crnd

Local cron daemon with text-first output, no prompts, real OS processes. Use --json for machine-readable output.

Installation

bunx crnd
# or
brew install ysm-dev/crnd/crnd

Quick Reference

All commands default to text output; use --json for machine-readable output.

Scheduling Jobs

Cron Jobs (Recurring)

# Daily at 2am UTC
crnd schedule -n backup -s "0 2 * * *" -- rsync -a ~/docs ~/backup

# Every hour
crnd schedule -n healthcheck -s "0 * * * *" -- curl http://localhost:8080/health

# Weekdays at 9am in specific timezone
crnd schedule -n standup-reminder -s "0 9 * * 1-5" -z "America/New_York" -- notify "Standup in 15 minutes"

# Every 5 minutes
crnd schedule -n monitor -s "*/5 * * * *" -- ./check-system.sh

One-Time Jobs (Relative Time)

# Run in 10 minutes
crnd schedule -n reminder -i 10m -- say "Time to stretch!"

# Run in 2 hours
crnd schedule -n deploy -i 2h -- ./deploy.sh

# Run tomorrow (24 hours from now)
crnd schedule -n backup -i 1d -- rsync -a ~/docs ~/backup

Relative time formats: 30s, 5m, 2h, 1d, 1w, 1y

One-Time Jobs (Absolute Time)

# Run at specific time
crnd schedule -n deploy -a "2026-02-01T10:00:00Z" -- ./deploy.sh

# Future reminder with timezone offset
crnd schedule -n reminder -a "2026-03-15T14:30:00-05:00" -- notify "Meeting starts now"

Natural Language to Flags

Cron Expression Format

5-field standard: minute hour day-of-month month day-of-week

Common patterns:

• 0 * * * * - every hour
• */15 * * * * - every 15 minutes
• 0 2 * * * - daily at 2am
• 0 0 * * 0 - weekly on Sunday midnight
• 0 9 * * 1-5 - weekdays at 9am
• 0 0 1 * * - monthly on the 1st

Managing Jobs

Monitoring

# List all jobs
crnd list
crnd list --json

# Job details
crnd status -n backup

# Run history
crnd runs -n backup

# View latest logs
crnd logs -n backup

# Stream logs in real-time
crnd logs -n backup -s

# Tail recent logs
crnd logs -n backup -t

Control

# Trigger immediate run
crnd run-once -n backup

# Pause scheduling (job won't run until resumed)
crnd pause -n backup

# Resume scheduling
crnd resume -n backup

# Stop running process gracefully (SIGTERM)
crnd stop -n backup

# Kill running process immediately (SIGKILL)
crnd kill -n backup

# Delete job entirely
crnd delete -n backup -f

Import/Export

# Export all jobs to TOML
crnd export > jobs.toml

# Import jobs from file
crnd import -f jobs.toml

Daemon Management

# Start daemon
crnd daemon start

# Stop daemon
crnd daemon stop

# Daemon status
crnd daemon status

# Install autostart (runs on login)
crnd daemon install

# Uninstall autostart
crnd daemon uninstall

# Check setup
crnd doctor

jobs.toml Format

Jobs are stored in ~/.config/crnd/jobs.toml (Linux/macOS) or %APPDATA%\crnd\jobs.toml (Windows). Edit directly; daemon watches for changes.

[jobs.backup]
command = ["rsync", "-a", "/src", "/dst"]
schedule = "0 2 * * *"
timezone = "UTC"
timeout_ms = 600000

[jobs.deploy]
command = ["./deploy.sh"]
run_at = "2026-02-01T10:00:00Z"

Common Workflows

Set up a daily backup

crnd daemon start
crnd schedule -n daily-backup -s "0 3 * * *" -z "UTC" -- rsync -av ~/important ~/backup
crnd run-once -n daily-backup  # test it works
crnd daemon install  # autostart on login

Schedule a one-time deployment

crnd schedule -n prod-deploy -a "2026-02-15T02:00:00Z" -- ./deploy.sh production
crnd status -n prod-deploy  # verify scheduled time

Monitor a recurring job

crnd runs -n backup  # check run history
crnd logs -n backup  # view latest output
crnd status -n backup  # see next scheduled run

Pause during maintenance

crnd pause -n backup
# ... do maintenance ...
crnd resume -n backup