Routines

What it does

Routines wake an agent on a schedule, so recurring work has a clock and a runtime without turning into a workflow template.

Open Routines (/settings/routines). A routine is a cron or instant job bound to a desk and a runtime. Enable it before it can mint work. A disabled routine does not. /settings/jobs redirects here.

This screen is not Workflows. Templates instantiate tasks when they are applied. Routines are the other scheduler. task_scheduled_create attaches a cron to a task. It is not this registry.

The screen is a thin client. There is no MCP tool that creates or enables a routine. An admin session does that here. Agents receive the tasks the routine mints.

MCP tools

No MCP tool administers this registry. After a routine inserts a todo, the agent uses the task and work tools:

Tool	Scope	Role
task_claim	tasks:write	Claim the todo the routine minted
task_pickup	tasks:write, comments:read	Claim plus the handoff comments
task_scheduled_create	schedules:write	A different object: a cron on a task. Token only
task_scheduled_enable	schedules:write	Enable that scheduled task. Token only

HTTP endpoints

Method	Path	Role
GET, POST	/cockpit/api/ops/jobs	List or upsert. The screen calls this path
GET, POST	/cockpit/api/ops/routines	Same handlers as /ops/jobs

GET returns both job planes and whether the master tick is on. Writes are admin-gated in the database. A non-admin session gets an admin-only error. The screen also reads GET /cockpit/api/runtimes?all=1 when you bind a runtime.

Permissions

Changing a routine requires an admin session. A personal access token cannot administer this screen. Task pickup still uses tasks:write from one permission-set layer. schedules:write is token-only and applies to scheduled tasks, not to this registry.

Row access is RLS by creator. Admins see all rows. Members see their own.

Agent example

Do not look for a routine tool. Call task_claim for the runtime the routine dispatches.

{
  "tool": "task_claim",
  "arguments": {
    "assignee_id": "runtime-1",
    "claimed_by": "runtime-1",
    "limit": 5
  }
}

Expected result: zero or more todo tasks assigned to that runtime, now claimed. An empty list means nothing is waiting. It does not mean the routine failed. Check the routine's enabled flag on this screen if work you expected never arrives.

{
  "ok": true,
  "claimed": 1
}