services

Cron Job

Schedule tasks to run at specific times using cron syntax.

A cron job runs your code on a schedule. The container starts, executes your task, and stops. Perfect for periodic cleanup, report generation, backups, or any recurring task.

When to Use#

Scheduled database cleanup or maintenance
Periodic report generation and emails
Data synchronization between systems
Automated backups
Health checks or monitoring probes

Configuration#

runix.yaml

yaml

services:
  - name: cleanup
    type: cron-job
    repo: https://github.com/alice/maintenance-scripts
    cron_schedule: "0 3 * * *"
    env:
      DATABASE_URL: "${db.connection_string}"

Available Fields#

Field	Default	Description
`repo`	—	GitHub repository URL (required)
`branch`	`main`	Git branch to deploy
`cron_schedule`	—	Cron expression (required for cron-job type)
`instance`	`starter`	Instance type
`build_command`	Auto-detected	Override the build command
`start_command`	Auto-detected	Override the start command
`env`	None	Environment variables

Cron Syntax#

The `cron_schedule` field uses standard 5-field cron syntax:

text

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

Common Schedules#

Expression	Meaning
`* * * * *`	Every minute
`0 * * * *`	Every hour
`0 3 * * *`	Every day at 3:00 AM UTC
`0 0 * * 1`	Every Monday at midnight UTC
`0 0 1 * *`	First day of every month at midnight
`/15 * * *`	Every 15 minutes

All cron schedules run in UTC. Adjust your times accordingly.

Keep cron jobs short. If your task takes longer than the interval between runs, you may end up with overlapping executions.

Background Worker

PostgreSQL