates edits; it is not a network or credential sandbox. See What walk-away does for the platform boundaries.
Headless execution uses the shared CLI command builder. Verify a newly configured CLI with a one-off run and inspect its output: installed does not necessarily mean signed in or compatible with every unattended option.
Results and recovery
Run history shows the most recent 200 saved executions, including their status, output and worktree branch. Older job records retain their latest saved result. An existing job without historical execution records is not given invented history.
Use Cancel for an active job, Run now for an explicit new execution, and Result to inspect captured output. Each execution has a 30-minute wall-clock limit. Long output is bounded and marked when truncated. Review the saved branch before using its changes; a cancelled or failed job can still have partial work worth keeping.
Jobs wait for available capacity. The scheduler allows at most two concurrent background jobs across the app and respects its per-project limit. This is separate from Team worker concurrency and from any provider usage limit.
Reusable workflows
The Workflows view loads your project templates and runs their ordered or dependent steps. Templates and schedules remain different records: opening an existing template does not schedule it, and a saved run does not restart itself when you inspect it.