Cronlytic

Use Cronlytic via direct curl calls to schedule and manage cron jobs that trigger HTTP requests/webhooks.

Official docs: https://www.cronlytic.com/api-documentation

When to Use

Use this skill when you need to:

Schedule recurring HTTP requests (webhooks, API calls)
Automate background tasks without managing servers
Create cron jobs with standard 5-field expressions
Pause/resume jobs dynamically
Monitor job execution via logs

Prerequisites

Sign up at Cronlytic
Go to Dashboard → API Keys → Generate New API Key
Copy your API Key and User ID

export CRONLYTIC_API_KEY="your-api-key"
export CRONLYTIC_USER_ID="your-user-id"

Base URL

https://api.cronlytic.com/prog/

Important: When using $VAR in a command that pipes to another command, wrap the command containing $VAR in bash -c '...'. Due to a Claude Code bug, environment variables are silently cleared when pipes are used directly.
bash -c 'curl -s "https://api.example.com" -H "Authorization: Bearer $API_KEY"' | jq .

How to Use

1. Health Check (Ping)

Check if API is available (no auth required):

bash -c 'curl -s -X GET "https://api.cronlytic.com/prog/ping"' | jq .

Response: {"message": "pong"}

2. Create a Cron Job

Create a scheduled job to call a webhook:

bash -c 'curl -s -X POST "https://api.cronlytic.com/prog/jobs" -H "X-API-Key: ${CRONLYTIC_API_KEY}" -H "X-User-ID: ${CRONLYTIC_USER_ID}" -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '"'"'{
  "name": "daily-backup",
  "url": "https://api.example.com/backup",
  "method": "POST",
  "headers": {"Authorization": "Bearer token123"},
  "body": "{\"type\": \"full\"}",
  "cron_expression": "0 2 * * *"
  }'"'"' | jq '"'"'{job_id, name, status, next_run_at}'"'"''

3. Create GET Request Job

Simple health check every 5 minutes:

bash -c 'curl -s -X POST "https://api.cronlytic.com/prog/jobs" -H "X-API-Key: ${CRONLYTIC_API_KEY}" -H "X-User-ID: ${CRONLYTIC_USER_ID}" -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '"'"'{
  "name": "health-check",
  "url": "https://api.example.com/health",
  "method": "GET",
  "headers": {},
  "body": "",
  "cron_expression": "*/5 * * * *"
  }'"'"' | jq .'

4. List All Jobs

Get all your scheduled jobs:

bash -c 'curl -s -X GET "https://api.cronlytic.com/prog/jobs" -H "X-API-Key: ${CRONLYTIC_API_KEY}" -H "X-User-ID: ${CRONLYTIC_USER_ID}"' | jq '.[] | {job_id, name, status, cron_expression, next_run_at}'

5. Update a Job

Update an existing job (all fields required):

JOB_ID="your-job-id"

bash -c 'curl -s -X PUT "https://api.cronlytic.com/prog/jobs/${JOB_ID}" -H "X-API-Key: ${CRONLYTIC_API_KEY}" -H "X-User-ID: ${CRONLYTIC_USER_ID}" -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '"'"'{
  "name": "daily-backup-v2",
  "url": "https://api.example.com/backup/v2",
  "method": "POST",
  "headers": {"Authorization": "Bearer newtoken"},
  "body": "{\"type\": \"incremental\"}",
  "cron_expression": "0 3 * * *"
  }'"'"' | jq .'

6. Pause a Job

Stop a job from executing:

JOB_ID="your-job-id"

bash -c 'curl -s -X POST "https://api.cronlytic.com/prog/jobs/${JOB_ID}/pause" -H "X-API-Key: ${CRONLYTIC_API_KEY}" -H "X-User-ID: ${CRONLYTIC_USER_ID}"' | jq '{job_id, status}'

7. Resume a Job

Resume a paused job:

JOB_ID="your-job-id"

bash -c 'curl -s -X POST "https://api.cronlytic.com/prog/jobs/${JOB_ID}/resume" -H "X-API-Key: ${CRONLYTIC_API_KEY}" -H "X-User-ID: ${CRONLYTIC_USER_ID}"' | jq '{job_id, status, next_run_at}'

8. Get Job Logs

View execution history (last 50 entries):

JOB_ID="your-job-id"

bash -c 'curl -s -X GET "https://api.cronlytic.com/prog/jobs/${JOB_ID}/logs" -H "X-API-Key: ${CRONLYTIC_API_KEY}" -H "X-User-ID: ${CRONLYTIC_USER_ID}"' | jq '.logs[] | {timestamp, status, response_code, response_time}'

9. Delete a Job

Permanently delete a job and its logs:

JOB_ID="your-job-id"

bash -c 'curl -s -X DELETE "https://api.cronlytic.com/prog/jobs/${JOB_ID}" -H "X-API-Key: ${CRONLYTIC_API_KEY}" -H "X-User-ID: ${CRONLYTIC_USER_ID}"' | jq .

Cron Expression Format

Standard 5-field cron: minute hour day month day-of-week

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

Common Examples

Expression	Description
`/5 * * *`	Every 5 minutes
`0 * * * *`	Every hour at minute 0
`0 9 * * *`	Daily at 9:00 AM
`0 9 * * 1-5`	Weekdays at 9:00 AM
`0 0 1 * *`	First day of month at midnight
`30 14 * * 0`	Sunday at 2:30 PM
`0 /6 * *`	Every 6 hours

Job Status Values

Status	Description
`pending`	Scheduled, waiting for next_run_at
`paused`	Paused, won't execute
`success`	Last execution succeeded
`failed`	Last execution failed
`quota_reached`	Skipped due to plan quota

Create Job Parameters

Field	Type	Required	Description
`name`	string	Yes	Job name (1-50 chars, alphanumeric/-/_)
`url`	string	Yes	Target URL (HTTP/HTTPS)
`method`	string	Yes	HTTP method (GET, POST, PUT, DELETE)
`headers`	object	Yes	Request headers (can be `{}`)
`body`	string	Yes	Request body (can be `""`)
`cron_expression`	string	Yes	5-field cron expression

Job Name Rules

Only letters, numbers, hyphens (-), underscores (_)
Length: 1-50 characters
Regex: ^[a-zA-Z0-9_-]+$

Valid: my-job, test_job_1, API-Health-Check Invalid: my job (space), test@job (@), api.health (.)

Response Fields

Field	Description
`job_id`	Unique job identifier
`name`	Job name
`url`	Target URL
`method`	HTTP method
`status`	Current job status
`cron_expression`	Schedule expression
`next_run_at`	Next scheduled execution (ISO timestamp)
`created_at`	Creation timestamp

Guidelines

Ping first: Call /ping to warm up the API (Lambda cold start)
All fields required: When creating/updating, provide all fields
Valid cron only: Use standard 5-field cron format
Job names: Use alphanumeric with hyphens/underscores only
Check logs: Use the logs endpoint to debug failed jobs
Dashboard: Use https://www.cronlytic.com/dashboard for visual management
Plan limits: Free tier has job limits - upgrade if needed

cronlytic