Getting started

Requirements

• Node.js 20 or newer
• A project directory containing at least one CronYAML job

CronYAML is ESM-only. Install it locally so the CLI and package use the same project dependencies:

npm install cronyaml

Create and run your first job

npx cronyaml init
npx cronyaml validate
npx cronyaml run

init creates cron.yaml with a job that prints a greeting every minute. run stays in the foreground so the process manager, container, or terminal that launched it owns the scheduler lifecycle.

Choose a configuration file

Without --file, CronYAML checks the current directory in this order:

1. cron.yaml
2. cron.yml
3. .cron.yaml
4. .cron.yml

Use an explicit path when a project has multiple configurations:

npx cronyaml validate --file config/jobs.yaml
npx cronyaml run --file config/jobs.yaml

Relative paths are resolved from the current working directory. Relative job cwd values are resolved from the directory containing the chosen config.

A first local job

version: 1

jobs:
  report:
    schedule: "0 9 * * 1-5"
    command: "node scripts/report.js"
    timeout: "10m"

See the configuration reference for all fields and the CLI reference for command behavior.