Schedule trigger

Configure a schedule trigger with cron syntax and a time zone, and see how scheduled runs behave when a workflow is deployed or offline.

A schedule trigger starts a run on a timetable: every weekday morning, on the first of the month, every four hours. For the Studio walkthrough, see Run a workflow on a schedule.

Configuration

Give either cron or interval. When both are set, cron wins.

{
  "trigger": {
    "type": "schedule",
    "cron": "0 7 1 * *",
    "timezone": "America/New_York"
  }
}

Field	Type	Default	Meaning
`type`	`"schedule"`
`cron`	string	none	A five-field cron expression
`interval`	`{ "value": number, "unit": "minutes" \| "hours" \| "days" \| "weeks" }`	none	A simple repeat, turned into a cron expression (below). `value` is 1 to 525,600
`timezone`	IANA time zone	`UTC`	The zone the cron expression is read in, such as `Europe/London`
`enabled`	boolean	`true`	`false` keeps the schedule but stops it starting runs

In Studio, the Schedule block has a Schedule field and a Timezone list with US Eastern, US Central, US Pacific, UTC, Europe/London and Asia/Tokyo. Through the API you can use any IANA zone.

Cron syntax

Five fields, read in timezone:

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

* means any value, , separates a list, - gives a range and / a step.

When	Expression
Weekdays at 9:00	`0 9 * * 1-5`
Mondays at 8:00	`0 8 * * 1`
First day of each month at 7:00	`0 7 1 * *`
Last few days of the month, at 18:00	`0 18 28-31 * *`
First day of each quarter at 6:00	`0 6 1 1,4,7,10 *`
Every 15 minutes	`/15 * * *`

Cron has no "last day of the month". For month-end work, run on the first of the next month, or run on days 28 to 31 and check the date in a Condition step.

How intervals become cron

`interval`	Cron used
1 minute	`* * * * *`
N minutes	`/N * * *`
1 hour	`0 * * * *`
N hours	`0 /N * *`
1 day	`0 0 * * *` (midnight)
N days	`0 0 /N *` (counts days of the month, so it restarts each month)
Any number of weeks	`0 0 * * 0` (Sundays at midnight)

Every number of weeks gives the same weekly schedule. For "every two weeks", use a weekly cron and skip alternate runs in a Condition step.

When the schedule exists

Activation creates it. The schedule is set up when the workflow is activated (Deploy in Studio). Activating a schedule workflow with neither cron nor interval fails with 400.
Pausing turns it off. A paused workflow's schedule is turned off, and a scheduled start that still fires is skipped while the workflow is not active.
Archiving removes it.
No catch-up runs. A scheduled time that passes while the workflow is paused or archived is skipped; it does not start a run later.

Run input

A scheduled run has triggerType: "schedule" and this input:

{
  "_schedule": {
    "scheduledTime": "2026-11-01T11:00:00.000Z",
    "actualTime": "2026-11-01T11:00:00.412Z",
    "timezone": "America/New_York"
  }
}

Read the time in steps with {{input._schedule.scheduledTime}}. It is an ISO time in UTC. A run started with POST /workflows/:id/schedule/trigger also has manualTrigger: true.

Manage the schedule through the API

Call	Scope	What it does
`GET /workflows/:id/schedule`	`workflows:read`	Returns the schedule: `cronExpression`, `interval`, `timezone`, `enabled`, `nextRunAt`, `lastRunAt`, `runCount`, `consecutiveFailures`, `lastError`. `data` is `null` when the workflow has no schedule
`PUT /workflows/:id/schedule`	`workflows:write`	Changes `cron`, `interval`, `timezone` or `enabled` and saves them to the trigger. Returns `nextRunAt`
`POST /workflows/:id/schedule/trigger`	`workflows:execute`	Starts one run now, for testing. The workflow must be `active`. Returns `202` with `runId`

curl -X PUT https://workflow.loopfour.ai/api/v1/workflows/$WORKFLOW_ID/schedule \
  -H "x-api-key: $LOOPFOUR_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{ "cron": "0 6 * * 1-5", "timezone": "Europe/London" }'