Scheduled Jobs

What are Scheduled Jobs?

Scheduled Jobs let you automate recurring work in UnderControl. Instead of manually creating the same tasks every day or week, you set up a job once and it runs automatically on your chosen schedule. You can also use AI-powered summary jobs that analyze your tasks and generate digest reports.

Job Types

Task Creation Jobs

Automatically create tasks on a schedule. Perfect for:

• Daily standup notes - A fresh task every morning for your daily log
• Weekly reviews - A task each week to review progress
• Monthly reports - Recurring reminders to prepare monthly summaries
• Any repeating work - Anything you do on a regular cycle

AI Task Summary Jobs

Query your existing tasks and let AI generate a summary:

1. You define which tasks to include (using a query filter)
2. The AI analyzes those tasks and writes a summary
3. A new task is created with the AI-generated content
4. Referenced tasks are linked in the summary

This is great for automated weekly digests, project status reports, or sprint summaries.

Creating a Scheduled Job

You have three ways to create a job:

From a Template

Choose from four preset templates to get started quickly:

• Daily Notes - Creates a task every day for journaling or standups
• Weekly Review - Creates a weekly review task
• Weekly AI Summary - AI-generated task summary each week
• Monthly Report - Monthly reporting task

With AI Generation

Describe what you want in plain language (like "Create a task every weekday at 9am for standup notes") and AI will generate the job configuration for you.

Manual Configuration

Build the job from scratch:

1. Set a name and description
2. Choose the job type (task creation or AI summary)
3. Configure the schedule using presets or a custom CRON expression
4. Set your timezone
5. Configure the task template with title, description, tags, and deadline

Scheduling

Preset Schedules

Quick options for common patterns:

• Every day
• Every weekday (Monday through Friday)
• Every week
• Every month

Custom CRON Expressions

For precise control, use standard 5-field CRON expressions:

• 0 9 * * MON-FRI - Every weekday at 9:00 AM
• 0 18 * * FRI - Every Friday at 6:00 PM
• 0 0 1 * * - First day of every month at midnight

All schedules respect your configured timezone.

Template Variables

Make your auto-created tasks dynamic with template variables in titles and descriptions:

Variable	What it shows	Example
{{date}}	Current date	2025-03-15
{{week}}	ISO week number	11
{{month}}	Month name	March
{{year}}	Year	2025
{{dow}}	Day of week	Saturday
{{ai_title}}	AI-generated title	Weekly Summary

Example title: Standup Notes - {{date}} ({{dow}}) produces "Standup Notes - 2025-03-15 (Saturday)"

Deadlines

Set relative deadlines for auto-created tasks:

• +1d - Due one day after creation
• +7d - Due one week after creation
• end_of_week - Due at the end of the current week
• end_of_month - Due at the end of the current month

Managing Jobs

Enable and Disable

Toggle jobs on and off without deleting them. A disabled job keeps its configuration and history but won't run until re-enabled.

Run Now

Need a task created immediately? Click "Run Now" to execute any job on demand without waiting for the next scheduled time.

Duplicate

Found a job configuration you like? Duplicate it and tweak the copy for a different use case.

Run History

Every job execution is tracked with:

• Status - Success, failed, or timed out
• Duration - How long the job took to run
• Results - What was created or any error details
• Expandable details - Full execution information

Tips for Success

1. Start with templates - The preset templates cover the most common use cases and are easy to customize
2. Use template variables - Dynamic titles like Weekly Review - Week {{week}} make it easy to identify tasks later
3. Set reasonable deadlines - Relative deadlines keep auto-created tasks actionable
4. Review run history - Check that your jobs are running successfully, especially after creating new ones
5. Try AI summaries - They're a great way to get automated project digests without any manual effort

How Scheduled Jobs Work with Other Features

With Tasks

Task creation jobs produce regular tasks that appear in your task list, kanban boards, and all other views. They work exactly like manually created tasks.

With AI Features

AI summary jobs use the AI assistant to analyze your tasks and generate meaningful summaries, combining automation with intelligent content creation.

Getting Started

1. Go to Scheduled Jobs in the navigation menu
2. Create a job from a template - Try "Daily Notes" to see how it works
3. Click Run Now to test your job immediately
4. Check your task list - The auto-created task appears just like any other task
5. Customize - Edit the job to adjust the schedule, title template, or tags to fit your workflow