Repeats: asks that run on a schedule

A repeat is an ask you set to run again on a schedule: "every Monday at 09:00, ask the SEO Analyst and the Analytics Analyst to review the last 28 days, and combine their answers". It belongs to you. Each time it runs, it is your ask, posted by you in the same thread, with the same agents and the same choices, and every check an ask passes is made again at that moment.

This page covers making a repeat, what happens when it runs, what pauses or skips it, and Work › Repeats. Asking several agents at once is in Asking several agents together.

The page describes the golive branch. What is not possible yet is listed at the end.

Before you start#

The examples use the demo company from the quickstart: sam (the sales lead) makes repeats and ada (the admin) sets the company's time zone. Without a model key the stub planner answers each run with its "No model is configured" note; the schedule, the runs and the pauses work the same.

Repeats are read in the company's time zone. Set it first (Ada, on Setup › Time zone; see Setting up a company); until then every time is UTC.

Making a repeat#

Open the repeat sheet from any of these:

Nothing runs until you press Save repeat.

Try it: the Marketing weekly review#

The Marketing app suggests one repeat, the Marketing weekly review: every Monday at 09:00, SEO Analyst and Analytics Analyst review the last 28 days against the 28 before, and the Marketing Lead combines their answers into one review with three things to do this week.

1. As ada, open Setup. Under Time zone choose Change, type Asia/Kolkata and choose Use. The note reads "Times now read in Asia/Kolkata: repeats and app schedules run at its local times".
2. As sam, open Work › Repeats. Mine says "Nothing repeats yet. Ask in a conversation, then choose Repeat this."
3. Choose New repeat. Under Start from a suggestion pick Marketing weekly review. The sheet fills in: Post in "A new conversation", the name, the ask, both agents, Combined "combined by Marketing Lead", Every week on Monday at 09:00, and under it "Mondays at 09:00 IST. Next: Mon 12 Oct, 09:00 · Mon 19 Oct, 09:00 · …".
4. Leave the rest and choose Save repeat. The row reads Marketing weekly review, "SEO Analyst and Analytics Analyst, combined by Marketing Lead", "Mondays at 09:00 IST", the next Monday, "Not run yet" and Active.
5. In the row's menu choose Run now: "Marketing weekly review is running now". Open the conversation: your ask is posted as yours with the line "Repeat · Marketing weekly review · Mondays at 09:00 IST · by Sam Ortiz", followed by the ask's card.

The sheet#

Save repeat stays greyed out until it has where to post, a name, an ask, an agent and an amount a run may spend; the line beside it says what is missing. A repeat made from an ask with files says "Files attached to the ask are not attached again."

Dates in a repeat#

A repeat keeps the words of its ask, not the dates: "the last 28 days" is read again at each scheduled time, so each Monday's run covers the 28 days before that Monday. The sheet shows the next run's window: "Mon 12 Oct will cover 14 Sep–11 Oct".

• When you changed the dates of the ask you are repeating ("review the last one month", changed to 1–30 Sep), the sheet asks: "This ask used 1–30 Sep. Each run should cover: [last one month] [these same dates]".
• When the ask names fixed dates ("1 Sep to 30 Sep"), every run covers those dates, and the sheet says so.
• A run that is late (the server was down) still covers the window of the time it was scheduled for, not the moment it ran.

How each phrase reads is in The dates the ask covers.

Schedules#

A repeat runs at most once an hour ("A repeat runs at most once an hour"). A schedule that does not read is refused with the list of forms. A local time a clock change skips runs at the first minute after it; an hour that repeats runs once. Times show in the repeat's zone and, when yours differs, in yours as well ("Mon 12 Oct, 09:00 IST (05:30 your time)").

When it runs#

At each scheduled time the server checks everything an ask checks, as you, at that moment, then posts your ask in the thread and runs it exactly as if you had sent it: the same agents, the same way, the same rule for questions, a time limit of 4 hours, and the per-run spending limit. Each run is in your inbox and in the thread like any of your asks.

When an agent wants to change something#

A run that carries what other agents found (a combine, an agent reading another's answer) is in review mode: it reads and answers freely, but a step that would change something (save a record, use a tool that writes, hand work on) is held, since nobody is watching. With Wait for my OK (the default) you get an approval in your inbox, "Weekly pricing draft wants to write to Content items · decide by 13:00": the time is when the run's 4-hour limit ends. Only you may approve it. Undecided by then, it is withdrawn and the answer says the step was not done. With Skip it and tell me the step is refused at once and the answer says so. The Marketing weekly review writes nothing, so it never asks.

Work › Repeats#

Work gains a Repeats tab, with three filters: Mine, In my threads and, for admins, All. Each row shows:

Each row's menu:

Needs attention carries what to do: "Pat Kim joined Pipeline review; Pat Kim may not read Contacts and Leads, which Sales Assistant reads" with Confirm (offered when Ask anyway would be; see Who else sees the answers); "Analytics Analyst was left out: you can no longer ask it" with Remove from repeat; a model gap with Fix this or Ask an admin (see When no model may take the data).

A thread's details panel lists that thread's repeats too, under Repeats, with their next times and the same menu.

You may have 20 active repeats (an admin sets the number). At the limit the sheet says "You have 20 active repeats. Pause or delete one to add another" and Save repeat is greyed out.

Pauses#

A paused repeat keeps its schedule. Resume takes the next time after now and does not catch up on what it missed.

Who may lift a pause depends on who made it: your own pause, you; a pause by the thread's owner or an admin, only the thread's owner or an admin; a pause the system made, you, once its cause is gone.

Each of these lands in your inbox ("Your repeat Marketing weekly review is paused: …").

Settings#

On Setup (admins):

• Time zone: the company's zone, a searchable list with your browser's suggested. Every repeat without a zone of its own and every app schedule (an app's weekdays@07:00 trigger) runs at local times in it, and dates such as "last week" are read in it. Changing it recomputes the next time of every repeat; a local time already run is never run twice.
• Repeats: People may set asks to repeat (off pauses every repeat and hides Repeat this: "An admin turned repeats off"), Active repeats a person, at most (1 to 100, default 20), An ask may spend, by default (the per-run amount the sheet fills in), A person may raise it to, and All repeats together, a month (at that cap every repeat skips until the month turns, and admins are told once).

An app's schedules and suggested repeats show on its Automation tab, with the next time of each trigger in the company's zone (see Apps).

Not possible yet#

• A repeat that starts a new thread each time, or one owned by a team.
• A person's own time zone: times are the company's (or the repeat's own), with yours shown beside them.
• A week starting on Sunday in date phrases.
• Approvals with a time of their own beyond the run's limit, and reminders.
• Attaching files to a repeat.

For developers#

API#

All under /api, with Authorization: Bearer <token>.

A repeat (RepeatView), shortened:

{ "id": "…", "thread": "…", "owner": "sam", "title": "Weekly check",
  "text": "review the last 28 days", "agents": ["seo-analyst", "analytics-analyst"],
  "mode": "combined", "combiner": null,
  "rule": { "ask": ["asker"], "answer_within_minutes": 120, "then": "assume" },
  "schedule": "mon@09:00", "words": "Mondays at 09:00", "time_zone": null, "zone": "Asia/Kolkata",
  "catch_up": "once", "on_change": "wait", "period_mode": "phrase",
  "limit_per_run_cents": 500, "limit_per_month_cents": null, "month_spent_cents": 0,
  "state": "active", "paused_reason": null, "attention": [],
  "next_at": "2026-10-12T03:30:00Z",
  "next_period": { "from": "2026-09-14", "to": "2026-10-11", "words": "14 Sep to 11 Oct 2026" },
  "last": null, "version": 1,
  "may": { "edit": true, "pause": true, "resume": false, "delete": true, "run_now": true, "give": false } }

Errors: 422 invalid (the schedule, more often than hourly, the agents, no per-run limit: "Set a spending limit for each run (limit_per_run_cents)"), too_many_repeats, repeats_off; 403 denied; 409 audience, version_conflict, still_running, one_to_one.

Events#

CLI#

With the server stopped:

ok --state orchkernel-demo/state.db --as sam repeats            # your repeats; `repeats list --all` for every one (admins)
ok --state orchkernel-demo/state.db --as sam repeats pause <id>
ok --state orchkernel-demo/state.db --as sam repeats resume <id>
ok --state orchkernel-demo/state.db --as sam repeats run <id>   # Run now
ok --state orchkernel-demo/state.db --as sam repeats delete <id> [--stop]

ok tick runs whatever repeats are due, as the server's clock does every 30 seconds.