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Convex Cron Jobs drops into any Paperclip agent that handles convex and cron work. Assign it to a specialist inside a pre-configured PaperclipOrg company and the skill becomes available on every heartbeat — no prompt engineering, no tool wiring.
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---name: convex-cron-jobsdisplayName: Convex Cron Jobsdescription: Scheduled function patterns for background tasks including interval scheduling, cron expressions, job monitoring, retry strategies, and best practices for long-running tasksversion: 1.0.0author: Convextags: [convex, cron, scheduling, background-jobs, automation]--- # Convex Cron Jobs Schedule recurring functions for background tasks, cleanup jobs, data syncing, and automated workflows in Convex applications. ## Documentation Sources Before implementing, do not assume; fetch the latest documentation: - Primary: https://docs.convex.dev/scheduling/cron-jobs- Scheduling Overview: https://docs.convex.dev/scheduling- Scheduled Functions: https://docs.convex.dev/scheduling/scheduled-functions- For broader context: https://docs.convex.dev/llms.txt ## Instructions ### Cron Jobs Overview Convex cron jobs allow you to schedule functions to run at regular intervals or specific times. Key features: - Run functions on a fixed schedule- Support for interval-based and cron expression scheduling- Automatic retries on failure- Monitoring via the Convex dashboard ### Basic Cron Setup ```typescript// convex/crons.tsimport { cronJobs } from "convex/server";import { internal } from "./_generated/api"; const crons = cronJobs(); // Run every hourcrons.interval( "cleanup expired sessions", { hours: 1 }, internal.tasks.cleanupExpiredSessions, {}); // Run every day at midnight UTCcrons.cron( "daily report", "0 0 * * *", internal.reports.generateDailyReport, {}); export default crons;``` ### Interval-Based Scheduling Use `crons.interval` for simple recurring tasks: ```typescript// convex/crons.tsimport { cronJobs } from "convex/server";import { internal } from "./_generated/api"; const crons = cronJobs(); // Every 5 minutescrons.interval( "sync external data", { minutes: 5 }, internal.sync.fetchExternalData, {}); // Every 2 hourscrons.interval( "cleanup temp files", { hours: 2 }, internal.files.cleanupTempFiles, {}); // Every 30 seconds (minimum interval)crons.interval( "health check", { seconds: 30 }, internal.monitoring.healthCheck, {}); export default crons;``` ### Cron Expression Scheduling Use `crons.cron` for precise scheduling with cron expressions: ```typescript// convex/crons.tsimport { cronJobs } from "convex/server";import { internal } from "./_generated/api"; const crons = cronJobs(); // Every day at 9 AM UTCcrons.cron( "morning notifications", "0 9 * * *", internal.notifications.sendMorningDigest, {}); // Every Monday at 8 AM UTCcrons.cron( "weekly summary", "0 8 * * 1", internal.reports.generateWeeklySummary, {}); // First day of every month at midnightcrons.cron( "monthly billing", "0 0 1 * *", internal.billing.processMonthlyBilling, {}); // Every 15 minutescrons.cron( "frequent sync", "*/15 * * * *", internal.sync.syncData, {}); export default crons;``` ### Cron Expression Reference ```┌───────────── minute (0-59)│ ┌───────────── hour (0-23)│ │ ┌───────────── day of month (1-31)│ │ │ ┌───────────── month (1-12)│ │ │ │ ┌───────────── day of week (0-6, Sunday=0)│ │ │ │ │* * * * *``` Common patterns:- `* * * * *` - Every minute- `0 * * * *` - Every hour- `0 0 * * *` - Every day at midnight- `0 0 * * 0` - Every Sunday at midnight- `0 0 1 * *` - First day of every month- `*/5 * * * *` - Every 5 minutes- `0 9-17 * * 1-5` - Every hour from 9 AM to 5 PM, Monday through Friday ### Internal Functions for Crons Cron jobs should call internal functions for security: ```typescript// convex/tasks.tsimport { internalMutation, internalQuery } from "./_generated/server";import { v } from "convex/values"; // Cleanup expired sessionsexport const cleanupExpiredSessions = internalMutation({ args: {}, returns: v.number(), handler: async (ctx) => { const oneHourAgo = Date.now() - 60 * 60 * 1000; const expiredSessions = await ctx.db .query("sessions") .withIndex("by_lastActive") .filter((q) => q.lt(q.field("lastActive"), oneHourAgo)) .collect(); for (const session of expiredSessions) { await ctx.db.delete(session._id); } return expiredSessions.length; },}); // Process pending tasksexport const processPendingTasks = internalMutation({ args: {}, returns: v.null(), handler: async (ctx) => { const pendingTasks = await ctx.db .query("tasks") .withIndex("by_status", (q) => q.eq("status", "pending")) .take(100); for (const task of pendingTasks) { await ctx.db.patch(task._id, { status: "processing", startedAt: Date.now(), }); // Schedule the actual processing await ctx.scheduler.runAfter(0, internal.tasks.processTask, { taskId: task._id, }); } return null; },});``` ### Cron Jobs with Arguments Pass static arguments to cron jobs: ```typescript// convex/crons.tsimport { cronJobs } from "convex/server";import { internal } from "./_generated/api"; const crons = cronJobs(); // Different cleanup intervals for different typescrons.interval( "cleanup temp files", { hours: 1 }, internal.cleanup.cleanupByType, { fileType: "temp", maxAge: 3600000 }); crons.interval( "cleanup cache files", { hours: 24 }, internal.cleanup.cleanupByType, { fileType: "cache", maxAge: 86400000 }); export default crons;``` ```typescript// convex/cleanup.tsimport { internalMutation } from "./_generated/server";import { v } from "convex/values"; export const cleanupByType = internalMutation({ args: { fileType: v.string(), maxAge: v.number(), }, returns: v.number(), handler: async (ctx, args) => { const cutoff = Date.now() - args.maxAge; const oldFiles = await ctx.db .query("files") .withIndex("by_type_and_created", (q) => q.eq("type", args.fileType).lt("createdAt", cutoff) ) .collect(); for (const file of oldFiles) { await ctx.storage.delete(file.storageId); await ctx.db.delete(file._id); } return oldFiles.length; },});``` ### Monitoring and Logging Add logging to track cron job execution: ```typescript// convex/tasks.tsimport { internalMutation } from "./_generated/server";import { v } from "convex/values"; export const cleanupWithLogging = internalMutation({ args: {}, returns: v.null(), handler: async (ctx) => { const startTime = Date.now(); let processedCount = 0; let errorCount = 0; try { const expiredItems = await ctx.db .query("items") .withIndex("by_expiresAt") .filter((q) => q.lt(q.field("expiresAt"), Date.now())) .collect(); for (const item of expiredItems) { try { await ctx.db.delete(item._id); processedCount++; } catch (error) { errorCount++; console.error(`Failed to delete item ${item._id}:`, error); } } // Log job completion await ctx.db.insert("cronLogs", { jobName: "cleanup", startTime, endTime: Date.now(), duration: Date.now() - startTime, processedCount, errorCount, status: errorCount === 0 ? "success" : "partial", }); } catch (error) { // Log job failure await ctx.db.insert("cronLogs", { jobName: "cleanup", startTime, endTime: Date.now(), duration: Date.now() - startTime, processedCount, errorCount, status: "failed", error: String(error), }); throw error; } return null; },});``` ### Batching for Large Datasets Handle large datasets in batches to avoid timeouts: ```typescript// convex/tasks.tsimport { internalMutation } from "./_generated/server";import { internal } from "./_generated/api";import { v } from "convex/values"; const BATCH_SIZE = 100; export const processBatch = internalMutation({ args: { cursor: v.optional(v.string()), }, returns: v.null(), handler: async (ctx, args) => { const result = await ctx.db .query("items") .withIndex("by_status", (q) => q.eq("status", "pending")) .paginate({ numItems: BATCH_SIZE, cursor: args.cursor ?? null }); for (const item of result.page) { await ctx.db.patch(item._id, { status: "processed", processedAt: Date.now(), }); } // Schedule next batch if there are more items if (!result.isDone) { await ctx.scheduler.runAfter(0, internal.tasks.processBatch, { cursor: result.continueCursor, }); } return null; },});``` ### External API Calls in Crons Use actions for external API calls: ```typescript// convex/sync.ts"use node"; import { internalAction } from "./_generated/server";import { internal } from "./_generated/api";import { v } from "convex/values"; export const syncExternalData = internalAction({ args: {}, returns: v.null(), handler: async (ctx) => { // Fetch from external API const response = await fetch("https://api.example.com/data", { headers: { Authorization: `Bearer ${process.env.API_KEY}`, }, }); if (!response.ok) { throw new Error(`API request failed: ${response.status}`); } const data = await response.json(); // Store the data using a mutation await ctx.runMutation(internal.sync.storeExternalData, { data, syncedAt: Date.now(), }); return null; },}); export const storeExternalData = internalMutation({ args: { data: v.any(), syncedAt: v.number(), }, returns: v.null(), handler: async (ctx, args) => { await ctx.db.insert("externalData", { data: args.data, syncedAt: args.syncedAt, }); return null; },});``` ```typescript// convex/crons.tsimport { cronJobs } from "convex/server";import { internal } from "./_generated/api"; const crons = cronJobs(); crons.interval( "sync external data", { minutes: 15 }, internal.sync.syncExternalData, {}); export default crons;``` ## Examples ### Schema for Cron Job Logging ```typescript// convex/schema.tsimport { defineSchema, defineTable } from "convex/server";import { v } from "convex/values"; export default defineSchema({ cronLogs: defineTable({ jobName: v.string(), startTime: v.number(), endTime: v.number(), duration: v.number(), processedCount: v.number(), errorCount: v.number(), status: v.union( v.literal("success"), v.literal("partial"), v.literal("failed") ), error: v.optional(v.string()), }) .index("by_job", ["jobName"]) .index("by_status", ["status"]) .index("by_startTime", ["startTime"]), sessions: defineTable({ userId: v.id("users"), token: v.string(), lastActive: v.number(), expiresAt: v.number(), }) .index("by_user", ["userId"]) .index("by_lastActive", ["lastActive"]) .index("by_expiresAt", ["expiresAt"]), tasks: defineTable({ type: v.string(), status: v.union( v.literal("pending"), v.literal("processing"), v.literal("completed"), v.literal("failed") ), data: v.any(), createdAt: v.number(), startedAt: v.optional(v.number()), completedAt: v.optional(v.number()), }) .index("by_status", ["status"]) .index("by_type_and_status", ["type", "status"]),});``` ### Complete Cron Configuration Example ```typescript// convex/crons.tsimport { cronJobs } from "convex/server";import { internal } from "./_generated/api"; const crons = cronJobs(); // Cleanup jobscrons.interval( "cleanup expired sessions", { hours: 1 }, internal.cleanup.expiredSessions, {}); crons.interval( "cleanup old logs", { hours: 24 }, internal.cleanup.oldLogs, { maxAgeDays: 30 }); // Sync jobscrons.interval( "sync user data", { minutes: 15 }, internal.sync.userData, {}); // Report jobscrons.cron( "daily analytics", "0 1 * * *", internal.reports.dailyAnalytics, {}); crons.cron( "weekly summary", "0 9 * * 1", internal.reports.weeklySummary, {}); // Health checkscrons.interval( "service health check", { minutes: 5 }, internal.monitoring.healthCheck, {}); export default crons;``` ## Best Practices - Never run `npx convex deploy` unless explicitly instructed- Never run any git commands unless explicitly instructed- Only use `crons.interval` or `crons.cron` methods, not deprecated helpers- Always call internal functions from cron jobs for security- Import `internal` from `_generated/api` even for functions in the same file- Add logging and monitoring for production cron jobs- Use batching for operations that process large datasets- Handle errors gracefully to prevent job failures- Use meaningful job names for dashboard visibility- Consider timezone when using cron expressions (Convex uses UTC) ## Common Pitfalls 1. **Using public functions** - Cron jobs should call internal functions only2. **Long-running mutations** - Break large operations into batches3. **Missing error handling** - Unhandled errors will fail the entire job4. **Forgetting timezone** - All cron expressions use UTC5. **Using deprecated helpers** - Avoid `crons.hourly`, `crons.daily`, etc.6. **Not logging execution** - Makes debugging production issues difficult ## References - Convex Documentation: https://docs.convex.dev/- Convex LLMs.txt: https://docs.convex.dev/llms.txt- Cron Jobs: https://docs.convex.dev/scheduling/cron-jobs- Scheduling Overview: https://docs.convex.dev/scheduling- Scheduled Functions: https://docs.convex.dev/scheduling/scheduled-functionsRelated skills
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